Amazing Viking Longship Facts You Might Not Know
Viking longships were clinker-built: overlapping planks, mostly of oak, riveted together with iron. They were driven by both oars and a single square sail and steered with a side oar on the right-hand side of the stern. They drew very little water (the small longship Skuldelev 5 needed only 0.6 metres), and their crews crossed open sea without a compass, steering by landmarks and experience.
We all know that the Vikings were great warriors. For about two and a half centuries their fleets reached from the coasts of England and Ireland to the rivers of eastern Europe. However, have you ever wondered what it was that enabled the Vikings to make their conquests so successful? As brave as these ancient Scandinavian people were, was courage alone enough to spread fear through the countries across Europe? We are sure that it's not. The Viking crafting skills and innovations they brought to shipbuilding made them more mobile and faster in relation to their enemies, which was the key to their success.
Did you ever think of what led these Norsemen to build their famous Viking longship? The answer is very simple. Life in an area such as Scandinavia, which is characterized by numerous water currents, forced Viking shipbuilders to build ships for safe sailing, both on Scandinavian rivers and fjords and on open sea waters.
What Were the Viking Longships Like?
The dangerous expeditions that people from Scandinavia embarked on could mean days of sailing on rough and open seas, out of sight of land. For such a voyage, a Viking ship needed to be strong enough (durable), easy to navigate, and fast. These vessels had to be designed so that they could be easily navigated, both in shallow and deep waters and regardless of the wind. Finally, a longship needed to be light enough for the crew to haul it overland. When the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde tested this in 1996, 27 men pulled Helge Ask, its two-ton reconstruction of a small longship, across a 300-metre neck of land in 15 to 16 minutes.
As for the appearance of these ships, we probably wouldn't know a thing if it was not for the archaeological discoveries of early Viking longships. These findings allowed us to learn more about the material from which they were built, their dimensions, and their construction. So let's see what was discovered about Viking longships by studying archaeological finds.
The following facts are known:
1. The Viking Longships were Wooden
Based on the remains of the ships found, archaeologists concluded that a longship was made of wood and that oak was mainly used for that purpose. Wood rots, so only a small number of ships from the early Viking period have been found. Most of them did not survive the ravages of time and rotted beyond recognition.
The oldest of the great Norwegian ship burials is the Oseberg ship, built of oak in south-west Norway around 820. In 834 it was hauled ashore and used as the grave of two women, and it was dug out of its mound outside Tønsberg, in Vestfold, in 1904. It is kept in the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy in Oslo, which is closed for rebuilding and reopens as the Museum of the Viking Age in 2027.
2. For the Construction of Longships, the So-called Clinker Method was Used
In this method each plank overlaps the one below it, and the two are riveted together with iron; the Oseberg ship is already fastened this way. The seams were caulked to make the hull watertight. On the Gokstad ship, Ingvald Undset recorded that the caulking was yarn spun from cow's hair. Tar was used in quantity too: the Sea Stallion, the Roskilde museum's reconstruction of the great longship Skuldelev 2, took 600 litres of it.
The builders made the shell of planks first and fitted the frames inside it afterwards. On the Gokstad ship the frames are not even fastened to the keel; they are lashed to the planking with tree roots. The Museum of the Viking Age says the Gokstad ship's clinker-built hull gave it both strength and flexibility.
3. A Longship was Suitable for Sailing in Shallow Waters
The long and narrow construction of the ship enabled easy movement in shallow waters, which greatly facilitated the Viking raids on other lands. Skuldelev 5, a small longship found in Roskilde Fjord, had a draught of just 0.6 metres. On the Gokstad ship the steering oar could be hauled up by a line when the ship came into shallow water. With a ship built like this, Norsemen could easily disembark even on inaccessible shores and quickly set sail on the high seas after the raids.
4. Viking Longboats Were Propelled by Oars and Wind
Oars let a Viking ship move without wind. It was steered not by a rudder hung on the sternpost but by a steering oar fixed on the right-hand side of the stern. Ingvald Undset's 1898 guide to the Gokstad ship notes that this is where the word starboard, the steering side, comes from, and that rudders were not placed on the sternpost until the later Middle Ages. The other great advantage was the single square sail, woven of wool or flax. Thanks to oars and sail together, Viking ships were fast and easy to handle, which allowed Norsemen to trade, fight and cross the open ocean, where they were often exposed to severe storms.
Without sails on ships, Viking overseas exploration would be considerably more difficult and often impossible. The addition of sails turned Viking ships into fast vessels that became key to the success of Viking conquests.
5. The Design of Viking Boats Changed Over Time
Over the years, the Vikings developed their shipbuilding skills. Long, slender rowing ships without sails were already being built in the Iron Age, before the Viking Age. The longship, langskip in Old Norse, combined that slender hull with a sail. The word knörr (knarr) means something else: the merchant ship. Nor is drakkar an Old Norse word. It is first recorded in French in 1840, borrowed from Swedish.
In addition to longships, the Vikings built cargo ships to carry the goods they traded. These were broader, deeper and fuller, relied mainly on the sail and moved more slowly, but could carry a lot of goods. Some early Viking ships with both oars and sail are much broader than a longship, and the Roskilde museum reads them as all-round vessels for trade and war alike. By the 11th century the two had become clearly different types: the five ships raised at Skuldelev in Roskilde Fjord include two longships, two cargo ships and a fishing boat.
The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde defines a longship archaeologically as a ship driven by both oars and sail and at least five times as long as it was wide.
