On a blustery morning 40 years ago today, the nation’s focus turned to an inky patch of the Solent where a buried gem of Tudor history was finally exposed to the modern world.
Around 60 million watched on TV and thousands jostled on Portsmouth harbour as Henry VIII’s favourite warship was lifted from the seabed where it had lain for over 400 years.
As the carcass finally appeared above water on October 11, 1982, a broadcaster announced to the world: “There is the wreck of the Mary Rose.”
