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The Crew - Page 2 of 2

The crew of the ship consisted of mariners, soldiers and gunners. Additionally, servants also
appear on the some of the pay rolls. The first recorded crew lists come from 1513 (CSP I-I, 1661, p. 750 - 753). These give a crew total of 400-402, breaking the crew down into 200 unspecified men under the captain, and 200 mariners under the master. Horsey has attempted to transcribe the expenses from March to April of that year, including 20 members of Howard’s retinue and 20 gunners. Unfortunately his figures for the crew numbers and the pay they were awarded do not tally. If the figure for the pay is correct there should have been 180 mariners on board. If his crew figure is right the number appears to be 124, assuming my understanding of his use of Roman numerals is correct. The former figure would appear to be the more likely. The crew is also listed as consisting of 402 men in the naval payments for 4 July - 28 August 1513. (CSP I-II, 2305, p.1032 - 1034).

There are two crew lists from 1514. The first does not provide a breakdown of the crew in the incomplete form found in the Calendar of State Papers, although the original document does. This gives a total of 350 men for the crew (CSP I-II, 2652, p. 1179).

The second document, Expenses of the war, 25 April 1514, breaks the crew down into 185 soldiers, 200 mariners and 20 gunners (CSP I-II, 2842, p. 1235).

A list from the period 1522-4 gives figures of 126 soldiers, 244 mariners and 30 gunners. This is the document that refers to there being two surgeons aboard. (Brit. Lib: Royal MS. Appendix 89, f.5)

The final figure for the crew comes from the Anthony Roll of 1545 and this states that the complement consists of 185 soldiers, 200 mariners and 30 gunners. It appears from these contemporary documents that the crew of the Mary Rose varied little in number throughout her long career, despite a recorded increase in her tonnage.

The mariners on the Mary Rose were probably a mix of professional seamen and landsmen driven by poverty to join the fleet. They were regarded by the upper classes with deep and often justifiable suspicion. A letter from Erasmus to his friend Ammonius gives a fair example of their behaviour.

Had a good crossing, sea, wind and weather being most favourable and the hour of sailing convenient, viz., about 1pm; but those pirates of sailors caused him great anxiety by carrying off into another ship his bag containing the lucubrations of years. They do this in order to steal if they get the opportunity, and if not to extort money from the traveller. Has often wondered that the princes of England tolerate such wretches, whose treatment of strangers wounds the reputation of the whole realm.

Eras. Ep. viii., 47. [Edit. Allen, I., 295](July 8 1514)

The soldiers carried on board were not usually professionals. The vast majority of them came from the county militia. As archery practise was compulsory, they should have had some expertise with the longbow, and some basic military training would be provided after mustering.

There is a possibility that some of the casualties on the Mary Rose may have been men from Oxfordshire. On June 9th Dasent chronicles an order that may have led to tragedy for the county, in that one hundred Oxfordshire men were appointed to go to sea with Sir George Carew (Acts of the Privy Council 1542-7, pp. 188, 571). There is no record of the names of those drowned but some of them may have come from the Ploughley hundred, as it will be seen that William Fermor certifies the muster certificate to 'my Lord Admiral' (The Oxfordshire Muster Rolls 1539, 1542, 1569 Edited by Peter C. Beauchamp The Oxfordshire Records Society Volume 60 1996 ).

The role of the gunners would appear to be that of ‘gun-captain’, presumably only for the larger guns. The rest of the gun crews must have been made up of either mariners or soldiers. Perhaps the most interesting change is the increase in the number of gunners from 20 to 30. This may be taken to imply that there was a shift towards a greater number of heavy guns during her period of service.

© Stuart Vine 2004
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