The officers on the Mary Rose would have carried swords and in 1982 a nearly complete iron sword was dug up from beneath the aftercastle of the Mary Rose.

It had fallen through one of the gunports on the main deck and was preserved beneath the ship.

The sword is 105cm long and is nearly complete. It is a basket-hilt sword, so called because of the shape of the hilt, formed of a network of iron bars.

Model of the sword hilt