Dawn has been a passionate supporter of the Mary Rose Trust for many years and she has given talks and lectures internationally about what is the most ambitious maritime excavation project ever undertaken. In her talks Dawn gives a fascinating insight into the historical events surrounding the sinking of the Mary Rose during the Battle of the Solent with the French in 1545, to the early attempts to raise the ship, through to the incredible engineering feat to finally raise the ship from the seabed on the 11th October 1982; an event watched by millions on TV throughout the world.

However, in the 3 years prior to that, it was a race against time by the dive team, undertaking 27,000 dives to raise over 20,000 artifacts preserved in the silts of the Solent. Today this provides us with a unique time capsule of life on board a Tudor warship, which we see today at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.