Pine wood origin for pitch from the Mary Rose

Abstract

The raising of the wreck of King Henry VIII's flagship (AD 1509–45), the Mary Rose, from the bed of the Solent was a unique event, notable as a significant technical achievement in naval architectural history and as a source of well-preserved Tudor relics. Preservation is attributed to the anaerobic environment prevailing within the sediment during much of the period of burial and, in some cases, to the large quantities of pitch that permeated the ship and many of the relics. Although the function of many relics is usually easily recognized, their means of construction and the nature and origin of the materials used in their manufacture are often much less obvious. We report here the chemical analysis of six samples of pitch from the Mary Rose. Computerized gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (CGC/MS) and infrared spectroscopy have been used to ‘fingerprint’ the pitches and compare them with modern-day tars and pitches derived from wood, coal, peat and petroleum. Diterpenoid hydrocarbons, methyl dehy-droabietate and dehydroabietic acid were found in similar proportions to ‘Stockholm tar (good-quality pine tar obtained by the destructive distillation of Pinus sylvestris), so providing conclusive evidence for the derivation of the Mary Rose pitches from pine wood.