From The Telegraph: Mary Rose sunk by French cannonball.
For almost 500 years, the sinking of the Mary Rose has been blamed on poor seamanship and the fateful intervention of a freak gust of wind which combined to topple her over.
Now, academics believe the vessel, the pride of Henry VIII’s fleet, was actually sunk by a French warship – a fact covered up by the Tudors to save face.
The Mary Rose, which was raised from the seabed in 1982 and remains on public display in Portsmouth, was sunk in 1545, as Henry watched from the shore, during the Battle of The Solent, a clash between the English fleet and a French invasion force.
Traditionally, historians have blamed the sinking, not on the intervention of the French, but on a recklessly sharp turn and the failure to close gun ports, allowing water to flood in.
To exacerbate the situation, the craft, already overladen with soldiers on the top decks, was also struck by a strong gust of wind.
But new research, carried out by academics at the University of Portsmouth, suggests the ship was [continue].
Imagine that. A politician, in this case Henry VIII, putting a political “spin” on the tale of the demise of the ship to save face, I’m assuming. Interesting post and it’s a shame conclusive proof of the sinking couldn’t be established.
Ah. Makes some sense.
I watched a fairly recent video about the ship, which found a lot of genetically-Spanish crew and speculated that language difficulties may have been why the gunprts were left open and explained the reported exclamation by the Admiral/Captain about the crew being unmanageable. But it also mentioned such puzzles as the ship’s carpenter [probably, based on skeletal evidence indicating occupation and nearby tools] being way down in the hold – which now seems explainable, if there was an attempt to rough-patch a hole.