The Mary Rose — the favourite warship of King Henry VIII — is being slowly destroyed by tiny, acidic specks of iron and sulphur compounds which need to be removed to preserve the 510-year-old vessel, a study has found.
The four-masted, carrack-type vessel was salvaged in 1982, having spent some four centuries on the seabed of the Solent, off the coast of the Isle of Wight, where she sank on July 19, 1545 in a battle against the French fleet.