Mary Rose Trust facts for kids
Organization logo
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| Formation | 1979 |
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| Type | Limited charitable trust |
| Legal status | Active |
| Purpose | Preserve, display and spread knowledge about the Mary Rose |
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Official language
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English |
The Mary Rose Trust is a special charity based in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. Its main goals are to protect, show, and share information about the Mary Rose. This was a 16th-century warship that sank in the Solent in 1545. The Trust successfully brought the ship back up from the seabed in 1982.
Today, the Mary Rose Trust manages the Mary Rose Museum. This museum is located in the famous Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
The Story of the Mary Rose Trust
The Mary Rose Trust started from a group called the Mary Rose Committee. This committee was formed in 1968. Their mission was to "find, dig up, raise, and keep safe" parts of the Mary Rose. They wanted to save anything important for history or archaeology.
In 1967-68, they used special sound equipment called sonar to search the seabed. They found something hidden! In 1970, they found the first loose piece of wood. Finally, on May 5, 1971, they found the buried ship, the Mary Rose. Through the 1970s, volunteer divers and archaeologists carefully explored the ship. They also did some small digs.
In the 1960s and 70s, the Mary Rose Committee worked with museums and diving clubs. They wanted to make sure old shipwrecks were legally protected. Before, old laws meant that if a shipwreck was found and no one claimed it, it had to be sold. This meant that important historical wrecks could be destroyed by people looking for treasure. Instead of being carefully studied by underwater archaeologists, these wrecks were at risk.
The committee worked with other groups to get a new law passed. This law was the Protection of Wrecks Act of 1973. The Mary Rose was one of the first ships to get this special legal protection. This law helped make sure that historical shipwrecks were saved, not sold off.
The Mary Rose Committee managed the diving and surveys of the Mary Rose until 1979. Then, they decided it was time to dig up and save the entire ship. This huge task needed a lot of money and a much bigger organization. So, the Mary Rose Trust was created. Prince Charles became its president, and Margaret Rule was the archaeological director. She was in charge of digging up the ship and getting it ready to be lifted. The project was already very famous and received many donations. They even bought a special ship called Sleipner for the salvage.
On October 11, 1982, the Mary Rose was successfully lifted from the water. It was then taken to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. There, it was kept safe until its active conservation began in 1994. While the ship was being preserved, the Trust built a museum. This museum showed exhibits about the ship's history and its time in the 16th-century Tudor era.
What the Trust Does Today
In 2008, the Mary Rose Trust had a lot of money, mostly from donations. They had 56 employees and 50 volunteers helping out. Today, the Trust has a new, modern museum. In this museum, you can see the actual hull (body) of the Mary Rose. You can also see thousands of items found inside and around the ship. These items help tell the story of life on board.
The Mary Rose Trust also works closely with the Swedish Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. They often share ideas and work together on projects. The Vasa Museum displays the Swedish 17th-century warship Vasa. This ship was also brought up from the bottom of the sea in 1961.
