 He had no other option except to pay the Crown Estate Commissioners to rent the Mary Rose wreck site and thereby afford it protection from wanton pillage.Soon, from about 1965 onwards, he was concentrating most of his efforts on the "Mary Rose" project.Preserving a Tudor "mud" ship for posterity cost him more than time and effort; his earnings plummeted, and he was compelled to move to a smaller house, to the dismay of his long-suffering wife and older children.