What is it? A just-opened state-of-the-art museum in southern England housing the remains of King Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, and thousands of artefacts found on the seabed where she sank. The 16th-century ship was lost to the world for more than 400 years but raised from the sea in the early 1980s, in the world's largest underwater excavation (more than 60 million people watched the event live on television). It now has a permanent home. It sounds a bit dry. Why should I go? For the museum's dramatic elliptical design and a mind-blowing array of artefacts that have finally been reunited with their ship. The museum is a sweeping timber structure that has been built around the ship's remains and designed to resemble a boat. Inside there is no natural light and the gently sloping walkways, which get darker the deeper you go, transport you to life as it would have been on board the ship as it set sail to fight the French or the Scots. Visitors walk between the real starboard section of the hull and a virtual port section - recreated as a mirror image - so they can see objects in their context (the guns are on the upper gun deck, the kitchens are in the galley, the lowest part of the ship). Some of the items on display may even move you to tears. Like what? The fish, beef and pork bones from the meal the crew and officers never had, for instance; the grape pips and cherry and plum stones that some of them would have had for dessert; the wooden bowls with the owners' marks engraved onto them (much of the crew couldn't read or write) or the 82 combs, some with nits still clinging to them. There's also a 90-gallon brass cauldron and oven (reconstructed from the original bricks) next to some half-burnt fuel logs that presumably went out when the ill-fated ship filled with water. They are ordinary objects but all the more heart-rending for it. Tudor life has never seemed so accessible. What else was found on the seabed? The divers found fantastically preserved wooden gun carriages and iron and steel guns, medical instruments that will make you wince (a urethral syringe designed to treat sexually transmitted diseases, for instance, and various saws for amputations), leather shoes and even the anti-boarding netting that kept enemies from clambering onto the ship but also trapped the crew on the open deck when the Mary Rose mysteriously sank, in July 1545. Astoundingly, there isn't a single replica on display, though occasionally a bit of perspex replaces a metal part of an object that has corroded. How close can you get to the Mary Rose? For the moment she is housed in a "hotbox", so you can only see her through artfully placed windows and from a panoramic glass-sided lift. Following 30 years of continuous spraying with water and preserving agents, the ship is being air-dried to remove tonnes of water. In five years' time, the museum's internal walls will come down and you'll get a full overview of the ship and be able to see deep into her recesses. I'm feeling a little nautical, now, what else is there to do? Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where the Mary Rose Museum is located, also houses British warships HMS Warrior (the Royal Navy's first ironclad, launched in 1860) and HMS Victory (Lord Nelson's flagship, launched in 1765), which can be boarded and explored. With one ticket, visitors can take harbour tours, visit the National Museum of the Royal Navy and make like a modern-day Royal Marine at the child-friendly Action Stations (an attraction featuring simulators and the country's tallest indoor climbing tower). What does it all cost? £17 (HK$200) for an adult ticket to see the Mary Rose and £12.50 for children. Tickets for all the attractions at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard cost £26 for adults and £19.75 for children. A day return train ticket from London costs from £27. For more information, visit www.historicdockyard.co.uk
