Longship
de:Langschiff
Longships or landskipet were boats used by the Vikings and Saxons for mostly military purposes. They were the epitome of Viking power and high in their admiration of material possessions.
The long ship was relatively shallow going (allowing for rapid deployment on sandy shores), sporting a rectangular sail and oars along almost its entire length. Oftenmost longships were clinker built, and waterproofed by moss drenched in tar.
Our best evidence for longship construction comes from ship-burials. It was common in Viking society for kings to be buried under a long burial mound in a ship with rich possessions. The Viking Oseberg ship burial in Norway and the Anglo Saxon longship of Sutton Hoo in England are both good examples.
Longships really were long, and narrow - quite extremely so. The largest discovered longship (at Roskilde harbor) is 35m in length, and the longship from Hedeby harbour has the largest length/width proportion: 11.4 to 1.
In contrast, Viking trade ships or knarrs were generally deeper and broader, and more reliant on sails. A similar relationship may be seen in Mediterranean galleys, which are sometimes called longships as well, and their merchant vessels, which were roundships.
The first longships used only oars. Rectangular sails were introduced later. Under sail, longships were very fast, achieving speeds of 14 knots. They were also very seaworthy, but, being essentially open boats, not very habitable.
See also
External link
- The Ormen Friske disaster – a warning against construction errors in Viking ship replicas (http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57013916/)
- The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde (http://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk)
- The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo (http://www.ukm.uio.no/vikingskipshuset/indexe.shtml)
- Vikingships and traditional norse wooden boats (http://home.online.no/~joeolavl/viking/index.htm)
- Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center in Moorhead, Minnesota (http://www.hjemkomst-center.com/)