The man o' war, moving gracefully under billowing canvas sheeting, moved purposefully through the water. The pride of King Henry VIII of England's navy, HMS Mary Rose was a state-of-the-art warship tasked with repelling a French invasion across the Channel.
With the ship in the vanguard of the counterattack, on July 18, 1545, the Tudor realm was safe and the French would surely be driven back across the Channel, the king's military advisers whispered in his ear.
King Henry was watching the naval battle unfold from the shore of the Solent, the narrow neck of protected water that leads from Portsmouth -- home of the Royal Navy since its inception -- out into the open sea.