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She may have been a mongrel, but in the finest tradition of seafaring, this old sea dog went down with her ship.
And there she stayed, on the seabed – for the next four and half centuries.
The unfortunate hound was on board Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose when the ill-fated warship sank to the bottom of the Solent on July 19, 1545.
The dog, now preserved as an almost complete canine skeleton, acquired the nickname Hatch after divers discovered her remains near the sliding hatch door of the Mary Rose’s carpenter’s cabin.
Experts believe the hound, estimated to have been between 18 months and two years old, earned her keep as the ship’s ratter – superstitious Tudor seafarers did not have cats on board ship as they were thought to bring bad luck.
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