We’ve been learning a lot about English history lately, but there is one topic that woke our interest. The Mary Rose and its special pet. It’s a dog called Hatch! The Mary Rose was Henry VIII’s favourite warship. The ship needed someone to keep away the rats with their many diseases, when they sailed across the oceans. The expert for this job was Hatch! He probably belonged to the carpenter on board. The job wasn’t made for cats because rats are too big for cats and they are usually afraid of the sea and water in general. When the Mary Rose sank in 1545, Hatch drowned with almost all the other sailors. 400 years later, divers lifted the shipwreck, many artefacts and Hatch. Of course, we don’t know his exact name but the team nicknamed him Hatch.

You can visit him in the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, England. Most people come to see him because they think that he is very cute. He’s not only adorable but he is also fascinating because his skeleton is so well preserved. He’s the museum’s mascot and there’s even merch of him in this shop.

In our English lesson we built our own Hatches with the help of a template. Look, they’re up on our shelf and watch us now during our lessons.

Finja and Liv, 7c