Ray Mears discovers 400-Year-Old perfectly preserved Warbows Salvaged From a Sunken Tudor Warships
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ธ.ค. 2022
- In this video for History Hit, Ray Mears discovers how a Tudor shipwreck has shaped our understanding of archery in the later medieval period. Raised from the bottom of the English Channel in 1982, the Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship in the English fleet during the reign of King Henry VIII. When it sank in battle against the French in 1545, the Mary Rose took down hundreds of seamen and soldiers with their weapons. The incredible archaeological remains include dozens of perfectly preserved longbows, showing these weapons were still used even as gunpowder became prevalent on the battlefield.
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Also in this video, Ray meets up once again with Tod of Tod's Workshop and professional archer and bowyer Joe Gibbs, to test whether a longbow with a heavy draw-weight could really pierce plate armour.
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I was in an archery shop to pick up a new string and the owner was showing his new recurve, which had a draw weight of 80 pounds or so. This was after compound bows had become popular and was what everyone was using. There was a few husky guys that tried pulling it back, but they failed. Just then a lady who was watching this asked if she could try. You could see the smirks on the muscled guys faces as they handed her the bow. She drew it back to full draw smoothly, held for a second and then let it back down gently. The look on those guy's faces as she handed it back and said, "Nice." was PRICELESS! Later I found out she was the owner's wife and it was HER bow!
hahahahaha
Pussy guys 😂😂😂 well deserved
Strength is only a secondary consideration when drawing a high-poundage bow; using the correct draw technique is always the most important thing.
Being able to pull a bow back is a long shot from being able to handle. If when you pull the bow back if it engages your mind, you can't handle the bow. A good rule is if you can pull a bow back and make it look good, not a lot of shacking etc... Probably feel as though you can handle it. You would be lucky to handle 2/3rds of that weight for real.
There are a lot of variables. Is the activity one where you shoot 144 shots, or as with hunting, one will normally get it done. It also depends on whether you are aiming with a sight, or just letting it go.
With sighted shooting there is a technique using a laser and a video to determine if you are overbowed.
We know this is true because the compound took over so quickly. But then folks decided they needed 80 pound compounds, back in the 80s and 90s, and the cycle repeated itself.
A fit 120 pound woman drawing an 80 pound bow would be like a fit 200 pound man easily handling, and accurately shooting a 133 pound bow. That is pretty rare and hit accurately, not just launching artillery for distance. Hill regularly hunted a 110 pound bow, but also an 80 pound bow. If archery was in the family, a person like this woman would be a candidate.
Ray Mears with Todd and Joe is like 2 of my worlds colliding, I love this! So good to see Ray Mears again, the nostalgia is powerful.
Just Matt Easton (scholagladiatoria) and Jason Kingsley (modern history tv) missing and we got our own youtube Avengers team
@@marcusfridh8489 And this is what I love about internet. The place, where people of interest can find each other, share their findings and have fun with doing it. I think this is the spirit of the internet as it was first invented. I'm so happy to see it recently. Many makers, scence propagators and curious amateurs cooperating, to find out things, that would be impossible to find out witout such cooperation 🥰
The Tudor period was 1485 to 1603, thus the bow was not 100yrs old as stated on the title page, but at least 420 yrs old!
I was just screwing my face up looking at the title
@@Bonkers4Hexme too
Which also makes it 16 th not 17th century!
You beat me to it!
The Mary Rose sank in 1545, so the bow is at least 478 years old
5,000 Master Archers firing volley after volley would have led to an absolute bloodbath for those on the recieving end, irrespective of whether they wore armour.
Tightly bunched troops and mounted knights would've been cut down in their hundreds, dead and horrifically wounded horses and men strewn about everywhere!
Arrows don't have to be fatal to stop an advance, they'll impale themselves into everything they can, and they can inflict catastrophic wounds.
Phrases like "The sky was dark with arrows", or, "It was raining arrows", give a grim idea of what faced combatants in those times...
