Yonkers and Gromets

The guy in the 17th century garb in the Mary Rose Museum knew my question before I asked it because, apparently, it is the fourth most asked question in history!  Looking at a display of the Ship's Company I wanted to know who were the yonkers and gromets?  So, they were the youngsters on  the crew, the yonkers responsible for the tasks in the crow's nest and the gromets were the powder monkeys, both very dangerous jobs for little ones!

We've had an excellent day at the Historical Dockyards in Portsmouth.  I remember being glued to the tv in the early eighties, enthralled when the Mary Rose was raised from the sea bed in its specially constructed cradle, and today we got to see it in its new museum home.  The Museum is creative genius.  Because only one side of the ship was preserved by lying on the bed and being covered in deep silt, the museum, as well as displaying it brilliantly, also mirrors its lost side which is filled with original artefacts.  You can view the ship on three levels/decks with the top floor being open to look over - accessible by airlocks!  Every few minutes or so, moving images are projected on to the decks, recreating the crew at work at their many different jobs and then piped to action.  It's a must see!

From the Mary Rose Museum we had an equally interesting tour of HMS Victory.  I've read the entire set of Master and Commander books so it was great to be inside a ship of the line from that time.  I half expected Captain Jack or, at the least, Russell Crowe, to appear around a bulkhead!

Next we visited the Victory Museum and I enjoyed looking at their collection of figureheads.  After a late lunch we finished our day with a second ship tour, this time on the HMS Warrior, 1860, first British steam/sail warship.  Especially interesting was to see the changes/improvements made from the Victory to the Warrior.