The Skuldelev Ships: A Report of the Final Underwater Excavation in 1959 and the Salvaging Operation in 1962

Table of contents :
Olaf Olsen: The Archaeological Work in 1959 and 1962 - The underwater excavation in 1959 — Preparations for the reclamation of the ships — The excavation in 1962 — Measuring and recording — Salvaging the ships — The origin of the blockage - Ole Crumlin-Pedersen: The Ships - Wreck 1 — Wreck 2 — Wreck 3 — Wreck 5 — Wreck 6 — Materials and tools — Dating and typological parallels - Olaf Olsen: The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.

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R E P R IN T E D FR O M A C T A A R C H A E O L O G IC A VO L. X X X V I I I , C O PEN H A G EN 1967

THE SKULDELEV SHIPS. (II) A Report of the Final Underwater Excavation in 1959 and the Salvaging Operation in 1962 BY O laf O lsen, Copenhagen, and O le C rumlin-Pedersen, Roskilde Contents: O laf O lsen : The Archaeological Work in 1959 and 1962, p. 73. The underwater excavation in 1959, p. 74. — Preparations for the reclamation of the ships, p. 77. — The excavation in 1962, p. 79. — Measuring and recording, p. 86. — Salvaging the ships, p. 88. — The origin of the blockage, p. 91. O le C rumlin-Pedersen : The Ships, p. 95. Wreck 1, p. 96. — Wreck 2, p. h i . — Wreck 3, p. 118. — Wreck 5, p. 132. — Wreck 6, p. 145. — Materials and tools, p. 154. — Dating and typological parallels, p. 162. O laf O lsen : The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, p. 171.

T H E A R C H A E O L O G IC A L W O R K IN 1959 AND 1962 A preliminary report was published in Acta Archaeologica vol. X X I X (pp. 161-175) describ­ ing the excavations carried out in 1957 and 1958 of the underwater obstruction in a channel known as Peberrenden in Roskilde Fjord, near Skuldelev. Four stone-laden wrecks (1) were localised during these investigations which entailed diving in frogman’s gear from a pontoon anchored over the site. On the basis of typological criteria and a Carbon 14 test the blockage could be dated to the close of the Viking period. The blockage appeared as a silt covered stone ridge across the channel. Only a small part of this ridge was explored during the first two summers, and at the conclusion of the 1958 season it was clear that the barrier could well conceal still further ships. All the wreckage hitherto discovered lay in the easterly and southerly parts of the blockage, yet the stone ridge was considerably broader to the north, where no proper excavation had been made, than to the south. It was then very conceivable that more ships lay embedded in the northern end, besides which the possibility of finding other wrecks beneath those already localised could not be ignored. ( 0 One of these, lhe so-called Wreck 4, later proved to be part of the large craft, Wreck 2. Gf. p. i n .

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The finds to date were of such promise that it was obvious a full-scale excavation of the blockage ought to be attempted, and the ships brought ashore. Experience reaped during the first two seasons, however, showed that a salvaging operation of this nature could not be carried out fully satisfactorily underwater as all nails had rusted away and the wood was often soft. Moreover, there was a risk of the strong currents in the channel sweeping away the wreckage should too large an area be uncovered at a time. Visibility underwater was also so poor that it was impossible to study an area greater than approximately two square metres, even in the most favourable conditions. I f the ships were to be salvaged, the entire blockage would have to be dammed in and the water drained from it. Therefore, the purpose of the last underwater excavation was not only to establish how many ships there were in the blockage, but also to gain a full impression of its total extent with the construction of a cofferdam around it at a future date in mind.

