As we so calmly noted back in November, THE VIKINGS ARE COMING BACK, IRELAND! Hide the silverware!
ROSKILDE, Denmark – On the skipper's command, deckhands haul in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splash into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pull with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord. A thousands years ago, the curved-prow warship might have spewed out hordes of bloodthirsty Norsemen ready to pillage and burn. This time, the spoils are adventure rather than plunder. (Ed. Note: Yeah, sure)
The Sea Stallion of Glendalough is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction, modeled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried in the seabed for nearly 950 years.
Volunteers are preparing it for a journey across the legendary Viking waters of the North Sea — leaving Roskilde in eastern Denmark on July 1 and sailing 1,200 miles to Dublin, which was founded by Vikings in the 9th century.
"It's like a banana boat. It moves like a snake," crew member Preben Rather Soerensen, 42, said after a recent test sail in the Roskilde fjord.
The crew will explore the challenges of spending seven weeks in an open vessel with no shelter from crashing waves, whipping wind and drenching rain. Working in four-hour shifts, the history buffs and sailing enthusiasts will have to steer the 100-foot-long ship through treacherous waters with a minimum of sleep, comfort and privacy — just as the Vikings did.
"They must have been incredibly tough to do what they did," said 24-year-old crew member Triona Nicholl, an archaeologist from Dublin. "We all have waterproof gear. We have radios and life jackets and all the stuff. They must have been hardier people."
The Vikings turned to the stars and their ancient Norse gods for help as they navigated across the open sea, reaching as far as Iceland and North America. Many perished in the hostile waters of the North Atlantic.
Ah yes, that would be the little known OdinNet system for GPS (Grendel Positioning System).
(Sea Stallion official website – with countdown clock to the voyage, no less.)
A Viking ship is like a banana boat? Daylight come and me wanna go home?
Thanks for the link, anyway.
Some considerations about viking craft: 1. They often had a removable covered area both before the mastand and in the stern of the craft. This allowed some respite from heat and rain. It’s highly unlikely a woman would have been part of the crew, rather any woman aboard would have been a captive and depending on her class, either saved as found, or used as needed.
There were several kinds of Viking ships. The most common kind (nowadays called a “knarr”) was a cargo vessel, and women traveled on them all the time, especially on colonizing expeditions.