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The Mary Rose was completed in 1511
and sank in 1545. She was the pride
of King Henry VIII's navy when she was built and was still an important
warship when she sank 34 years later. She normally had a crew of 415, but there may have been extra men on
board the day she sank. Each man had a job to do. The navigator used his
sounding weight to check the depth
of the water. The barber-surgeon shaved men's beards with his razor and
his specially shaped shaving bowl.
There were many soldiers on board. The gunner with his linstock to light
the big guns, the archer with his bow made of yew.
Of course on a wooden ship a carpenter was very important, but then, so was the cook - after all he had 415 hungry men to feed! It must have been very hot down in the steamy galley preparing all that food. The officers had an easier life - dressing in silk and eating from pewter plates, but although they might be the most important men on board, every member of the crew had a job to do when the Mary Rose set sail.
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