The sinking of the Mary Rose warship: a medieval mystery solved?

The cause of the sinking of Henry VIII's Vice Flagship, the Mary Rose, as she sailed out to meet the French fleet on 19th July AD 1545, has remained an enduring mystery and contested encounter between the English and French Navies. The French claim was that the ship was holed by French cannon fire, whilst the English maintained that she sank due to a poorly executed navigational manoeuvre during the engagement. On the day of the sinking there was a total listed crew complement of 415 men onboard. Minimum number analysis of the commingled human assemblage identified only 179, from which we sampled 18 individuals from differing decks within the ship. We measured delta C-13 and delta N-15 in bone collagen, and delta O-18 and delta C-13 in enamel apatite of these individuals in order to obtain information about their diets and origins. While the collagen delta C-13 and delta N-15 data are similar to other medieval populations, the delta O-18 data indicate that at significant proportion of the crew did not originate in Britain, but rather they emanated from warmer, more southerly, regions. These data suggest the presence of 33-60% of non-natives, possibly mercenaries and/or 'prest' men, amongst the crew. Together with the contemporary remark shouted from the Mary Rose to a passing ship, that the Captain had the "type of knaves of whom, he could not rule", our results lend weight to the suggestion that poor communication may well have contributed the observed fatal navigational manoeuvre which led to her sinking. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.