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How We Found the Mary Rose (Trials and Tribulations at Sea) Kindle Edition

by Alexander McKee (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 60 ratings
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The remarkable true story of the discovery and excavation of the Tudor warship Mary Rose.

Ideal for readers of David Childs, Brian Lavery and Douglas McElvogue, and everyone interested in British naval history.

In October 1982, Henry VIII's flagship Mary Rose finally broke the surface off the coast of Portsmouth after more than 400 years on the seabed.

Her dramatic sinking during an engagement with the French fleet in July 1545, under the very eyes of King Henry VIII, had been a disaster at the time, but for the team that finally found the Tudor warship it was a scene of jubilation after long years of searching.

Here diver and author Alexander McKee details how he and a small team of dedicated amateur divers, all willing to work without pay at weekends, risked their lives diving under busy shipping lanes and in treacherous weather to painstakingly search for the ship that nobody believed was there — and found her, in what became the most important maritime archaeological project in British history.

How We Found the Mary Rose tells the remarkable story of the ship herself: her thirty-four years of service at sea and her final sinking during the Battle of the Solent; the subsequent attempts to salvage the historic wreck, and McKee’s own seventeen years of research and excavation in quest of a dream that came true.

‘This is the perfect adventure story. In Alexander McKee, diver and author of popular histories, there are all the elements of the hero out of boys’ comics. He went against accepted theories when he started looking for the ship he had heard of as a boy on the Isle of Wight. His attempt became a joke, but deep in the silt McKee found the Mary Rose.’ — Byron Rogers, Sunday Telegraph Magazine

‘This is the most accessible account of the Mary Rose.’ — submerged.co.uk
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  1. Part of series
    Trials and Tribulations at Sea
  2. Print length
    205 pages
  3. Language
    English
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  5. Publication date
    November 19, 2023
  6. File size
    4049 KB
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CG62X2NZ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sapere Books (November 19, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 19, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4049 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 205 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 60 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
60 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Clare O'Beara
5.0 out of 5 stars How we found the Mary Rose
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2017
This is a fantastic read, of years of swimming, diving and sailing in the Solent, working away at finding and unearthing the wreck of Henry VIII's flagship Mary Rose.

We get the history of the mighty ship and how she fought in various battles, being refitted and with greater armament loaded. Then tragically as she faced battle once more, a turn with gun ports open (low for balance) brought water in the open ports and she heeled over and sank very fast. Only about 35 men were recovered from several hundred aboard. As time went by a few items were recovered but she was not salvaged and only in the 1800s when iron-helmet divers went down were any more sightings of the wreck made.

Alexander McKee who never hesitates to share the praise around his fellow enthusiasts led the renewed hunt for the ship whose location had been forgotten again - some other wrecks nearby had been blown up as hazards to shipping. Diving and underwater archaeology were still in the process of development. There was no money, especially early on when all there was to see was mud.

Much later the Duke of Edinburgh and later Prince Charles got involved and the publicity meant that big firms lent or gifted equipment and money was provided to pay for boat hire, air cylinders, fuel and so on. Then artefacts from cannons to combs had to be conserved to stop them falling apart as they met air. This allowed much information to be gained about life and artefacts in Tudor times.

The decades of work end in the book as Mary Rose is about to be lifted out in 1982, emptied of all her items and bones. She is now on display in Portsmouth, from where she last set sail. I believe the whole world owes these brave, dedicated ship-lovers a favour.

I like that women partook of much work in the book, from diver supervising to recording to archaeology, and diving too. Sadly the person we heard of dying on the site was a young woman who choked underwater. I also enjoyed reading the various logs of all involved. The photos and drawings are a wonderful accompaniment throughout.

If you like ships, history, diving and treasure hunts, or unusual memoirs, grab this book!
I read a copy dated 1982 from the Royal Dublin Society Library. This is an unbiased review.
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DAJayne
4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting account of years long search for a lost Tudor warship
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2023
Alexander McKee had an idea that the long lost ship Mary Rose was still there in the Solent and by a bit of stealth he got his diving club interested in finding her. They stalwartly continued over the years to dive on their own time and often used their own money to finance this. Bit by bit, year after year more people became interested, money and equipment were donated, and the divers and underwater archeologists devised new ways to use equipment and basically invented a new form of archeology. Some of this section goes into a bit more detail than an average armchair reader might be interested in.

Setbacks - wretched weather, equipment failures, health issues among the divers (including one fatal and near fatal events) bedeviled them but "Mac's" determination kept things together, kept people enthused and interested, and increased the profile of the endeavor.

What really struck me, while reading, was when divers felt a connection to those long dead Tudors who had built and sailed the Mary Rose. A shipwright noticed how his Tudor forebear had made a mistake in cutting a piece of wood and how that man had skillfully fixed it. They saw marks from adzes and other ancient tools no longer used which told of the fine craftsmanship of the day. McKee, whose father had been a Surgeon Commander in the RN, explored the perfectly preserved doctor's surgery complete with a little pot of ointment, medicine bottles, and instruments. They even recovered a bit of a book someone had been reading in 1545.