I'll never forget the time Ray referred to a longbow as a "Tool to stop a hungry child crying", with absolutely no awareness that it sounded like he was suggesting that people were shooting babies to shut them up. That one ranks even higher than the limpets that clamp down, "The moment you know they are there"
I want Ray back on our TV, damn those pseudo survivalists, degrading all of the work Ray did to educate us in a true respect for our natural environments, at least he speaks to the few that truly listen
I agree, Ray is the real deal.
@@philgraham8213 second that. The man knows what he's talking about.
Well said 👍
Absolutely! Ray is proper English patriot. His nature programmes used to celebrate the British isles and our history. That's probably why he's not on the BBC or TV anymore bc this new lot don't want to celebrate our past they want to forget it ever happened
@@cardroid8615 great comment it's always good to see other people aware of what is going on
An ancestor, Laurence Ambler, was an Archer, Man at Arms in the Service of Lord Clifford - a Yorkshire Lord at the battle of Flodden in 1513. The present day members of the Family are all over 6ft tall and the Women are also tall and well built.
Man, how cool to have blue blood! I am Materialist in phylosophical ways, so I don't believe in spirits or souls, but I do credit that DNA stores intellectual aspects from our ancestors, althought it has never been scientifically proved.
The late British actor, Robert Hardy (Siegfried Farnham from the 1970s-80s _All Creatures Great and Small_ ) was a major expert on the longbow, co-authored books on the subject, and was one of the restoration people on the bows recovered from the Mary Rose.
If you read the book he co-authored ("The Great Warbow") it has pictures of Robert Hardy working on the bows at home during their restoration. Worth a read since it contains a lot of fascinating information.
Not only was he a great actor, but Robert Hardy was an acknowledged expert in mediaeval archery; he wrote several books on the subject that are used as standard reference material now.
Yes I have one of Robert Hardy's books it's VERY GOOD.
I had the privilege of going to a lecture Robert gave on war bows way back in the 1970’s. He had a 120lb draw weight bow there. I drew it, once, and have no desire ever to do that again !
All creatures great and small wow I loved that series. 😍
I met Robert Hardy on a number of occasions in the past at one talk I attended he had a Mary rose bow with him I and had the privilege to hold. It looked nearly identical to my 60 pound yew bow I think the wood must have been so much better way back then
I grew up practicing archery in Oregon, the state just north of California. The climate on the Oregon coast is perfect for yew trees. Whe Sir Francis Drake made his dramatic trip around the world he stopped in Oregon and collected 1200 yew wood staves for making bows. These he presented to the Queen when he arrived back in England. Port Orford cedar also grows in abundance on the Oregon coast. It is considered the premier wood for arrows.
Osage orange is also a great bow wood from America.
I took up archery at the age of twelve, and instantly began to make my own arrows. Here in England that meant going to the archery shop at Forest Hill, run by the late Tom Foy, and buying a dozen arrow staves. They were branded 'Port Orford Cedar. Little did I know that I would be spending some of the best times in my life in that lovely town on Highway 101.
America was also blessed with incredibly strong and durable oak. The British loved it for building ships with, and it also did the US Navy alot of good in later years.
That's the kind of town where a guy who talks funny will get jumped in a bar and have to fight his way to the door. @@tacfoley4443
@@keighlancoe5933In America Southern 'Live Oak' is an excellent ship building lumber. The more common White Oak is inferior to English Oak in strength and durability. In fact when we rebuild one hundred year old Herreshoff built boats, we find that the cedar planking is often original and in fine shape and that the White Oak framing and backbone is very deteriorated, even if more recently replaced. The USS Constitution was built of Live Oak and acquired the nickname of 'Old Iron Sides'.
I'm a simple man, I see Ray Mears and click. So happy to see this collaboration, congrats on this great work!
They do have a couple of bows set up in the museum and I couldn't draw one fully . As a much younger man I watched as the ship was raised and saw it brought into No 3 dock , it's permanent home . The new museum built around the Mary Rose is breathtakingly good . Floors level with the decks of the surviving side of the ship have allowed hundreds of amazingly preserved artefacts to be displayed in the context in which they were found . It's not to be missed on a visit to Pompey.
Yeah those demo longbows are hard to draw 👍
What a cool thing to have seen!
