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Virgin GB Row 2010
"The Seagals have landed! The record breaking all female team and their boat Go Commando have arrived in London today. After 51 days, 16hours and 42minutes, their epic 2010mile row around GB has come to an end. The first women ever to undertake the toughest rowing challenge in the world."
23 June 2010
Virgin GB Row 2010
The Seagals record breaking round GB row are expected in London on Thursday. They are currently off the coast at Lowestoft. Go Commando is expected to complete the circumnavigation of UK waters non-stop and unaided, on Thursday 22nd July 2010, at approximately 11:30am, setting a new World Record (first ladies team to complete the challenge) and winning the inaugural Anglo American Boat Race: Virgin GB Row 2010. The boat is carrying Mary Rose branding. Well done to the SEAGALS from everyone at the Mary Rose. What an outstanding achievement.”
Tue 20 June
Mapping Portsmouth’s Tudor Past - New Exhibition for Limited Run at the Mary Rose Museum - July 2nd – 17th October
John Lippiett (Mary Rose Trust Chief Executive) and Dominic Fontana (Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth) will officially open the exhibition.
Could a 500 year old map have contained clues to where the wreck of the Mary Rose lay and could this be the first time Portsmouth maps have returned to the city in over 400 years? All these fascinating questions will be raised in a brand new temporary exhibition of international cartographic importance, in the Mary Rose Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard from 2nd July to 17th October 2010.
Mapping Portsmouth's Tudor Past brings together, for the first time, several important maps from The British Library, UK Hydrographic Office and the Admiralty Library. All but one of these maps are hand-drawn and are works of art in their own right. Together they give us a unique and fascinating insight into Tudor Portsmouth and the view of their world 500 years ago.
The Mary Rose Trust are delighted that the British Library are loaning 5 unique items for this exhibition including the centrepiece of the display, which will be two stunning large-scale maps of Tudor Portsmouth, one dating from 1545 (the year the Mary Rose sank defending the country from French invasion), which is the earliest scale map of an English town and one of the earliest in Europe, and the other dating from 1552, which was probably made for the visit of Edward VI to Portsmouth on the 9th August 1552.
The exhibition also includes two important maps of the Solent from the collection of William Cecil, Elizabeth I‘s Secretary of State. These maps were made to review the defences of Portsmouth Harbour, and highlight both fortifications and potential invasion beaches. The Brouscon tidal atlas of 1540, displayed with a tidal calculator recovered from the Mary Rose, will clearly demonstrate a sophisticated Tudor understanding of the tidal currents and timings around the British Isles.
On special loan from the UK Hydrographic Office collection is a splendid chart of Portsmouth Harbour. This has been dated by the National Maritime Museum as c1620 on the basis of the ship depictions drawn on it. Further research by Dominic Fontana suggests that it may be earlier, possibly as early as the pre-Armada 1580s. This map also contains something of a mystery as it has a compass rose placed outside the harbour mouth which has a pencil line running north and extending through the Tower of St Thomas's Church, an easily visible location within Old Portsmouth. However, this line cannot be a navigational route, in that to follow it when steering a ship, would run the ship aground on the shallows of Spitbank, located just outside the harbour entrance. Intriguingly, the fleur-de-lis of the compass rose lies immediately on top of the wreck site of the Mary Rose. Is this an intentional feature of this chart, perhaps providing a means of locating the wreck, which lies exactly 750 yards directly north of the compass rose, or is it merely a coincidence?
The Admiralty Library is contributing their manuscript Agnese atlas (c1535), which will be open at the pages showing the 'known world' including the east coasts of America and Europe/Africa, through to India. Additionally, the Library has loaned a portolan chart of 1579 showing Spain up to the British Isles, and a first edition Waghenaer sea atlas (1586) that is reputed to have been used by the Admiralty Board during the Spanish Armada battles two years later.
This is the first occasion on which these maps have been brought together for public display and may be the first return to Portsmouth for the two Tudor maps of the town, in over 400 years.
Download a booklet about the maps (pdf).
Dr David Starkey CBE, Trustee of the Mary Rose Trust, commented: “The art and science of map-making ('cartography'), blossomed during Henry VIII’s reign and reached new heights under Elizabeth I. The whole southern coastline was mapped, from the Wash to Milford Haven, and fortifications were built to guard possible landing points. The navy was also transformed, with bigger and better ships requiring deep-sea ports.
Portsmouth was one of the most important of these new royal naval bases and the Solent became, as it was to remain to the twentieth century, a key to England's defences. The strategic significance of the Solent meant that some of the earliest accurate maps in the country are of this area.
The Mary Rose Museum has brought together a unique collection of these Tudor maps and charts to make this temporary exhibition. The maps say a great deal about the state of the nation’s defences. They show a sophistication that is impressive for any age. But they also have a beauty that makes them works of art as well as planning documents for war.”
The exhibition has been brought together from an initial suggestion by Dr David Starkey through the enthusiasm of Rear Admiral John Lippiett, Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust, and Dr Dominic Fontana of the Department of Geography at the University of Portsmouth.
The Corporation of Trinity House, which celebrates its 500th anniversary in 2014, is sponsoring this exhibition. An interesting link in this association is that Thomas Spert, the first Master of the Mary Rose in 1511, went on to become the first Master of Trinity House three years later.
A series of talks for visitors based around the exhibition will take place on set dates and there will also be an accompanying book on sale in the Mary Rose Museum.
Entrance to the exhibition is with a valid ticket for Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Mon 28 June
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