The Mary Rose Museum

The Mary Rose Museum offers a brilliant presentation of one of the more elaborate excavation jobs as far as ancient ships are concerned — a project that began in the 1970s and extends into the future. It began with a ton of wet planks and a total of 19,000 objects that were rescued from the waters of the Solent (north of the Isle of Wight). The museum curators are hoping to complete the air-​drying of the wreck sometime soon, after which you’ll be able to see a ton of totally dry planks and some of the 19,000 objects rescued from the ship.
The Mary Rose was a carrack-​type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 19 July 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a French invasion fleet, she sank.
To me, frankly, imposing as the museum itself is — and as wholly laudable as the project is — it seems to me a huge waste of time, money and effort to end up with a wreck that’ll never look as good as the other, intact ships (HMS Victory, HMS Warrior) right next door:
The Mary Rose Museum is part of the tremendous «Portsmouth Historic Dockyard» experience (It also includes the HMS Victory, the HMS M.33 and the WWII submarine HMS Alliance, plus several museums) which offers at least a couple of days worth of exciting sight-​seeing for adults as much as more the smaller fry. If you visit Portsmouth Harbour with a full day to fill, you should definitely get the «all attractions ticket» (online!) which is UKP 25.60 (instead of 32.00 on the door) for an adult. There are concessions for the elderly, children or families of course. The «Portsmouth Historic Dockyard» is open from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. in the summer, and to 5 p.m. in the winter.
A single ticket just to the Mary Rose Museum is UKP 18.00, and IMHO this is not good value at all. So if you decide to visit the wreck of the Mary Rose, make sure you have enough time for 3 or 4 Portsmouth attractions and buy the better-​value all attractions ticket (which you’ll have to show again at each attraction individually).
The presentation itself is marvelous, using multi media displays as well as «conventional» museum cabinets to show off some of objects from the ship, including uniforms, many different tools, everyday objects from the lives of those sailors, even skeletons. It’s all very well done from a technical point of view, and your children will surely be amazed. Me myself, I was done in 45 minutes.
Through many glass windows you can also have a look at the wreck itself, which suggests that the Mary Rose was an impressive ship in its day. There is a maze of drying pipes that are all over the wreck.
The «Portsmouth Historic Dockyard» is an absolutely wonderful tourist attraction, but IMHO, the Mary Rose Museum is its weakest link, relatively speaking. Worth going if you’re visiting the whole dockyard anyway and bought an all-​attractions ticket. If not, not.

I found the Mary Rose exhibit to be absolutely amazing. The way that they have preserved this ship after pulling it up from the bottom is just astounding. In addition, the exhibit is set up in an entirely captivating way. To be able to see each person’s items and possessions — the cook, the cancers, the archers, etc. It is simply enrapturing.
As a family this one of the highlights of our 2 week trip to England and Wales, and I’ll never forget the interest my son showed in English history as a result of this exhibit. If you’re at the dockyard, or even in Portsmouth, then you need to see the Mary Rose exhibit.

I went over to the historic dockyard to see the HMS Victory. The Mary Rose may not have been my primary reason to visit but it should be yours. If you take the time and absorb what is there, you will gain an appreciation of the hard work and dedication it took to raise the Mary Rose. Further, the decades-​long effort to preserve her is really impressive. The exhibits are excellent, the artifacts are well taken care of and the various explanations in video and text put everything in context.
If you find yourself in the area, make sure to visit the Mary Rose museum with at least 90 minutes to take it all in. As others have suggested, buy your tickets on line before coming and save money.

You will walk through half the mid-​section of an almost perfectly preserved British warship. The Mary Rose sank so rapidly in the midst of preparations for a sea battle with the French Navy over 400 years ago, and silted over so quickly, that every object on board lay almost exactly where it was when the battleship went down. Only about 35 of 500 sailors survived. The museum does an extraordinarily fine job of explaining both shipboard life and the cutting-​edge technology required to salvage and protect such an historic find.
Buy your ticket in advance, online, as admissions are timed. Then, plan to spend 1 – 2 hours learning the process of lifting the hull from the sea floor (where sand prevented decomposition), viewing the layout and construction of the vessel; and looking at the armraments, the galley and foodstuffs, the surgeon’s implements, and even the intact skeleton of a pet dog.
This is an amazing museum.

good bit of history