The stance that Joe has when he releases the bow is exactly that shown on the manuscripts of the period -
Simply can't be pulled back just using arms. Whole back needed indeed
You need the archer's stance.
@@BobCassidy
No damage done but the draw side is more developed
I'm surprised tp see that his arm holding the bow is actually a little bent, not entirely straight.
@@magnuslauglo5356 I dont shoot a 100# bow or anything but when I shoot my 65# recurve I cannot use a straight bow arm or my bow arm locks under the pressure and causes a lot of "tennis elbow" damage. I think there is just a point where you cant really straighten out your bow arm with really heavy weight because of the pressure you put on that joint. I have no problem on a 40# bow doing that but about 50 and up I start getting pain.
I can never really watch enough of Tod and Joe.
It's great when Tod, Joe, Toby, Matt and Lloyd are together
Thanks for the sketch idea. Tod and Joe in the “ghost,” pottery scene coming up
@@The_Gallowglass And Shad from Shadiversity plus Ray now too
@@The_Gallowglass
Don't forget Kev...
With help of modern tecnology i think it could be possibly to bring in folk's from Down under, like setting up a webcam and a screen så he could talk to the British team directly on the site.
The legend that is Ray Mears with a bow hit to be worth a watch
That was fantastic. To see bows from over 500 years ago still in pristine shape. Amazing.
Love watching Joe and Todd. Joe is totally right about needing the right muscles to pull a heavy bow.
Functional fitness
i remember the years of arguments between the "experts" over the claims that bows of 150lb draw weight were fantasy and then the Mary Rose happened..... would have loved to see the look on their faces when these originals were tested
I recall the day the Mary Rose was raised and then subsequent reports of the artefacts found. Absolutely fascinating and Ray Mears is an excellent person to narrate the story.
does anyone else remember Robert Hardy making a documentary on the English long bow for BBC television about 60 years ago? He visited the workshop of a bow maker, said to be the last one in the country making the traditional yew bows. His workshop was in the small village of Meriden, as near to the centre of England as it's possible to measure and about 20 miles from my home town of Nuneaton. It was fascinating watching the shaping of the bow, the stringing and the subsequent testing against a breastplate and some armour for a horse's flanks. A formidable weapon indeed!
No. But I know that Joe Gibbs is a bowyer as well as probably the best archer currently.
I've think I've got some memory of this programme. I recall that Robert Hardy was actually something of an expert on the English longbow - I just knew him as an actor. I remember when talking about the battle he pointed out the faulty pronunciation of "Agincourt" by most English speakers - that they pronounce it in a half-French half-English way, with a soft English "g" but then drop the "t" like the French.
What a talented man Ray is, spent my childhood watching him and still hasn't lost it. Makes anything interesting
I imagine Ray was like a kid in a candy shop when the bow drawer was opened.
What an honour to be able to touch them.
I’ve followed Rays career since I was a child and I know how enjoyable it would have been for him to hold a 500 year old English bow.
😆
He was in his element here, he's seen a lot in his time but this is special.
I can tell you were the kid in the candy store that touched every sweet.. O.o
@@northernembersoutdoors1045 I'm pretty sure he saw the exact same bows in the other show where he was with a guy who made a bow. I don't remember if it was the first episode of Bushcraft or of somthing else. I'm pretty sure it was the first episode of whatever show it was part of.
Also, hanging out with these two dedicated professionals.
Great to see such a staunch advocate for British history back on our screens doing what he does best! All we need now is Dan Cruickshank to join the team and we have the ultimate dream team! Man i miss these guys on our screens. Telling British history with such enthusiasm. Please please get Dan to do a programme?? Please
Until this ship was raised, no one had ever seen an intact longbow from that period. In archeological terms it was as valuable as the pyramids.
There was also an extinct musical instrument - the Dulcina/Douçaine or English/Still Shawm.
There was a long bow discovered hidden in a wall somewhere in England. Original make.
@@grassroot1100 I thought that was actually broken?
I love Ray Mears! I could watch him doing a video on mowing his lawn 🤣🤣🤣 The only real survivalist we ever had on our TV 🤗
Trust me, its all b.s. he just rented my grandfathers neighbors backyard to show what livin in the Canadian bush would be like. Then back to his room in time for his supper.
