Picked up at the charity shop for £1.

The Mary Rose exhibition at the Portsmouth Docks is superb. The sinking was due to the way it was turned too quickly with the gun-ports open. It flooded and sank quickly. Loss of life was made worse by the netting spread across the deck to prevent the French from boarding. It prevented the crew from escaping.

The connection with Seaford:

In 1545 a fleet led by the French High Admiral Claude d'Annabant had attacked the south coast of England. At Portsmouth, Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose had sunk as it had came out of the harbour to engage them. Further down the coast the French attacked Brighton and Meeching (now Newhaven) before coming ashore in Seaford Bay. It is estimated that 1,500 Frenchmen landed and they burnt half a dozen cottages at 'Blechington Hille' before they were repulsed by a small group of men hastily gathered by local landowner Sir Nicholas Pelham. This rag-tag army consisted of local townsmen, gentry and yeoman who were presumably getting fed up with the regular incursions by the French who had been attacking the Sussex coast since the 14th century.