FOUR-and-a-half centuries after its sails last billowed before a Bristol Channel sou'-wester Newport's very own Mary Rose has run into troubled waters of a different kind.

"Them as dies will be the lucky ones!" was the cry of pirate captains at the helm of such vessels converted for privateering purposes.

"Them as gets their arts centre on time and within budget will be the lucky ones!" is the modern cry.

As the Argus exclusively revealed yesterday Newport City Council is hailing the discovery of an 80-foot 16th or 17th trading vessel in the Usk mud - right where building the city's theatre and arts venue should be taking place - as 'internationally important'.

But it could also turn out to be a real problem. Already, delays to the £13million theatre and arts centre, due to open in 2004, have cost £250,000. This figure could be dwarfed if, as looks likely, the 25-metre long ship proves to be of archaeological merit.

Merchantmen and men-o'- war in the 16th and 17th centuries were at the mercy of the winds and constantly in danger of being driven onto shoals.

But galleons which make it through to the 21st century tend to ground themselves on a complicated reef of funding, intra-departmental budgets and red tape.

After ploughing its own funds in to the project, Newport council is to ask the National Assembly for cash to assist with the project.

The excavation of the Newport Mary Rose is likely to take at least another six weeks, at a cost of approximately £650,000.

So far Newport council has spent approximately £250,000 on the operation and a search is under way to find funding to continue work.

Newport museums and heritage officer Ron Inglis said: "The archaeologists would like a further six weeks to complete their work. They've been here for three weeks already.

"The majority (of finds) will be recorded and then moved from the site but no museum could retain a vessel of this size.

"We're contacting the usual suspects about funding including the Assembly. I wouldn't like to say who, but we'll leave not stone unturned. What is required in terms of the work is time to record where everything is, but the whole ship isn't preserved here anyway."

A spokeswoman for Newport council, said: "The money that has been spent so far is public money. We don't want to cross the bridge of what will happen when it runs out yet."

The Newport ship is being described as being of national and international importance with no direct parallel in the whole of the UK.

Clinker-built, it lies with its prow pointing towards the city centre. The top of the hull is chopped away, possibly to remove an obstruction to the building of a jetty.

Fragments of Spanish pottery have been found in the oak-timbered hull, while cloth, leather and pottery will assist experts in dating the ship.

However the finances resolve themselves, those who wish to see the new city rapidly establish itself around a new arts centre are in the Doldrums.

"We need an arts centre. And if there's a boat underneath, so what?" is the trenchant view of Terry Underwood, the Newport impresario who has been one of the arts centre's stoutest defenders.

"We could excavate the whole area which would set the arts centre back and costs thousands and thousands. We're up to here in boats. Let's get on with life. Sometimes the historians can get too obsessed with the past."

* In the picture: Archaeologist Nigel Nayling looks at the ship's remains.