Skeleton crew reveals secrets of the Mary Rose
05 August 2008
Showing on Channel 5 at 8.00 tonight, ‘The Ghosts of the Mary Rose’ reveals new findings from forensic research on the human remains found in the wreck. The evidence suggests many of the crew of the Mary Rose were foreign mercenaries, which may have contributed to the loss of the ship.
It’s thought that the Mary Rose sank while turning sharply to avoid running aground. Water came in through the open gun ports, capsizing the ship and leading to most of those on board being drowned. Were the gun ports left open because foreign crew-members couldn’t understand the order to close them?
Hugh Montgomery certainly thinks so. Now a senior lecturer at University College London where he researches the way bones grow and respond to different physical stresses, Hugh was also one of the volunteer divers who helped to bring finds from the Mary Rose to the surface back in the 1980s.
Among the artefacts were the bones of hundreds of sailors and gunners who drowned that day. 179 complete skeletons have since been reassembled and the film follows Hugh’s efforts to investigate three of them in detail.
Research on the bones reveals many insights into life on board a Tudor ship - diet, disease, work, health and war wounds. But the most striking discovery comes at the end of the film when a forensic pathologist tells Hugh that up to two thirds of the crew were not from the British Isles, but probably hailed from Southern Europe - possibly Spain.
The Wellcome Trust funding made it possible for the documentary makers - Windfall Films - to film the scientists at work and to commission accurate CGI animation showing where the bones were found and visualising what the research tells us about the skeletons. These are two of the strongest elements of the film, and help demonstrate the impact that biomedical research can have, not least in giving a new perspective on the story of the Mary Rose.
Image: Dr Hugh Montgomery studying one of the skeletons found on the Mary Rose.