Battle of the Solent and the Sinking of the Mary Rose
On 10 February about 80 of us were treated to a talk by Dr Dominic Fontana. Dominic is a Retired Senior Lecturer in Geography formerly at University of Portsmouth. He has had over 35 years involvement in the Mary Rose maritime archaeological project and this was evident by his comprehensive information about the Mary Rose and people and the politics. It was interesting to see how the weather and the tides would have affected how both the small English fleet and the French. Dominic put forward his theory of how the battle would have progressed on that day resulting in the captain of a damaged Mary Rose unsuccessfully attempting to ground her to prevent her sinking. Absolutely fascinating. Dominic then very ably answered many questions both in the lecture and in the bar!
Our final Sunday Lecture of the winter season will be on 10th March by Mike Curtis on the Life of a Submariner, this will be an alternative view of life at sea. Look forward to seeing you there.
- by Kevin Brown