T H E U N D E R W A T E R E X C A V A T IO N IN 1959 As in the previous year, the excavation was financed by the K a y Bojesen Fund and the Wm. Vett Fund. It was carried out by the present authors and two undergraduates, Ole Feldbæk and Willy Johannsen, during the first three weeks of Ju ly. Working methods were the same as those adopted earlier. Sand and mud were sprayed away with the help of water from a motor pump on the pontoon. Stones were lifted manually, and the pieces of wreckage were measured in relation to the base line stretched between two concrete blocks that had been dug down at each end of the blockage in 1957. Experience had taught us how to improve our equipment in a number of ways. The most important acquisition in this respect was an aqualung attached by a tube to large cylinders of compressed air on the pontoon. The time-consuming task of changing out the small air cylinders of the orthodox frogman equipment several times daily was avoided in this way. Because of the negligible depth at which work was carried out (a maximum of 3 m. below the surface), this new arrangement enabled us to remain submerged for hours at a time. One disadvantage was that constant care had to be taken when underwater to prevent the air tube from becoming wedged between stones, thus blocking the free flow of air. The forty metre long tube was also liable to become clogged with its own residue, the majority of which seemed to be made up of small particles of rubber. Another considerable improvement concerned the removal and transport of stones from the blockage. Earlier, stones were lifted or hauled up into a boat or onto a pontoon, and sailed away. A platform suspended on chains below a small raft was now used. The stones were loaded onto the submerged platform as they were freed, remaining underwater during trans­ port. This not only eased the work noticeably, but it also meant an enormous increase in effectivity. A deposit of sticky mud covered the timbers of all the wrecks. Previously mud had been removed by hand, with the result that visibility in the water was reduced to nil. To avoid

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Fig. i. Skuldelev 1959. Contour plan showing the timber excavated during the diving campaigns 1957-59, and the supposed position of six ships in the blockage.

this, an attempt was made to suck it up through an air lift, a c. 3 m. long plastic pipe, 6 cm. in diameter. Compressed air from the cylinders on the pontoon was fed by hose to the lower end of the pipe through an adjustable valve. When the pipe was held directly over the mud, the flow of air up the pipe drew the mud with it. The method was effective when the current was strong enough to prevent the mud from settling again in the same place. The Skandinavisk Akryl Industri, Viby, presented the National Museum with a fibreglass dinghy. This had a perspex window fitted into the bottom through which the fjord bed could be studied and photographed. The boat proved to be well suited for the purpose, and was also greatly appreciated by visitors to the site, as they could follow what was going on below the surface. The only drawback was bad visibility, and this was also to blame for the fact that underwater photography did not produce satisfactory results. Four sections of the blockage wrere concentrated on that summer: the broad tongue of stones to the north-west, the area immediately cast of Wreck /, the area immediately west of Wrecks 2 and 5, and the narrow' part of the stone ridge in the south-east corner (2). The most rewarding area wras in the north-west. The wreckage of two more ships was located (2) Cf. general plan fig. 1. showing what was known by the end o f the 1959 season.