6. The Warships Were Symmetrically Built
The bow and stern of longships had a symmetrical design. That did not make the ship reversible: with the steering oar fixed on the starboard side of the stern, the ship had a definite front and back.
Nor were longships built to sink each other on the open ocean. In the sagas, sea battles were fought by lashing the defending ships together into one platform and boarding them, as at Svolder in the year 1000.
7. The Vikings Did Not Use Maps for Navigation
Since the Vikings crossed great distances with their ships, the crew needed to know in which direction they should move. Navigation was not a problem near the coast, but when it comes to sailing across the open sea without land in sight, the orientation was not so simple.
No map or magnetic compass survives from the Viking Age. Landnámabók, the Icelandic Book of Settlements, says plainly that ocean-going sailors in the North had no lodestone at the time, which is why Flóki Vilgerðarson took three ravens with him to find the way to Iceland. Sailors steered by what they could see, and the most valuable guide was the previous experience of other sailors.
On the first voyage along a new route, a crew had no such experience to fall back on.
Landnámabók also preserves sailing directions for the open sea, from Hernar in Norway due west to Hvarf in Greenland. Keep north of Shetland, they say, so that it can be seen only in very clear weather; south of the Faroes, so that the sea stands halfway up the mountainsides; and south of Iceland, close enough to see its birds and whales. These directions come from Hauksbók, the version of Landnámabók that Haukr Erlendsson made in the early 14th century. The same book puts the crossing from Stad in Norway to Horn in east Iceland at seven dægr of sailing, a dægr usually being read as twelve hours.
8. Some Viking Ships Carried Carved Animal Heads
Carved heads were real, but not every ship had one. The prow of the Oseberg ship ends in a spiral-twisted dragon's head. On the Gokstad ship, the Museum of the Viking Age says, there is no evidence that a dragon head was ever fitted. In the sagas a dreki, a dragon, is a great warship, like King Óláfr Tryggvason's Long Serpent, whose heads and tail were adorned with gold according to Snorri's Heimskringla.
What were the heads for? The earliest text that gives a reason for them is about land spirits, not enemies. Landnámabók says that the first heathen law of Iceland forbade ships to sail in to land with gaping heads or yawning snouts. The heads had to come off before land came in sight, so that the land spirits would not be frightened.
9. A Small Longship Could Reach About 15 Knots
The speed of longships was not always the same and varied with the ship and the weather. The best figures come from the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, which sails full-size reconstructions. It gives the small longship Skuldelev 5 an average speed of 6 to 7 knots and a top speed of about 15 knots. A square sail was there to catch the wind, and at times with no wind, rowing was always an option.
10. Raiding Needed Longships, Settlement Needed Cargo Ships
The Viking Age is known for voyages that reached Iceland, Greenland and North America, and none of them would have been possible without advanced shipbuilding. But the longship was not the only ship behind them. Raids called for fast warships; the settlers who crossed the North Atlantic sailed in cargo ships, and the Roskilde museum notes that, according to the written sources, the knarr was the only type of ship that sailed to Greenland.
The Most Significant Finds of Viking Ships
During their study of ancient Viking settlements, archaeologists managed to conjure up for us the way of life of the Vikings, but understanding their maritime technology was a little harder. The reason for this is the small number of Viking ships found.
As we have already written, ships in the early Viking period were built of wood, and most of them rotted over time. The best-preserved ones survived in Norwegian burial mounds. The Tune ship, dug out at Rolvsøy near Fredrikstad in 1867, was the first Viking ship to be excavated; it was built around 910. The Gokstad ship, built around 890 and buried with a man around 900, was excavated at Sandefjord in 1880. The Oseberg ship followed in 1904.
The finds soon inspired copies. The most famous is the Viking, a copy of the Gokstad ship built at Sandefjord in 1892 and 1893, which sailed from Norway across the Atlantic to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
In 1997, during the building of the Viking Ship Museum's harbour in Roskilde, the remains of a longship built after 1025 came to light. Known as Roskilde 6, it was about 36 metres long, the longest Viking ship found so far.
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Conclusion
The fact is that ships in Viking history were crucial to the whole of Scandinavian society. To the rulers, the ships enabled the conquest and later the control of the conquered territories along the rivers or banks on which they were located.
Also, the possibility of easy movement on all kinds of watercourses facilitated the transport of trade goods and the communication of Scandinavians with the people of other countries and cultures. Therefore, it is clear that the expansion of the Vikings and the colonization of other countries would not be possible without their ships.
Until our next meeting,
Skål!
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Viking Longship FAQ
What made Viking longships so effective?
Longships were long, light and narrow, built of overlapping planks riveted with iron, and driven by both oars and a square sail. They drew very little water (the small longship Skuldelev 5 needed only 0.6 metres), so they could cross open sea and still run up rivers and onto beaches.
How fast could a Viking longship go?
The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde gives the small longship Skuldelev 5 an average speed of 6 to 7 knots and a top speed of about 15 knots under sail. When there was no wind, the crew rowed.
Did the Vikings use maps to navigate?
No map or magnetic compass survives from the Viking Age. Landnámabók says that ocean-going sailors in the North had no lodestone when Iceland was found, and its sailing directions from Norway to Greenland steer by sightings of Shetland, the Faroes and the birds and whales off Iceland.
What makes a ship a longship?
The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde defines a longship archaeologically as a ship driven by both oars and sail and at least five times as long as it was wide. The merchant ship, the knörr, was broader and relied mainly on the sail.