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The Viking Ship -.Tllllllll Journal of Coastal Research 1282-1289 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fall 1997 The Viking Ship Per Bruun Port and Coastal Engineering 34 Baynard Cove Road Hilton Head, SC 29928, USA • ~ I• BRUUN, PER. 1997. The Viking ship. Journal ofCoastal Research, 13(4),1282-1289. Fort Lauderdale (Florida), ISSN .tllllllll,. 0749-0208. ~ ~. This paper gives essential information on the design and operation of Viking ships. The information was gathered ~ ~"# from various sources including a book by Else Rosendal Vikingernes Verden (The World of the Vikings), The Ship -+; 1&r-&t Shape, Essays for Ole Crumlin Pedersen, the Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark (1995), and from various newsletters from the Marine Archaeology Center in Roskilde, Denmark. INTRODUCTION features adjusted to the natural forces, which they were ex­ posed to. Sails were not used in the early type Viking ships, The Viking ship is the symbol of the Viking Age. It was a but were developed for long voyages. They became an inte­ trade and a war vessel, built of native materials, which were grated part of the Viking vessel a couple of hundred years often re-used when materials from old vessels were put in before the major Viking raids began, that is during the 700­ new ships, if possible. Old hulls beyond repair served as cof­ 900 AD period. Sails had been in common use in Western fins for burials of noble men and women, for fisheries, ferries, Europe long before then. The Nordic Vikings, after having or they were even used as caissons for breakwaters providing adopted the sail, developed it and the use of it in a very a foundation for the breakwater by filling them with rock and strong way making them (the Vikings) the driving force for pulling them out on the winter ice and letting them sink extensive voyages in Western and Eastern Europe waters down. We have examples of this very unique procedure e.g. and territories and finally in the Atlantic to Iceland, Green­ at Loddekaer in the sound between Sweden and Denmark, land and "Vineland" (New Foundland, Canada). the Oeresound (cf BRUUN, 1990, Chapter 1, Port Engineer­ ing. Houston, Texas. Gulf Publishing Company). THE VIKING SHIP HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF It is the sweet dream of a naval architect! Figure 1 shows THE VIKING VESSEL the Viking ship Agnete built as an exact copy of a Viking ship The Viking ship has a long history of development. The found in the ground close to Nykebing, a town on the Danish oldest vessels which we know of had no sails, only oars. An Baltic on the island of Falster (ROSENDAL, 1993). It is sad example of that is the Nydam Boat found in the moors of that we do not have any photos of the Viking vessels when South Jutland at Nydam, dated 320 AD. It is exhibited in the they were going strong. But we have found their remains on Schleswig-Holstein Archaeological Museum in Schleswig, the Danish and Norwegian shores, making it possible to con­ North Germany. struct copies of them. The best preserved of all Viking vessels Although the oar-driven ships travelled long distances in found so far are the two Norwegian burial-vessels, the Ose­ more protected waters like the Baltic Sea, it was not until berg and the Gokstad vessels excavated in the province of the vessels started using sails that the real far-reaching Vi­ Vestfold in 1880 and 1904, respectively. Dendrochronological king vessel appeared and operated in the Scandinavian coun­ data reveal that burials took place in the years 834 and 900­ tries, England, France and in several Slavic countries, in the 905 AD, respectively (Figure 2). Such magnificant burials Baltic Sea. And the magnificant vessel finally found its way were reserved kings, chieftans and women of nobility as de­ to the New World, that is New Foundland, around year 1000 scribed by E. ROSENDAL (1993). AD (Leif Eriksson from Greenland). At Skuldelev in Denmark one found in a narrow sidefiord Archaeological finds show that the Nordic Viking ship was of the Roskilde Fjord on the island of Seeland five vessels, by no means a standard type vessel. It demonstrated true which apparently were sunk to the bottom to provide a sub­ individual designs with its designers' footprints and often had merged barrier blocking the passage of (enemy) vessels. Some regional characteristics, e.g. in its choice of materials from of these vessels are described below. Many other ships were regional forests, that is pine from Norway and Sweden, and found