Centrepiece to the imaginatively styled structure, due for completion by autumn 2012, will be the ship’s conserved starboard side and decks.
Also on display will go a much larger proportion of the ship’s 19,000 artefacts than has been possible in the current Mary Rose Museum, situated just 300m from the new site.
Many items will be displayed cleverly within a structure which mirrors the conserved hull, to show clearly how they served aboard the ship.
The £16.3 million museum construction phase is part of a project which has been estimated as costing £35 million in total.
£21 million has been received from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Mary Rose Trust has been charged with raising the rest.
£4 remains to be collected via the Mary Rose 500 public appeal.
The Mary Rose, King Henry VIII’s flagship, sank in the Solent in 1545. She was found in 1967 by the late Alexander McKee, of the British Sub-Aqua Club’s Southsea branch.
The Mary Rose Trust was formed in 1979 with Prince Charles as President, to raise funds for survey and excavation by a team combining maritime archaeologists, professional salvors and sport diving volunteers.
The ship was raised in 1982, after which intermittent surveys and excavations continued.
A final push was made over three seasons from 2003 to 2005, funded by the MoD which was considering dredging for a new shipping channel, which would have affected the Mary Rose site.
Last items up were an anchor and freshly revealed, 10m-long stem piece.
The hull is currently not viewable, although the old museum remains open.
By the time the new museum opens its doors, the hull will be undergoing the final phase of its conservation process.
The controlled air-drying, which follows years of wet conservation treatments, will finish in 2016.
www.maryrose.org
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