Ray should still be on TV then I would still have a reason to watch it!
I was in a museum at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. It was just a chamber filled with ethylene glycol that was circulated continuously in, over and through the Mary Rose at the time.
Ray Mears is back 🙌
Good old Ray,, what a legend.
Absolutely captivating, I feel honoured to have seen actual real long bows even by video. Thank you.
Because of his personal knowledge and experience, Ray makes an excellent host for these topics 👍
Great to see Ray back presenting, more of this sort of thing please!
I've been there and was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The Mary Rose is an incredible sight. What is just as incredible are the artifacts raised with her. The bows look like brand new and appears like you could string them up and use them now.
I went a few years ago, now. It was still being sprayed with polymer. I will have to go back. The whole place was incredible! The doctor's/barber surgeon's thumb print, still visible in some ointment, struck me the most.
How did they determine the pull weight of those war bows? Surely they couldn't be strung and used without breaking.
@@Bob_Adkinswood type and specific measurements
@@thomasmcdonald5887 Solid fiberglass, 57".
@@Bob_Adkins
They asked Sir Cliff Richard.
Ray Mears at Tod's workshop. I hit the jackpot.!!!!
Great video. Ray Mears is an absolute legend. Brilliant to see him here.
Seen Joe in a few of Todd's videos, the man is an absolute beast
The day the Mary Rose was raised from the sea bed was televised live and I remember bunking off school to watch it. It was fascinating and I'm glad I did it.
Me and my son just visited the Mary Rose last weekend what a magnificent display of artefacts and bows are here to be seen never seen such a impressive conservation system and display of a ship like this
amazing how well they are preserved.
Just imagine how much strength it took to shoot a 140 lb bow dozens of times in a few minutes.
Probably not. Probably took their time and in rotation.
To preserve the energy required to do good shots.
So happy to see content from Ray again, he taught me as a youngling to truly respect the natural environment around us. No exaggerated bs. Techniques from our ancestors and the vital lesson that nature is not our enemy but our friend and we should (from the words of big Z) ‘go with the grain’ don’t fight nature, work with her. And I’ll cherish him for the lessons he taught me.
I’d like to add this man was one my childhood hero. So seeing him coming back to camera rlly makes my day
Great to see this documentary, I well recall watching the ship being brought to the surface and the jig almost broke, Margaret Rule (RIP and thanks for all your work) was there explaining what was happening as so many people were glued to their TV screens to see this historic recovery.
Great to see Ray Mears again, not seen him seemingly for decades, so good to have him back looking at and talking about our history.
Thanks to all for this superb programme!
Hello Ray Mears! nice to see you! one of my childhood heroes!
My family ancestors inn France invented those bows other wise known as the English Bow. MY inventor ancester was Ramond DeBoyer he was also a Marquis of France
English longbow men were amazing soldiers. Feared on the battlefield.
Wasn’t expecting to see Mr. Cutler and Mr. Gibbs!
Well met good friends!
I saw a documentary that said they believe when the Mary Rose turned , the Gun Ports that were open on the lowest deck started filling with water and there was no stopping it from sinking
Ray was purrrrrring when the bow draw opend,thats like a top night out for ray,
As someone who spent years drawing heavy bows, many times the problem is the wrong technique stemming from wrong assumptions. It is quantifiably harder to hold a bow out and think you will draw the string back than hold the string and push away the bow. Completly different muscle groups.
More Ray Mears! Love it!
He straight up put a hole in the chestplate, with a bow. WOW!
Really great! The archery was wonderful, great shots also. Extra cider / mead for these two. 🌟👍
I watched a documentary around the time she was raised and according to historians she was carrying around five hundred soldiers in full armour. It's on record that she once transported nearly 1000 soldiers in 1513 so 500 shouldn't have been a problem under normal sailing conditions but in a letter to Charles V from the German Emperor's Ambassador he said she tried to turn sharply and heeled over steeply with the gun ports on the lower decks still open. Ooops !