in Scandinavia, England, Germany and Ireland, where oak from Denmark. These nordic vessels had their particular they were built. The Danish vessels were often built of Nor­ wegian wood. One important technical detail all types of 96072 received 25 June 1996; accepted in revision 10 August 1996. ships have in common: They are all built with overlapping The Viking Ship 1283 Figure 1. The Viking vessel Agnete which is a reproduction of th e Viking vessel found at Gedesby on the Isalnd of Falster in the Danish Baltic. Agnete was buil t by the Marin e-Technol ogical Center at th e Town of Nykebing. (Printe d in Nyhedsbreu No. 5 from th e Center in th e Town of Roskilde), boards in the sideboards fastened together with iron spikes and trimmed with an axe. No sa w was used, becau se th at and packed with soft materi als like ha ir and tar, making th e would weak en th e timber . In all this gave relatively sma ll hull of the vessel waterproof. The vessel has a keel and sharp­ dimensions and a very elas tic design. Th e joints between th e ly curv ed, very streamlined bows and ste rns. The boards have boards of th e hull and th e cross frames wer e in flexible lash­ softly curv ed features between the keel and the railing, and ing, or wooden spikes were used. The entire vessel becam e betwe en the keel and th e bow and st ern. The number of very elas tic and highly maneuver abl e. Ther e is no ste rn rud­ boards vary with the ship size. Boards are usually cut with der of the type we use today. Inst ead a large and very flexibl e the fibers following the shape of the final board. The boards sideru dder as seen in Figure 3b (ROSENDAL , 1993), which are supported by frames as shown in Figure 3a, which dem­ also leaves an impression of th e "tholepins"- for th e oars. onstrates various stages in the advancement of construction Oars were used in narrow straits and fairways, in headw inds of a Vikin g ship (R OSENDAL, 1993), which refers to Skuldelev where there was no alte rnative for crossing by th e wind. War­ No. 3. At th e top of each fram e there is a crossmember with ships of course were highly dependen t upon oars to obtain a "knee" on either side to stabilize th e boards. higher speeds in critical situa tions . Generally th ese ships wer e built to unite light weight, elas­ The Viking ship could not have accomplished wha t it ac­ ticity and structural st ability. This was obtained by proper tually did with respect to travel over long distan ces and in selection of materials combined with superb workman ship. raiding oper ations without sail s as seen in Figure 4. These Frames or timber rib s were cut out radially of large timber sails could be opera ted, increasing or decreasing th eir effec- Jou rnal of Coasta l Research, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1997 1284 Bruun Figure 2.The Gok st ad -Vessel. Viking Ship Museu m outsid e Oslo , Norway. The ship is 23.3 m long, 5.25 m wide midship. The height from the bottom of the keel to th e railing is 1.95 m . It ha s 16 board-planks on either side , 16 oar-holes a nd 32 shields attached to the shield -plank on either side. The chieftan mu st have been buried in th e vessel abo ut the year 900 (Else Rosen dal , 1993 ). Journal of Coas tal Researc h, Vol. 13, No.4, 1997 The Viking Shi p 1285 Figure 3a . Various ste ps in th e constru ction of the Viking vessel Sh uldeleo 3 (Else Rosen da hl, Gyldenda l Publisher s, Copenhagen, 1993). tive areas . Vessels were provided with iron anchors similar ident ify them from the saga descri ptions when we un cover to those we use today. th e ships afte r 1,000 years. The sagas praise the vessels for From written materi als-mainly the sagas-we know of their overall sailing qualities. Trading vess els, of course , wer e ma ny different types of viking vessels, but it is difficult to less interesting than na vy (raiding) vessels. They were called Journ al of Coas tal Resear ch, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1997 1286 Bruun ~ J~ ;J Figure 3b. Siderudder and thol epin s. Newsletter No.1 (Maritime Archaeology, Roskilde, Decemb er 1993). "skeid", "snekka" or "knorr" in the old Nordic Language. The tholepins were distributed over the entire length of the ideal ships for wave conditions were long, narrow, flexible, vessel with two at each space between framings. From the ships which could sail and be rowed fast. The practical dis­ number of oar-pins or holes the number of crew members tinction between the Nordic Viking vessels is warships and may be counted.
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