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The youngest on board was 14. The oldest about 44. They were seaman and officers, gunners, shipwrights, cooks, a surgeon, soldiers in armour and archers. In all, 700 men. They were the crew and fighting men of the Tudor warship Mary Rose, one of England's first modern battleships.
They gambled at backgammon and threw dice when they got the chance. They liked the lively music of tabor and pipes, ate heartily and enjoyed reasonably good health. They knew their job. They were a powerful force of destruction.
It was Henry VIII'S idea, one that he borrowed from Mediterranean navies, to mount heavy artillery on Mary Rose's lower decks. Thus he helped change the course of English naval strategy, for her elegant bronze- cast cannon could cripple an enemy ship with deadly broadsides at long range, rendering obsolete Medieval methods of ramming and boarding.
She was serving the king in battle on July 19th 1545. Just 2 years before Henry's death. The aging monarch was facing one of the gravest perils of his reign. A French invasion Force, larger than the armada that Spain would send four decades later, had been deployed by Francis1 to attack the English fleet at Portsmouth.
For the first time Henry stood alone without allies among the powers of Europe. His alliance with Charles V of Spain finally broken. Mary Rose was not destined to prove her prowess that day. A bizarre accident before the king's unbelievable eyes would cheat her crew of battle glory. Their remarkable bronze cannon would join their bones in the deep.
It happened so fast. A short breeze came up and Mary Rose hoisted sail to engage the enemy. Then suddenly she swung away from the battle, heeling dangerously on her side. Water began flooding into her lower gunports, cannon crashing headlong across her slanting decks. In less than a minute she sank to the bottom like a stone.
By the time rescue boats came, only the tops of two masts remained above the water. Henry VIII heard the dreadful cries of the drowning crew as he looked helplessly from Southsea Castle. All hope was not lost. The French armada could not approach Portsmouth Harbour without bombardment from Henry's fortifications. The battle ended in a stalemate after fierce combat on the Isle of Wight, where a French detachment burnt several villages before being driven back by English militiamen.
Sources : National Geographic excerpts, Wikipedia, General book of history battles, Pixabay, Google Images