Most medieval weaponry recovered from a shipwreck

Since the rediscovery of Henry VIII's 16th-century flagship the Mary Rose in the coastal waters off Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, in 1971 and the subsequent raising of its hull in 1982, a trove of more than 8,300 contemporaneous weapons, ordnance and affiliated artefacts have been salvaged. These include ranged arms such as bronze and wrought-iron guns, iron and stone shot, longbows and arrows, as well as melee weapons such as pikes, swords and daggers; fragments of armour such as mail and a breastplate have also been recovered. A wide selection of these combat-related artefacts are now on display in the Mary Rose Museum located in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyards.

Launched in 1511, the Mary Rose was sunk by French troops just outside Portsmouth Harbour during the Battle of the Solent on 19 July 1545. Its suspected location only came to light in 1965, 420 years later, with categorical confirmation of its identity in 1971. Its raising on 11 October 1982 captivated the media and was watched on TV by more than 60 million people around the world.

The military artefacts recovered from the Mary Rose have provided historians with valuable broader insights into 16th-century European weaponry and warfare, particularly because of the remarkable state of intactness in some cases. Several of the items collected from the wreck are unique.

Some of the most significant ordnance salvaged include: 10 bronze guns; nine iron swivel guns; five handgun stocks; eight gun-shields and four pieces of cast-iron hailshot (both never previously seen); 44 linstocks for lighting gunpowder; three incendiary darts; 172 longbows (250 are listed on the ship's inventory); 3,899 arrows, about 2,303 of which are complete (9,600 on the inventory); 24 wristguards/bracers; 105 bills and 20 pikes (with 836 fragments of what appear to be polearm weapons); one halberd; one complete basket-hilted sword; 65 ballock daggers; one rondel dagger; and 177 chain-mail links.

In all, the offensive and defensive armaments form only a fraction of the 19,000-plus archaeological finds salvaged from the Mary Rose to date across some 28,000 dives. Other items to have been found include tools (carpentry, surgical, navigational), clothing, religious items such as rosary beads, tankards, games and musical instruments. Human and animals bones have also been retrieved including the full skeleton of a whippet-terrier that was most likely employed as a ratter on board the ship who has been dubbed Hatch, owing to the fact he was found near the door (hatch) to the carpenter's cabin.