Best of British: 60 things that make Britain great

Imagine you're cut off in a far-off land. What longings would be uppermost in your mind? Here we celebrate those aspects of life that make our islands distinct and beguiling.

28. Mary Rose

UK United Kingdom Great Britain Europe Britain England Hampshire Portsmouth Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Mary Rose Mary Rose

On October 11, 1982, an immense salvage operation raised the remains of Mary Rose from the bed of the Solent. The ship, the pride of Henry VIII’s fleet, had foundered suddenly in 1545. Preserved within her wreckage was the most astonishing array of Tudor objects: bows, clothing, skeletons and cannons. This whole collection and the ship itself were revealed to the public in a new museum in 2013 after 35 years in conservation. It’s surely the grandest project of its kind ever undertaken and it offers a revelatory insight into the Tudor world.

‘The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator’
(Edmund Gibbon)

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