At Wessex Film and Sound Archive you can see and hear history, from late Victorian times to the present day, through moving images and sound recordings. The Archive contains over 36,000 film and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including film and tapes of local TV and radio.
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A Trip around Portsmouth Harbour
We're on the water with the Mary Rose expedition team in this short film from Ilse McKee - with great views of warships and an aircraft carrier
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Overview
Starting with a view of Tony Glover's fishing boat, which was used by the expedition team, we get views of nearby warships at the moorings. We also see Greyhound, a rubber dinghy, being towed by the expedition's catamaran. A team member sits aboard the dinghy seemingly at peace with his pipe. Alongside an aircraft carrier we see helicopters on its deck before returning to a view of Portsdown Hill in the distance.
Author, playwright and poet Alexander McKee was a member of the Southsea branch of the British Sub Aqua Club. He began a project to trace the whereabouts of Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose. After his proposal to locate the wreck was dismissed by the National Maritime Museum in 1965, McKee and his team determined to continue with the project. After many set-backs and a constant lack of funds, the team, now including archaeologist Margaret Rule, found one of the ship's iron guns in 1970. The rest of the ship was found eight months later. As more experts became involved in the project McKee’s role diminished, though he remained with the team. He was later awarded an OBE for his efforts to locate the Mary Rose.
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