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here after the topmost layer of sand and stones had been removed in places. Wreck 5 was of oak and had heeled over to port on the downward slope of the channel. Most o f the star­ board side was missing as a result of this list, but the entire port side was preserved from keel to gunwale with the exception of the stern end. Part of three frames was uncovered and six metres to the west yet another frame. Wreck 6 was found immediately west of this frame. It was of pine and later proved to lie across the forward end of Wreck 5. Some of the planking between three frames was also uncovered in this case — enough to reveal that the vessel differed very fundamentally from the other ships of the blockage in typological respects. Exploration at the centre of the stone barrier revealed that both the northern part of Wreck 1 and the southern part of Wreck 3 appeared to rest directly on the fjord bottom. It was already known that Wreck 2 lay partially over Wreck /, but it was now clear that Wreck 2 also lay across the forward end of Wreck 3. In the immediate vicinity of Wreck 3 part of a frame was uncovered from the aft section of Wreck /. The stone ridge, rising sharply above the bed of the fjord, was examined from a hollow that had been eroded by currents in the channel on the western side of the blockage. This phase had been awaited with considerable anticipation. The port gunwale strake of Wreck 3 was soon located, lying intact at a depth of c. 1.5 metres. It was also established that the strake in question was joined to the next, which meant there was a chance that the entire port side was preserved. However, when it became clear that the planking of Wreck 3 would be damaged by attempting to dig under it, work here had to be stopped. An investigation of the south-east corner of the barrier revealed that the narrow ridge at this point contained a system of posts, driven into the fjord bottom with bundles of brushwood between and running at right angles to Wreck 3. Holidaymakers on the nearby islet of Hyldeholmen told us that there were pieces of wreckage at a depth of only 0.5 m., partly covered with stones, in the shallow part of the fjord about 300 metres south-east of the blockage. A small investigation here yielded fragments of a frame and a little planking which bore a strong resemblance to the finds in Peberrenden. At the time we thought that these were the remains of a ship which had sunk with its cargo of stones en route for the blockage. Today we consider it more likely to be part of the uppermost ship, Wreck 2, dislodged by ice-drift shortly after the vessel was sunk. Work that summer strengthened the earlier impression that the ships had been stripped of everything of value before being sunk. A fragment of an oar blade was found between the stones west of Wreck 3 , but apart from this, not a single object of the period was recovered in or near the boats during the entire excavation. That this was not due to negligence is perhaps best illustrated by mentioning that three small pieces of cartridge shot were collected in Wreck 2. At the close of the excavation, the cross timbers that had been uncovered were taken up, packed in wet seaweed and brought to the National Museum. Other parts of the ships ex­ cavated were carefully covered again with stones and sand, in order to protect them from the oxygen content of the water which otherwise might have hastened the disintegration of the wood.

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Thus protected, the ships were destined to wait three years before finally being excavated and salvaged (3).

P R E P A R A T IO N S F O R T H E R E C L A M A T IO N OF T H E SH IPS Immediately after the 1959 investigations were completed, the preparations for salvaging the ships were begun. In the first place, the necessary financial support had to be secured for this extensive project. The chairman of the Wm. Vett Fund, Mr. Erik Reinhard, undertook the task of solving this question. He entered into negotiations with leading figures in Danish industry and com­ merce. When the reclamation of the ships was begun in the spring of 1962, three large founda­ tions: The Knud Højgaard Foundation, The Otto Mønsted Foundation and The Tuborg Foundation, together with Christiani & Nielsen, constructional engineers, had agreed to meet all the expenses of the excavation between them. This undertaking was later extended to include the conservation and reassembly of the ships. To date the four donors have contributed 1.5 million kroner. For this great generosity the National Museum is indeed truly grateful. The project also received support from other quarters. The Wm. Vett Fund financed the preparatory geotechnic survey. N ESA and K T A S installed electricity and telephone on favour­ able terms, and Flygt Ltd. placed pumps at our disposal free of charge. Badilin Ltd. provided chemical preservative liquids for experimental use, and the Falck Emergency Service lent a variety of equipment. The geotechnic survey was made during the winter of 1961/62 by the Geotechnical Institute under difficult conditions aggravated by storms and ice. Four borings were made on the peri­ phery of the blockage, two of these in the old channel where the transition from relatively clean post-glacial deposits to the lowest layers of silt occurred on both sides of the obstruction at a depth of c. 4 metres. While to the north and south of the blockage this division was found at a depth of only 1.4 m. and 1 m. respectively. The fjord bed under the silt consisted of fairly coarse sand and gravel deposits. The Geotechnical Institute considered, therefore, that there would be some risk of a strong inflow of ground water after the draining of the area and the removal of silt (4). The cofferdam and the technical installations were projected by Højgaard & Schultz, con­ structional engineers, on the basis of these borings. The cofferdam (fig. 3) was an irregular pentagon in shape, constructed of 161 lineal metres of sheet piling and enclosing an area of 1600 m2 — approximately 40% larger than originally anticipated (5). This was primarily done (3) The protection proved effective against the forces of nature but not against human curiosity. It was found during the final excavation that visitors had wantonly damaged the starboard gunwale of Wreck 5 with a hatchet, removing a piece c. 50 cm. in length. This was probably done at extremely

low water when the top of the blockage was clear of the water. (4) Report from the Geotechnical Institute dated 19th February, 1962. (5) This disposition proved to be of great value for the successful completion of the excavation, in

