Richard Collins: Hatch the dog had a very important job on Henry VIII's favourite ship

Rats were a major pest on sailing ships. They broke open food stores, spread disease and chewed through ropes

The Skeleton of 'Hatch', the 16th-century sea dog who was the only female crew member aboard the Mary Rose. Picture: Mary Rose Trust - Shutterstock

At the naval museum in Portsmouth last week, I came on the skeleton of a dog. Archaeologists had retrieved the bones from the seabed of the Solent. The dog, nicknamed ‘Hatch’, had perished on 15th July 1545 when, during an encounter with a French fleet, Henry VIII’s favourite warship, the Mary Rose, sank. Following a discharge of cannon, doors on the vessel’s lower gun-deck were left open; the ship rolled with a large wave, took water, and capsized. Of about 400 men on board, only 38 survived.

Hatch’s DNA has been analysed. Resembling a cross between a modern foxhound and a whippet, he had been the ship’s rat-catcher.