Previously unseen artefacts from Henry the Eighth's flagship, the Mary Rose, are going on display for the first time, including this nit comb, with the nits still inside.
The artefacts, such as this porridge spoon, have been unveiled to help launch an appeal for the final �4m needed before a new museum for the ship can open in Portsmouth in 2012.
The boat is awaiting the new museum to go on public display again, but the current museum is still showing some of the 19,000 artefacts recovered from the wreck.
Some of the most plentiful were the nit combs, which sailors apparently were reluctant to share. The more wealthy of the crew kept theirs in leather pouches like this.
Many show signs of those who used them, such as this beech eating bowl, carved with identifying marks of the sailor who used it.
Others give an insight into the health of the crew. This urethral syringe would have been used to treat sexually transmitted diseases carried by the crew.
These rat bones recovered from the wreck disprove the old phrase about sinking ships.
But other artefacts have happier connotations, such as this bow and fiddle, believed to be Europe's oldest.
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