New £27m Mary Rose Ship Museum Launched The wreck of the Mary Rose is to be reunited with thousands of its artefacts for the first time in more than 30 years in a new multimillion-pound museum. The Mary Rose Museum is being launched at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the same place where the ship was built in 1510. Bosses hope the centre will enable visitors to step back in time and experience Tudor life through the ship's preserved glory. The carrack-type warship sank off Portsmouth on July 19, 1545 as Henry VIII watched his navy battle with the French. It became a household name again nearly half a millennium later when more than 60 million people watched the hull section being lifted from the seabed in 1982. It lay undiscovered for centuries, until divers stumbled upon its timbers in 1971. The wreck was placed in a museum separately from its many treasures, but the new £27m centre will house the collection in its entirety. Chief executive John Lippiett explained the idea behind the design, saying: "The whole of the museum is designed by the curvature of the ship. The concept is to put the objects back into the ship. We have built the mirror image half of the ship. Items on show include centuries-old nit combs, longbows and the skeleton of the ship's dog, Hatch. Historian Dr David Starkey praised the new museum, saying: "The Mary Rose is the English Pompeii, preserved by water, not fire. All Tudor life is there, it is like stepping inside a Holbein painting. The launch day will start with a wreath-laying ceremony at the wreck site in the Solent followed by a gun salute and water cannon display as the Mary Rose bell becomes the last item to arrive at the new centre. Flaming arrows will then be fired at Southsea Castle, the place where Henry watched the ship sink, before a giant Tudor standard flag is lifted to reveal the building. The new museum will be open to the general public from Friday.