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to enable stones from the excavation to be stacked against the sheet piling as an additional reinforcement, but the engineers were also anxious to avoid any excavating close to it. Christiani & Nielsen undertook the task of building the cofferdam at short notice. The sheet piles used were the type Larssen la-new, and they were driven c. 3 m. into firm ground. To the west, where the water was deepest and the bottom softest, the sheet piling was strengthened for a distance of 36 m. with a bracing of raked timber piles, about 10 m. long, interconnected at the top by an 8" X 8" wale. At this point a number of even thicker piles were driven into the fjord bed, about 6 m. beyond the cofferdam on both sides of the channel, joined at the top with steel bars to the wale. When the sheet piling in the channel to the west showed signs of sub­ siding slightly during the excavation, it was further strengthened by the addition of a new, stronger wale of sectional iron. It was completely stable after this, and even the heavy storm on the 28th August, 1962, which increased the water level to almost a metre over the daily norm, had not the slightest effect on it. On the other hand, because the sheet piling was only c. 80 cm. above the usual water level (6) over a distance of about 20 metres, the unusually high water during the storm caused some inconvenience. However, flooding was prevented by putting up a barrier of sandbags along the top of the sheet piling. Along the east side of the cofferdam a wooden gallery was built, 40 m. long and 1.8 m. broad, from which members of the public were able to follow the excavation (7). A fifty metre long approach jetty led from the gallery out into deeper water to the north-east. A small hut was erected on posts alongside the south wall of the cofferdam to serve as an office and sleeping quarters for the present authors, while a larger shed (used as canteen and living quarters for the students helping) was put up over very shallow water about 80 metres further south, con­ nected to the site by a low narrow gangway. Electricity was supplied by a provisional transformer plant on shore via a 700 metre long marine power cable. The maximum capacity load of the plant was 90 kw/h (8). The various mechanical and electrical installations were arranged on a platform inside the west wall of the cofferdam. The main pumps were two Flygt, type B-200 LB, each with a capacity of 500 m2/h (one of which was in reserve). They were suspended from a wooden frame on a pontoon moored in front of the pumping station at the deepest spot inside the cofferdam. There were also points for eight smaller pumps. Preparations for the excavation also included choosing helpers. From a large number of that Wreck 5 was larger than expected. I f sheet piling had been driven in where originally planned, the forward end of the ship would have been severed over and its well preserved stem would have lain outside the cofferdam. (6) This height, fixed on the basis of the usual high water extremes expected in the summer, should also have been that for the whole cofferdam. But for the sake of safety, Christiani & Nielsen used somewhat longer sheet piles than originally planned.

Therefore the walls in most places were correspond­ ingly higher. (7) A private company was licensed to organise trips by boat to the site. In the course of the summer c. 30,000 people visited the excavation. Interest in the project was stimulated by a series of television transmissions and a stencilled fortnightly press bulle­ tin. About 35,000 kroner towards the excavation was earned in admission fees. (8) This proved to be ample. The maximum load reached was 62 kw/h.

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Fig. 2. Skuldelev. Location of the excavation in Roskilde Fjord. Kig. ,'-j. Skuldelev 1962. Plan of the cofferdam.

applicants thirty-two students were selected. These were usually employed for a period of three weeks, and an effort was made to maintain a constant team of 7-8 students. The number was increased to 12-14 during the course of the excavation. In addition to this two assistants with considerable archaeological experience were engaged, Viggo Kjær Larsen and Hans Nielsen. A student was appointed to act as a guide for the public. Everyone employed, without excep­ tion, did an excellent job of work — often under difficult conditions.

