London, Nov 18 : Academics have found that the ship known as Mary Rose may have been sunk by a cannonball shot by a French warship in 1545.

The Mary Rose, which was raised from the seabed in 1982 and remains on public display in Portsmouth, was sunk in 1545, during the Battle of The Solent, a clash between the English fleet and a French invasion force.

Traditionally, historians have blamed the sinking, not on the intervention of the French, but on a recklessly sharp turn and the failure to close gun ports, allowing water to flood in.