The Mary Rose was rebuilt several years before she sank in order to increase the number/wight of guns she carried. This made her top-heavy. Its possible she sank when she was hit by a gust of wind during her turn to port that heeled her over an submerged the lower gun ports.
It's wonderful to see Ray mears again. I remember his younger days making those survival TV series.. a talented man. 👍😀
Awesome Winnebago as well. Wavers signed by his production team must have been a bit hard to bear though.
It was all theater. When he was making the show on the Traders in Canada, he didn't go into the bush, he went onto my grandfathers neighbors back yard. literally. Then back to the hostel and made a complete ass of himself. Demanding stuff that wasn't to be had if he hadn't thought to bring it himself. They ended up flying a bunch of stuff in to keep his fat ass happy.
Wouldn't survive two days on the land I grew up on. You can keep him
@@mikeblair2594 If what you say is true then I have no respect for Ray mears. That's news to me but I will say I haven't don't any digging into Rays past.. 🙃
Great to see Ray Mears on screen again 👍
What is History Hit TV? Do I need a CABLE subscription?
So good to see Ray mears in documentaries again.
You have to remember that the Loch Ness Monster claims to have once seen Ray Mears
Huge... So heavy... The strength... Amazing...
Hi Todd, Nice to see you and Joe finding some new playdates
Tod is on the history hit channel! Finally! Congrats to him and HH!
I remember visiting the Mary Rose some 20 or so years ago and they had a replica warbow that you could have a go at pulling up, I had done some archery and had my own recurve, so had a go at the replica, it was a beast! I got it pulled up and loosed it immediately, I dont think I would have liked to have been doing it for any length of time and it certainly wouldnt have been something that you could pull up and aim with much accuracy, the archers back then must have had muscles like iron
Incredible documentary. It's great to see a great lover of British history, Ray Mears make these documentaries. It's always great to see him celebrating our history. I always used to love watching his nature programmes celebrating the British isles. A great English patriot. Please please let Ray do more of these programmes!
Cool Todd's workshop and Ray mears.
That draw weight is just mad, I had a 40lb longbow and was amazed at its power, even that will fire an arrow about 250yds and hut hard. I'm broad shouldered and (at the time I was doing that) strong in the upper body, still, even that 40lb bow took some endurance to pull and hold - after a few shots particularly. You'd not hold a 150lb bow drawn, but, those really are mad draw weights - and to fire them repeatedly, as they surely did, they must have had crazy strength. I do think they were probably twisted up because of it though, those kind of weights aren't forgiving on the body, its a massive strain for the wrists and fingers.
There's a skeleton at the Mary Rose museum that shows exactly that. The archers shoulders and pelvis/hip were misshapen de to the literal decades of bow use. The guy would have been around 5 feet 9 but had a 50 inch chest.
@Not Expat Joe not wrong but debatable... that arrow shot 250yds follows a high arc going maybe 100yds up and I surely would prefer not to get hit by it on its way back down once it's been accelerated again by gravity... defo nothing compared to the speed and momentum of a 1/2" thick arrow shot from a 150lb war bow across that distance, but I'd guess it would go straight through a rabbit still, for example, or seriously injure an unarmored man.
Amazing. That so much equipment was stored, makes it seem to be hauling supplies for a military. Loved the presentation. What a find. Makes me wonder whose forebears were aboard the ship.
Can't believe she allowed him to touch the bows with bare hands!
The sinking was such a horrific event, it happened so fast that hundreds of men were either trapped below deck, or on the deck by the anti boarding netting. There simply weren't enough seconds for the men to find a way off the ship before they had already drowned.
35 crew members survived the sinking, so they're probably the few that could actually swim, as not a lot of people could or did swim in those days.
@@Wabbit_Hunta
... and even for a strong swimmer, it is simply not possible for a man in any kind of armour.
Wonderful show, thanks
Thanks for this video.
What a treasure that shipwreck is
Fascinating story
nice one, what great insight into a brutal time when at war,
unbelivable! hundreds of years in the water and these bows looks like new?
The mud was a low oxygen environment, just like how bogs preserve items, degradation thru, pests, microbes etc requires oxygen.