T H E E X C A V A T IO N IN 1962 It took Christiani & Nielsen only two months to build the cofferdam and complete the tech­ nical installations, and on the 6th July, 1962, the site was handed over to the National Museum. The excavation was immediately begun and completed in the course of fifteen weeks. It was clear beforehand, that the excavation of the stone-laden ships would have to be closely coordinated with the lowering of the water level within the confines of the cofferdam. For if the basin were drained at once, the stones would be robbed of their buoyancy, and the ships thereby subjected to a sharp increase in pressure that could be disastrous for their soft timbers. Moreover, there would also be a danger of the wood drying out with shrinkage and disintegra­ tion as the result. Instead, the level of the water was lowered sufficiently for just the topmost covering of sand and stones to appear above the surface. Only when the stones at this level were removed was the water level again reduced. The general rule was that at no time during the work should the water level be more than approximately 30 cm. below the stratum of stones, shells and sand being removed. This entailed excavating every part of the blockage revealed

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at each level simultaneously, which meant that the process of lowering the water level was a very slow one (9). To begin with, the water level was reduced to c. 75 cm. below normal. This was sufficient to drain the areas on each side of the old channel and reveal part of the top of the obstruction across it. The first task was to remove the matted carpet of algae covering the fjord bed. After this was done, the bottom of the fjord in the vicinity of the channel emerged as a level sand^ surface, and the blockage could be discerned as a long low ridge. Neither the ships nor the barrier of posts were visible. The stones in the blockage were covered by a thin layer of sand and mud, with only a scattering of stones here and there on the sand in places which had been excavated in 1957-59. By lowering the water level to c. -^100 cm. most of the channel east of the blockage was drained (fig. 5). The reason it was so shallow here was because the sunken ships had prevented the water from flowing freely, causing sedimentation. The only remaining body of water was now in the channel west of the blockage, the depth of which was c. 2.5 m. It was self-evident that the ships could not be trodden on during the excavation, and a num­ ber of wooden catwalks were made — 60 cm. broad, and either 7 m. or 10.5 m. in length — for putting across the ships. The catwalks rested on wooden beams along both sides of each wreck, high enough to avoid touching the ships and fairly easily moved backwards and forwards over them (cf. fig. 6). Those excavating worked largely either lying or kneeling on the catwalks. It was a great advantage that the weight of the stones had flattened the ships against the fjord bed, as it was almost always possible for the bottom of each ship to be reached from the catwalk. However, a slightly different technique had to be adopted for Wreck 5 which rested on the downward slope of the side of the channel. Here the catwalks could not always be supported on both sides of the ship. Instead one end of the catwalk was weighted down with a load of stones, and the free end allowed to ju t out over the wreck. The unusual working conditions also entailed the use of somewhat unconventional tools. In order to avoid damaging the soft surface of the ships5 timbers, no metal tools of any descrip­ tion were used when working on the ships. A number of toy shovels and kitchen utensils (meas­ uring cups and scrapers) of soft plastic were acquired but not widely used. Most of the partici­ pants preferred to use their hands as trowels after having first loosened the sand and silt with a hose. Hoses were without doubt the most essential aid. Four electric pumps (Flygt Bib 2 aut., max. cap. 36 m2/h) suspended over the top of the sheet piling were used for providing fresh water from the fjord, which was fed through a network of hoses to all parts of the site. The hoses were fitted with adjustable nozzles, so that the strength of the jet could be regulated as required. The jet was released through the nozzle by pressing a trigger. This was the ideal working tool, easy to handle and capable of delivering a powerful jet when needed, and at the same time more gentle than the softest brush when soft pieces of wreckage were uncovered with a fine spray. (9) The water level in the cofferdam was -f -75 cm. on 6/7, -i-12 5 cm. on 13/7, -M 50 cm. on 19/7,

~ 160 cm. on 24/7, -7-170 cm. on 31 /7 and -4- 200 cm. on 10/8.

