November 8, 2017

3192 UNITED KINGDOM (England) - Mary Rose


Launched in 1511, during the reign of King Henry VIII, the Mary Rose was named after the King's younger sister, Mary Tudor (1496-1533), who was later briefly Queen of France. The rose was the emblem of the Tudors. She was a carrack-type warship, with high "castles" in the bow and stern with a low waist of open decking in the middle. The shape of the hull has a so-called tumblehome form and reflected the use of the ship as a platform for heavy guns.

As a flagship of the Lord Admiral, she played an important role in the 1512 and 1514 war with France, and was set to do so again when the conflict renewed in 1545, after being substantially rebuilt in 1536. While leading the attack on the galleys of a French invasion fleet, she sank  on 19 July 1545 in the Solent, the straits north of the Isle of Wight, after serving for 33 years in several wars. Out of a crew of at least 400, fewer than 35 escaped, a catastrophic casualty rate of over 90%.

The wreck of the Mary Rose was rediscovered in 1971, and was raised in 1982 by the  Mary Rose Trust. Its excavation and raising was a milestone in the field of maritime archaeology, comparable in complexity and cost only to the raising of the Swedish warship Vasa in 1961. The remains of the hull have been on display at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and an extensive collection of artefacts is on display at the nearby Mary Rose Museum.

About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series Images of England, about which I wrote here.

References
Mary Rose - Wikipedia

Sender: Marius Vasilescu
Sent from Southampton (England / United Kingdom), on 27.07.2017

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