BRACKNELL, UK, 16 JULY 2001  –  Sophisticated monitoring and control technology from Honeywell, plus a 24-hour remote monitoring service donated by Honeywell’s UK Response Centre, is helping to preserve a unique and priceless piece of British heritage – the hull and artefacts from Henry VIII’s flag-ship, the “Mary Rose”.  After the ship sank in 1545 near the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, layers of silt protected her contents and half of the hull.  Many artefacts and 3,000 timbers were removed from the wreck site during the eleven years before the empty hull itself was raised in 1982.

The hull of the Mary Rose is now the subject of the single largest archaeological conservation project in the world.  The Mary Rose Trust, a registered charity with H.R.H. Prince Charles as President, is actively conserving the ancient oak timbers within a dry dock in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard.  The hull is housed beneath a double-skinned, thermally insulated protective roof.  It is sprayed continuously with an aqueous solution of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG), which is penetrating deep into the delicate cell walls of the timber.  By replacing water in the cells, the PEG will minimise distortion of the hull when it is eventually dried out in about ten years time.

A Honeywell Excel 5000 management system monitors and controls 250 parameters and interfaces with an Excel Building Supervisor building management system.  Its duties include monitoring spray pumps, filter pressure, tank level and many other variables; as well as regulating the heating system within the ship hall and the heating and ventilation system to the glass-fronted visitors’ viewing gallery. 

A second, much smaller Honeywell system is installed within the Mary Rose exhibition building: this provides ambient heating and air conditioning as well as precise temperature and humidity control within numerous sealed glass-fronted display cabinets, in which some 1000 relics and treasures from the ship are on public display.

“The hull treatment process must be continuous to prevent it drying out, so we are grateful that Honeywell’s Response Centre in Bracknell monitors the Mary Rose’s BMS around the clock,” explained conservation scientist Dr Mark Jones, Head of Collections with The Mary Rose Trust.  “We go home at night knowing we’re in good hands.  At the first sign of a problem, Honeywell’s Response Centre will alert our engineers so we can take immediate action – and Honeywell generously does not charge us for this wonderful service.” 

“The Honeywell Excel 5000 building management system has been terrific throughout – we have had no problems.  Honeywell upgraded it in 1999 because of the Millennium bug and, as a result, we now benefit from a new graphical interface.  We get a first-class service from Honeywell’s service engineers, who are always helpful and friendly.  Their contribution is just as important to us as Honeywell allowing us to use the services of its Response Centre without charge.  We have routine service visits for the museum and ship hall and, if there’s a problem at any time, we can speak to Honeywell’s engineers on the phone.  In many cases, we are able to fix a problem ourselves but, if not, the response from Honeywell’s service engineers is fantastic.”

Revealed the Trust’s Conservation Manager, Glenn McConnachie, “The main Honeywell BMS is a huge system controlling the PEG spray system, PEG heat exchangers, pumps, boilers and environments.  The critical alarms that extend to Honeywell’s 24-hour Response Centre are associated with the hull conservation process and would indicate a spray system failure.  Specifically, the critical alarms are low level in the sump tank, into which the spray solution drains for re-circulation, and high and low pressures within the spray system.  These pressure abnormalities would most likely be due to, respectively, a system blockage or a blow-out in the spray system.” 

The Mary Rose Trust also has a freeze drier unit, operating at minus 30 degrees Celsius and low pressure, that is used to preserve small archaeological treasures.  This exacting conservation process is ensured through links to the Honeywell Excel 5000 system, which extends further critical alarms to the Honeywell Response Centre for 24-hour monitoring.

The Mary Rose Trust (President: H.R.H The Prince of Wales, K.G., K.T., P.C., G.C.B) is a Registered Charity and Limited Liability Company which was founded in 1979 to manage the tasks of surveying, excavating, recovering and displaying the ship and her contents.  It is an international museum of Tudor life, and a recognised centre of excellence for maritime archaeology and the conservation of material recovered from underwater.

Honeywell Home & Building Control is a US$5 billion business that provides products and services to create efficient, safe, comfortable environments. The business offers controls for heating, ventilation, humidification and air-conditioning equipment, security and fire alarm systems, home automation systems, energy-efficient lighting controls and building management systems and services.

Honeywell is a US$25-billion diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; power generation systems; speciality chemicals; fibres; plastics; and electronic and advanced materials.  Honeywell employs approximately 120,000 people in 95 countries and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HON, as well as on the London, Chicago and Pacific stock exchanges.  It is one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is also a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.  Additional information on the company is available on the Internet at www.honeywell.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements about future business operations, financial performance and market conditions.  Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties inherent in business forecasts as further described in our filings under the Securities Exchange Act.

Editorial contact: Royer Slater
Honeywell Control Systems Ltd
Direct to desk: 01344 656000
royer.slater@honeywell.com