Two Tudor era cannons have taken pride of place at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth with a little helping hand from GGR’s secret weapon—the Glassboy 330 floor crane.

The pair of old firearm artefacts were recovered from the Mary Rose, one of King Henry VIII’s favourite warships which sank in battle with a French fleet in 1545. The Mary Rose Museum is being created to showcase the archaeological findings from the wreckage and the recovered vessel itself which was raised from the sea 30 years ago.

GGR’s Glassboy 330 was first used to fit steel brackets to a wall in the museum’s artillery exhibit before raising a 300kg wrought iron gun 1.7 metres high on top of the brackets. Built between 1509 and 1511, the Mary Rose would have had a crew of 30 gunners operating the iron and bronze cast cannons on board.

The 2.3 metre long breech-loader gun was wrapped up in a sling and safely lifted by GGR’s portable counterbalanced floor crane. The 330kg capacity Glassboy then assisted an overhead gantry with elevating another larger gun into position, lifting it from one end.

Thanks to some help from a Glassboy, the Mary Rose Museum was shipshape and Bristol fashion ready for visitors to board.

GGR’s compact lifting equipment also helped recreate history at another museum, The Hunterian in Glasgow, where a UNIC URW-094 mini spider crane was able to lift Ancient Roman sandstone slabs into position for a new exhibit.