Curators of the Mary Rose museum have been criticised after claiming objects found on Henry VIII’s flagship have LGBT meanings.

A post on the museum’s website aims to “use queerness as an interpretative tool” to link objects including a mirror, hair combs and a gold ring to present-day understandings of LGBT sexualities.

The Portsmouth-based museum, run by a trust which appointed King Charles as its president when he was Prince of Wales, boasts the largest collection of Tudor objects in the world.

The blog post argues that a mirror found on the ship can relate to queer people, as they may experience gender dysphoria or euphoria when looking into it.

And a collection of nit combs is linked to gender identity because of the norm that women have long hair and men have short hair, it adds.

However, the combs would have been used by the sailors to remove nits from their hair rather than style it, the post admits.

The blog attracted ridicule, including from novelist Philip Hensher, who is gay.

He wrote on Twitter: “I am as keen as anyone on gay sex but I have to say to these curators - you’re f---ing mental.”

In response to a comment that a stronger link to the LGBT community would be that many men on the Mary Rose may have been gay, Hensher replied: “I increasingly think the drive to queer things has absolutely nothing to do with gay sex, and in many proponents’ case they are rather repulsed by it.”