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Fig. 4. Skuldelev 1962. The excavation site from the north-east. (Hans Stiesdal phot.).

During the course of the centuries, the stones covering the ships had become encased in sand, silt and shell fragments swept there by the current. This deposit formed quite a hard crust sealing in the stones. The course of action was first of all to loosen the sediment with a powerful jet from the hoses, and scrape it into plastic buckets by hand. The stones were then taken up — smaller ones by hand and large ones with a special pair of tongs that had also been used during the underwater excavations. AH the stones were taken to the west side of the cofferdam and stacked against the sheet piling. Wheelbarrows were generally used, but not on the catwalks across the ships, as these were narrow and often slippery: an upturned barrowload of stones would have caused irreparable damage. The ships came into view, little by little, as the stones were removed. A layer of sticky silt some centimetres thick usually covered the timbers; this layer was useful because it protected the wreckage against scratches from the sharp fragments of shell, which made up the greater part of the deposit between the stones. The silt was easily hosed away, particularly where the ships lay at an angle, but the chances of finding small objects in the bottom of the boats would have been minimised by this method. The silt was therefore collected by hand in buckets and emptied over the side of the cofferdam. A sprinkler system was arranged by the pieces of wreckage as these appeared, in order to keep the timbers wet twenty-four hours a day. The water was pumped in by the same pumps that supplied the hoses. Small garden sprinklers proved to be most suitable for the purpose, and at the peak of the excavation, the ships were constantly drenched by spray from nineteen sprinklers, each of which covered an area of about 15 m2 in an average wind. As a precautionary

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Fig. 5. Skuldelev 1962. The excavation from the south aher 3 days’ work.

measure the hose pipes supplying the sprinklers were so arranged that each ship was sprayed with water from at least two different pumps. Therefore, if one pump broke down there was no risk of any one area being totally dried out. The sprinklers were supplemented outside working hours by six hoses at points where coverage was least satisfactory, and at night the water level within the cof­ ferdam was often raised 10-20 cm. in order to submerge most of the lower pieces of wreckage again. This sprinkler system resulted in the excavation being carried out in a constant drizzle. The rule was that sprinklers were to be turned off only during measuring and photography, but in practice there was a tendency to ease this rule. For in spite of the compulsory use of oilskins, it was extremely wet work for those participating in the excavation, and they could hardly be blamed for reducing the volume of spray from the sprinklers where they happened to be work­ ing. The leaders of the excavation, therefore, had to keep a watchful eye on the sprinklers, and see to it that everything being excavated was thoroughly watered at frequent intervals to ensure that the wood was always kept really wet. This was completely successful, and at no time during the excavation was any piece of wreckage damaged through lack of moisture. Exceptionally bad weather for most of the time also facilitated the problem. A long warm and sunny period causing rapid evaporation never arrived; indeed, it was the coldest summer for thirty-four years — wet and grey.

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Fig. 6. Skuldelev 1962. The excavation from the south after 4 weeks’ work.

Untold damage would have been done to the wood had the water supply failed for but an hour on a warm summer’s day, consequently it was necessary to have an emergency plant to fall back on in case of an electrical failure. A petrol driven motor pump was kept on a pontoon moored outside the sheet piling for such an emergency. This was brought into use once and together with buckets of water, the area was alforded a fairly satisfactory coverage during the one and half hours’ duration of the power failure, which was due to a short circuit in one of the pumps. The pump plant as a whole was extremely reliable, and proved to be exceptionally wellsuited for the purpose. Flygt’s pumps are submersible and are not affected by considerable quantities of mud and sand in the water. Apart from the main pumps already described, the Flygt B-200 LB type and the smaller Flygt Bibo 2 aut., some medium pumps were used (Flygt B A -100, cap. 120 m2/h) and some very small pumps (Flygt Bibo 1, cap. 18 m2/h). The number running at a time depended on what was immediately needed, but as a rule about ten pumps were in action at once. The main pumps were used least. Their mission was really fulfilled once they had drained the cofferdam, as the strong inflow of ground water from the fjord bottom that had been anti­ cipated never occurred, which made these large pumps unnecessary in the daily work. They

