Mary Rose, How Do I Love Thee?
I recently got the book, 'Before the Mast: Life and Death on the Mary Rose' via my college library ILL (*happy dance*) and was perusing it when I noticed a healthy *lack* of weaponry. Not being the shyest child that my mother whelped, I promptly wrote to Alexandria Hildred, the woman in charge of the ordnance collection of the Mary Rose to see what was being published on that front.
Here is her cheerful response - I know what hubby is getting for Christmas!:
“I am afraid that the book on ordnance 'Weapons of Warre' is a little late, basically due to the three further seasons of excavation we had the chance to undertake between 2003 and 2005. However the book is near completion, and should be available before Christmas, in fact we are hoping for October 11th, a celebration of the day she was lifted in 1982. The book will be available through the Mary Rose shop (trading@maryrose.org) and I believe also through Amazon. There will be a link with US distributor, but not sure whom.
“In the meanwhile (if you can't wait) a relatively detailed article was published (I authored it) within a volume entitled 'The Heirs of Archimedes' Science and the Art of War through the Age of Enlightenment. This was published in 2005 by MIT Press under the editorship of Brett Steele and Tamera Dorland. The number is 0-262-19516-X. Perhaps extracts are available online
http://mitpress.mit.edu.
“The book is a collection of essays following a conference at MIT in 2009, so it is pretty heavy going and, although illustrated in parts (lots of gun drawings) no colour. Obviously the Mary Rose is only one of about 14 essays, so certainly borrow or at least research before you thing of buying. For information, the volume on the structure of the ship is also due for publication later this year, hopefuylly July.
“Hope this helps.... back to the final edits.....”
Cherylyn’s additional notes:
BTW - If you haven’t gotten a chance to get your hands on the Mary Rose book, doing so could be seriously detrimental to your wallet. Many of the items listed in the find are being recreated by Tod in the UK here: http://www.todsstuff.co.uk/ The book alone will run around $100+ with shipping, but I still plan on pinching my pennies to get a copy.