[Archers] Mary Rose

[Groff, Garth (ggg9y)]

Noble Friends, especially Fellow Archers:

On this day in 1545, Henry VIII's favorite ship the Mary Rose sank in the Solent while sailing out to repel a major French invasion. (You didn't know about that one, did you? It isn't usually mentioned in history books.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose

http://www.maryrose.org/

Whether the ship was holed by the French (as they claimed), or whether it went down due to incompetent seamanship, will probably never be known. What is known is that the ship heeled over and sank within a couple of minutes, carrying most of the crew of 400 or so to the bottom, trapped below decks or under anti-boarding nets. Only 35 escaped, mostly men in the fighting tops, who were left stranded above the water as the ship hit bottom in the shallows.

The ship carried a considerable number of archers among her crew, and their bows, arrows and other equipment has provided historians with an invaluable window to view military archery at its peak of development. The finds include 185 yew bows, nearly 4,000 arrow shafts (most sans points, nock reinforcements, or fletching, thanks to 400 years of immersion in salt water and being gnawed on by tiny beasties), plus arrow bag spacers, arm guards, etc. On a more grisly note, some of the skeletons are known to be archers by the enlarged muscle attachment points on their left arms. Their over-muscled left arms were the result of years of pushing the heavy yew bow away from their bodies during the draw.

Yours Aye,

Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge
Read "The Tale of Mungo Napier":
http://people.virginia.edu/~ggg9y/napier1.html


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