Getting the Mary Rose into ship-shape

As you have seen from Tanya, our course requires us to complete a placement in the summer between our two years. So in June I put on my steel toe cap boots and made my way down to Portsmouth to embark on eight weeks working at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Built in 1510, the Mary Rose was King Henry VIII’s flagship. Despite the popular myth that she sank on her maiden voyage, she was in service for 34 years before she sank in 1545. The final recorded crew list contained 425 people, of whom only 25 – 30 survived. Discovered in 1971 and raised in 1982, some 19,000 artefacts have been recovered so far, all of which required conservation! You can learn more about the Mary Rose here http://www.maryrose.org/.

I knew that this was going to be a completely different experience from what I was used to in the lab, but I was not prepared for the variety of things I would be involved in.

My first week or so centred around collection care in the museum itself; learning how to check that the environmental controls are doing their job, integrated pest management (there were none, pretty impressive!), condition reporting and labelling objects in the stores. The museum only opened in 2013, so it was interesting to see how such a modern museum building runs.

Much of the conservation left is of wooden objects, and my object work here centred on barrel staves and arrows. All wooden artefacts (obviously) came up waterlogged; all of the pore spaces in the wood are full of water, which is now supporting its structure. Barrel staves and arrows are batch treated in Polyethlene Glycol (PEG) and freeze dried – this treatment is described in more detail here http://samandtanyaconservators.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/a-first-time-for-everything_8590.html

After PEG impregnation and before freeze drying, the arrows are very squishy and bendy so you have to be very careful. Thousands of arrows were retrieved from the Mary Rose – this is me putting the very last ones to be treated into the freeze drier – very exciting!

Putting in the very last of the Mary Rose arrows to be treated into the freeze drier

Once out of the freeze drier, the objects are covered in dried white PEG residues which need removing. I used a paintbrush to brush off the loose PEG, and a damp tissue to wipe off the white colour it had left on the surface.

Barrel Staves

A lot of the staves are in a bad way – the Dockyard has its very own species of insect which likes to nibble at the wood, making them very difficult to clean! Some of the staves were broken. If I could see where pieces could be adhered back together, I used 5% Butvar B98 in IMS on the edges first as a barrier, and adhered the pieces together using 20% Butvar B98 in IMS.

Butvar: A resin which can be dissolved in a solvent and used as an adhesive. Once applied, the solvent will evaporate, leaving the adhesive in place. Once dry, the addition of the same solvent will dissolve the adhesive, allowing the pieces to be pulled apart - meaning that it is reversible.

A barrel stave after PEG treatment but before cleaning and repair

The same barrel stave after conservation

Arrows

The fletching on the arrows once held feathers tied on with silk, and is very fragile and important. Previous conservation had wrapped bandages around it to protect it during treatment. This was successful, but it was difficult to remove post treatment without causing damage to the fletching underneath. I carefully removed it using a tiny amount of water to gradually loosen the bandages, and 5% Butvar B98 in IMS to adhere loose pieces and ensure that the fletching did not come off with it. I used a stiff brush to remove the PEG from the surface of the rest of the arrows.

Arrow after PEG treatment with the protective bandage

A set of arrows after conservation

Rope cleaning

One of the most satisfying jobs – cleaning the rope from tar and dirt. This involved a scalpel and a toothbrush to pick away at the tar and give the rope a general clean. Not the favoured job in the conservation department, but I enjoyed it!

Cleaning the rope wearing my mask and safety goggles to protect me from the dust and dirt

Large object conservation

Working in large object conservation was very interesting in contrast to what I am now used to. One of the most exciting things we did was to begin treatment on the stem post and the pump from the ship. This involved a lot of water and a lot of PEG.

The treatment went as follows:

-       Pumped out all of the water from the tank

-       Cleaned the tank

-       Cleaned the objects using water and brushes

-      Filled the tank with water and added 5% PEG 400

-       By the end of treatment, should be 15% PEG 400 and 45% PEG 4000

Cleaning the pump and stem post before beginning treatment

Amongst the practical conservation, we conducted tours and took part in outreach activities with local schools. The most unexpected thing I was involved in was filming with Dan Snow for a documentary he was making for BBC4. The programme is called The Mary Rose: A Timewatch Guide, and I made the cut (albeit in the background!)

So that was a little taster of my summer at the Mary Rose – I hope you enjoyed it! It was hard work, but it is important to be willing to get stuck into anything – that’s what makes conservation so fun!

And if you have never been to the museum, I definitely recommend it.

With Dan Snow during filming