Henry VIII's flagship, the 'Mary Rose', was raised to the surface on 11 October 1982, after having laid on the Solent seabed for 437 years. The tow into Portsmouth Harbour of the surviving starboard hull section was the climax of the world's most ambitious underwater archaeological project which began in the 1960s when amateur divers started searching for the ship. The 700 ton Portsmouth-built carrack was the pride of Henry VIII's fleet. It was probably a combination of poor handling and overloading which led the 'Mary Rose' to founder during a skirmish with a French invasion fleet on 19 July 1545, with fewer than 40 survivors.