Mary Rose Special Branch 0551
"Mad Mac's Marauders and digging on a shoestring."
Here follows a quotation from Alexander McKee OBE's book 'How we found the Mary Rose' -
"We had no money, no boats, no machinery, no permission. We had nothing. Except a small enthusiastic team of true volunteers, willing not merely to work without pay at weekends, but prepared to pay out of their own pockets to do so. Without them, nothing further could have been done and the Mary Rose would today lie silent and forgotten in her four-and-a-half centuries old grave under the seabed."
Here follows part of the Acknowledgements from Alexander McKee OBE's book 'How we found the Mary Rose' -
"During the years 1965 to 1978, we were still a small and mostly local organisation, at least a thousand people helped us in one way or another. I should like to thank them all en bloc, for there are too many to name. Above all, my gratitiude must go to that tiny, dedicated minority who stayed with the project for year after year of unrewarding, unregarded effort. Most of us are still together as the Mary Rose Special Branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club, diving for clues to other sites offshore which may one day rank with the Mary Rose."
Alexander McKee passed away aged 72 in in 1992 but return again to read the stories of some of the people who were there.