University of Portsmouth: First Year Diary

November 2017: Part 1- Volunteering at the Mary Rose Museum

So far, volunteering at the Mary Rose Museum has been a pleasure. For me, to volunteer there is the ultimate definition of learning on the job, as every week I go there, and find out something I find interesting about the ship, and the people that lived and worked aboard her, that I did not know before. Everything contained in the museum housed behind glass casing is original and was salvaged when the ship was was found and raised. It is quite a privilege to know that the Mary Rose Museum is one of the very few in the world that is purpose-built around its main artefact, the ship itself, or rather the remains of it, as only half of the ship was buried under the seabed, and therefore is the only half that survived. Even though only half of it survives today, it is still a spectacle to behold every time I find myself on the elevated walkway that runs alongside it, below it or above it, depending on which of the three floors you find yourself on.
The other staff and volunteers are some of the nicest people you could ever meet and every week that I go there, my interest is piqued because I am paired with somebody who has a different area of expertise on the subject of the Mary Rose, giving me an overall picture that will eventually allow me to talk to the public and field their questions independently. The process of me finding out different facts about same objects, is most apparent when I am discussing different objects, real and replicas, on the handling tables where the public are allowed to touch items that were found in the wreckage of the Mary Rose. To be able to handle some of these each week is an absolute privilege. Every time I volunteer there, history is literally in the palm of my hand, and depending on which volunteer I am paired with, they each have their own favourite objects and unique facts about them, which they gladly and enthusiastically impart onto me, some they don't even tell the public!
I am immensely glad I have been given this opportunity to volunteer for the Mary Rose Museum, a museum that has such a rich and authentic history, and ideally, I would like to carry on volunteering there for the next three years and beyond.