Because of her fate the Mary Rose actually survived. Had she not sunk, she would likely have eventually been broken up. But instead she has become an example of the then new shipbuilding techniques that were revolutionizing European navies. Her lost crew show how varied were those who sailed in Tudor England. The artifacts tell of shipboard life in the day. The book ends before the ship is raised (it was originally published in 1982) but there appear to be many more documentaries about the Mary Rose
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Top reviews from other countries

Kay
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2023
Verified Purchase
Intriguing and inspiring read.
Looking back 40 years after the raising of the Mary Rose this book reveals the foresight and determination of Alexander McKee.
Sadly he passed before many of his predictions as to the research value of the artefacts and remains came to fruition.
I hope he would be gratified by the interest there is today in the Mary Rose and all she contained.
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G. Lepage
5.0 out of 5 stars The birth of underwater archaeology
Reviewed in Canada on January 29, 2013
Verified Purchase
A must read for anyone who is interested in learning about either shipwrecks or archaeology... the author tells of how he played a major roll in inventing the field of underwater archaeology and of the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) training system to help with his project. Well worth the money.
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A. Mckee
5.0 out of 5 stars A great sequel by the uneducated, jumped-up, WWII "hostilities only" British Army sergeant with an “old soldier's” axe to grind-
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2014
Verified Purchase
This book is the sequel to Alexander McKee's 1973 landmark book 'King Henry VIII's Mary Rose'. In it he updates the reader on the progress made with the further excavation and the preservation of the hull and over 19,000 artefacts recovered, just as many more authors have done since.

The word “pivotal” is used to describe some of the contributions made to Alexander McKee’s ‘Project Mary Rose’.

Yet, back in 1965 the consensus view seemed to be that Alexander McKee was not just an uneducated, jumped-up, WWII "hostilities only" British Army sergeant with an “old soldier's” axe to grind but worse, that he was probably mad. For example, he was effectively given the “bum’s rush” when he went to National Maritime Museum at Greenwich to propose an official search for the wreck of the Mary Rose.

Many a visitor to the Mary Rose Museum has been heard to ask "Alexander McKee, never heard of him, who is he?"

To what extent are the allegedly "pivotal" moments of the "wreck of the Mary Rose" story spun and if there was a truly “pivotal” character in the story then who was it? Here are some questions and a few answers that might help one form one’s own opinion.

1). Did plenty of people talk about the wreck of King Henry VIII's Mary Rose, her location and her state of disintegration during the period from about 1955 to 1965?
Yes, they did, especially in sub-aqua diving circles.

2). Did Alexander McKee start his project to find the wreck of King Henry VIII's Mary Rose by going active on 24 April 1965: by organising and then doing the first dive to try to re-locate the wreck of the Mary Rose for over 200 years and was he accompanied by John Towse, Alan Lee, John Baldrey and Roger Hale?
Yes, he did, and yes he was accompanied.

3). Once Alexander McKee had proven that the wreck he had found was indeed that of King Henry VIII's Mary Rose, by spotting an encrusted cannon for what it really was (and not the ballast some experts had avowed it to be), then was the wreck of the Mary Rose suddenly transformed into a potential goldmine on several levels; full of artefacts, historical research potential, career progression and tourist income at the very least?
Yes it was.

4). The artefacts look splendid but would you personally be willing to stake a big stack of your own cash on betting that there was only one archaeologist in all of England who could have done competent things with such an archaeological treasure trove?
Ahem!

5). The new Mary Rose Museum is gorgeous but would you personally be willing to bet a hefty pile of your own money that there was only one Chief Executive Officer in the whole of England, who together with Royal patronage and over £34,000,000 in the kitty, could have made such a good job of it?
Blah!

6). Okay then, now seems like a good time to decide, who in your opinion was the unique individual who pivotally drove the project to relocate, recover and restore the wreck of the Mary Rose in a museum and thereby engendered such glittering opportunities for so many to build and enhance their careers and prestige on along the way. Going on the evidence, was it this uneducated, jumped-up, WWII "hostilities only" British Army sergeant with an “old soldier's” axe to grind who “pivotally” drove his ‘Project Mary Rose’ and just how mad do you suppose he was: or who else do you judge to have made the “pivotal” contribution?
You choose.

McKee's is the original story of the 20th Century search for King Henry VIII's Mary Rose, her successful re-location, her successful recovery and the beginning of her preservation. The story is told by the "inspired visionary" who crucially drove the project on-out from being a childhood dream and well on its way to becoming the international tourist destination that it is today; before ill health and a mainstream take-over conspired to side-line him. And what a story it is: hear it from the members of his original sub-aqua diving team who were there.

Clearly, any sub-aqua enthusiast who wants to both plan a similar project and retain control over it might consider McKee's book a "must read".

McKee was awarded an OBE for this project but an Honorary Doctorate or a knighthood would seem to have been more appropriate to a contribution to knowledge on this scale. One might speculate that his criticism of the strategic decisions of several iconic establishment figures in other books such as `Dresden: the Devil's Tinderbox', `Caen: Anvil of Victory', 'The Race For the Rhine Bridges' and `El Alamein: Ultra And Three Battles' may go some way to explaining this apparent anomaly.

McKee's “pivotal” contribution to his project and plan to find, excavate, recover, restore and house the wreck of King Henry VIII's Mary Rose in a purpose-built museum, informed and inspired by that of the Vasa in Stockholm in Sweden. is briefly covered on the internet some layers down at "maryrose.org/discover-our-collection/story-of-the-ship/raising-the-mary-rose/#The Search: 1965 - 1970-link".

He also tells the personal stories of many of his original team using extracts from their diving logs; effectively "eye witness accounts", to bring the story to life.

Oddly, considering how massively their apparent "long-shot" of a project has contributed to the tourist income of the region at around 250,000 visitors per annum, McKee has nevertheless been side-lined and his original team have been almost completely ignored. Are McKee's original exploration team paying the price for McKee stating his opinions about military strategy in print one wonders? Otherwise why on earth would anyone want to spin the contemporary history of a marine archaeological excavation like this?

The personal stories alone are worth the purchase price!

His many other published books on diving and military, documentary and narrative history, are listed at "alexandermckee.com".
2 people found this helpful
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B.Blanco
5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book!
Reviewed in Canada on November 9, 2016
Verified Purchase
Love this book. Been waiting for a long time for a book like this.
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JohnH
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2017
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A thorough account of the search and discovery of the most important shipwreck this country has ever known.
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