Mary Rose Sinks at Spithead

July 19, 1545

Henry VIII's proud flagship, the Mary Rose, heeled over and sank during a skirmish with French galleys off Portsmouth. Hundreds of sailors drowned trapped under the netted decks. The king, watching from Southsea Castle, was said to cry out in grief. The ship was raised in 1982 in one of marine archaeology's most ambitious projects, and her hull is now displayed in Portsmouth.