Joe & Tod are amazing
Great video very informative
Looking at that stuff through a display case is overwhelming enough…..I can’t imagine holding it
I remember sat at school one lunchtime watching them bring it up on live TV.
More on archery please!
Absolutely amazing
This is why even the first matchlock arquebuses took over so rapidly, despite their far lower rate of fire and inaccuracy, and their other disadvantages, such as being impossible to hide. With simple drill, you could make an effective arquebusier in three weeks, from any recruit fit for military service. An effective archer had to be trained from childhood.
The Mary Rose is a fantastic place to visit as is the rest of the dockyard. I live near it so I get to go there several times a year well worth it. One of the regulars in my local was an amateur diver in Portsmouth and was on e of the divers who found the wreck before the archaeologists took over. If you visit the Mary rose you can try and pull a long bow there are one or two set up for you to try
There are some fantastic exhibits to help kids connect with history - including the bow pull - well worth a visit!
@@MsSteelphoenix I did try and pull the bow bur not very far I am afraid
I'm going to have to get my arse down to Portsmouth to see the Mary Rose... looks like a fascinating exhibit..
Was that Joe Gibbs in the thumbnail?? And Tod Cutler.. Lets go
Fascinating
i have a book, re: mary rose. iirc in this book or elsewhere, skeletal remains of long bow-men beefier due the exercise in long-bow drill. seeing this particular video seems to corroborate that interesting tidbit.
i'm 76, boomer vet & have been reading history since pre-high school.
your channel makes a heathy dose of entertaining history. well done! many thanks.
Amazing that people trained themselves to draw 160 Lbs and more. I couldn't bear the pain of the string cutting in my fingers, let alone that massive force.
They might have worn a leather glove on the hand that pulled the string as many modern archers do. It probably still hurt though.
You’d be amazed what you can ignore in the face of death
The Mongols and Turks shot equally heavy bows using their thumb (with a thumb ring).
@@bruceparr1678 Not 160lb
@@James-dc3yt Manchurian composite war bows could exceed that
The bow goes back in time much further than 11000 years.
Yup, try around 130,000.
Nice Video
Bring Ray back!!!
Amazing
I have two longbows that were made by my neigbour in nottingham when i was a boy.147 and 155 pull weight, they kick ass.
I first saw the Mary Rose shortly after she first went onto public display (After she was raised.....I'm NOT old enough to have seen her before her sinking despite my looks!). I remember it being quite a haunting experience, seeing the recognisable shape of her hull apearing out of the mist from the water spray (At the time, she was still being kept wet). I wasn't really old enough to appreciate how amazing she was at the time. Truly stunning and well worth a visit!
Arrow or bullet doesn't need to penetrate to be lethal. The force/shock of the hit can drop someone if great enough.
Can’t remember the name of the ship, but one was raised and the almost complete remains of some people were found in the same area. One of them, a quite large man was determined to be a bowman. These people were commanded by the king to spend hours drawing their bows from very young childhood. The man was estimated to be late 20’s - very early 30’s. There was a LOT of damage done to the shoulder because of the repetition. He wasn’t crippled or anything but the damage was enough that they said he was always in a lot of pain.
Glad they are showing more how good a chest plate is against arroes
I wonder how Kevlar would stand up against arrows shot from such longbows with their incredible draw weight.
Go to 6:30 to get to the subject. The curator is wearing gloves while the guy touches the stuff with bare hands.
No he doesn't. (later) Sorry - yes he does! Still, its Ray Mears. We allow it.
Best book a holiday and go to Portsmouth. HMS Victory looks a bit sad but The Mary Rose exhibit is well worth a couple of days.
Englishbowmens' skeletons suffered severe deformity caused by the extreme forces needed to use these war bows.
The Duke of Wellington considered forming a regiment of archers because of their rate of fire - until it was out to him - no doubt VERY diplomatically 🙂 - the years it took to train up an effective Archer.
I have a 58 lb pull traditional English Longbow I use to hunt with. It’s very accurate, my favorite it going to archery ranges and having the guys with compound bows snicker at me until they see my accuracy. Then they ask if they can try it only to find out they can’t pull it.