King Henry VIII’s Mary Rose

The rising of the Mary Rose in 1982 made headlines across the globe

The iconic ship was a key vessel in the startlingly rapid evolution of the wooden battleship as a floating gun platform.

After thirty-four years’ military service, Henry VIII’s revolutionary flagship sank at Spithead, taking with it the mysteries of its construction, armament and daily life.

Resisting the efforts of Venetian salvagers in the sixteenth century and pioneering divers in the nineteenth, it seemed the Mary Rose was doomed to pass from memory.

But entombed in mud and invisible to the naked eye, the Mary Rose lay patiently waiting.

In 1965, nearly a century and a half later, Alexander McKee launched his own endeavour, Project Solent Ships, and his revolutionary approach opened up a new gateway of discovery.

Science met adventure as archaeologists risked their lives diving under busy shipping lanes, laden with technology and equipment, to painstakingly explore Portsmouth’s clay plains.

Originally published in 1973, McKee combines a historian’s flair with his seabed discoveries as he pieces together the story of King Henry VIII’s Mary Rose and outlines his vision for this most famous of Tudor ships.

Praise for Alexander McKee

‘Gives an exceptionally vivid and valuable picture’ – Tribune

‘An intriguing report’ – Kirkus

Alexander McKee was selling aviation articles to flying magazines by the age of eighteen. During the Second World War he wrote for a succession of army newspapers and later became a writer/producer for the British Forces Network. Since 1956 he has been researching and writing books on all branches of naval, military and aviation history. He instigated the excavation of the Tudor ship Mary Rose in the seabed off Portsmouth, which he describes in King Henry VIII’s Mary Rose. In all he has written nineteen books.