A 16th century dog, the only known female to have served aboard King Henry VIII’s ill-fated flagship the Mary Rose, has stolen the show at Britain’s Crufts dog show this year.
The two-year old mongrel, lost aboard the Tudor warship 465 years ago, is a special guest of the Kennel Club this year, according to the show’s organizers.
The painstakingly reconstructed skeleton, poised on its haunches, acquired the nickname “Hatch” after divers discovered her remains near the sliding hatch door of the Mary Rose’s carpenter’s cabin.
Her remains were found partly inside and outside his quarters suggesting she was trapped there as the huge warship, the pride of the English fleet, keeled over and sank in the Solent off England’s southern coast in mysterious circumstances.
