As part of their work on Tudor explorers, Year 5 & 6 children from Saltford Primary School brought to life their study of Henry VIII’s Flag Ship, The Mary Rose and the battle in which it was sunk, by visiting the ship at Portsmouth.
Henry VIII was an enthusiastic shipbuilder, whose pride in his “Army by Sea” would see his fleet grow from 5 at the start of his reign to 58 by the time of his death in 1547. It is the Mary Rose that is remembered as his favourite.
The children enjoyed exploring the different parts of the ship and meeting the characters who lived on board. One Year 6 pupils said, “My favourite part was actually seeing the Mary Rose.”
The children learnt about the battle in which the Mary Rose was sunk and even planned their own strategies for victory as both French and English sailors. They also got to train in a Tudor gun drill where learnt what it might have been like to fire a cannon in a naval battle.