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were occasionally started up in order to remove the quantities of silt washed into the sump pit from the ships. Once, during the heavy storm on the 28th August when flood waters threatened the site, one of the pumps was sufficient to check the water that inundated the sheet piling — maintaining the water level at h- 200 cm. Normally, the water level within the cofferdam was easily regulated by an automatic B A -100 pump suspended near the main pumps. Even this pump was only used intermittently, which is all the more remarkable considering that a constant flow of water was pumped into the site by three or four smaller pumps (Bibo 2 aut.) for the sprinklers and hoses. For draining lesser pools more Bibo 2 pumps and the smaller Bibo 1 type were used; for example, where water had accumulated in the bottom of a boat. They were easy to handle because they were light (23 kg. and 15 kg. respectively), and could be placed directly on the wreckage if necessary. As we have seen, the removal of stones concealing the ships had to be closely coordinated with the reduction of the water level. The course of work, therefore, was decided by the position of the ships in the barrier. Two of the boats were contacted already on the first day of the exca­ vation. The after end of Wreck 3 was uncovered to the south, and stones covering the upper­ most part of Wreck 6 at the opposite end of the blockage were removed, and after a few hours’ work its keelson was found in situ. An area east of Wreck 6 had to be examined at the offset of the excavation, when a shallow mound of stones, c. 9 m. in diameter, came into view as the water level was lowered for the first time. The mound was excavated in the course of a week and proved to contain a system of posts driven into the fjord bed, as well as fascines, but no ship. Work on the high-lying part of Wreck 6 continued at the same time, and this was uncovered in a week, during which time the water level was reduced from -i-75 to -7-125 cm. A considerable portion of the after end of Wreck 3 emerged at this level, and the excavation of this ship was then begun. At the same time, the stone load in “ Wreck 4” (which later proved to be a loose section of Wreck 2) was removed. After six days “ Wreck 4” was uncovered, and the two catwalks which had been laid across it were moved further south, where the northerly part of Wreck / was at once located. At this point — on the 20th Ju ly — work on the easterly half of Wreck 3 was also begun. By now the excavation was progressing briskly. Work proceeded with a good steady rhythm. All the helpers had become accustomed to the strange method of work, lying side by side on the catwalks in twos or threes, removing stones and sediment from the boats. The team of helpers was divided into three groups: one group worked on Wrecks 5 and 6*, while the other two groups worked on the wrecks (/, 2 and 3) in the main body of the blockage from the north and south respectively. When these two groups met above Wreck 2 on the 2nd August, all the ships in the core of the obstruction were uncovered. The excavation at this point, four weeks after its commencement, is shown in figs. 6 and 7. The uncovering of Wrecks 2, 3 , “ 4” and 6 was virtually completed but only half of Wreck 5. This was because the stem of this ship lay buried under a metre deep deposit of sand and shell fragments, and had to await a further reduction in the water level. It was not revealed until the 1 6th August. The entire northerly part of Wreck / was laid bare but the south-westerly

The Skuldelev Ships

Fig. 7. Skuldelev. Aerial photograph of the cofferdam. (Hans Stiesdal phot. 3. V II I . 1962).

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section lay under Wreck 2, which had to be taken up before the excavation of Wreck 1 could be completed, and this was not until the 8th September. M E A S U R IN G AND R E C O R D IN G A detailed survey of the excavation would have been exceedingly difficult to carry out satis­ factorily in the allotted time using traditional methods of measuring with grid lines and draw­ ing. The ships5 timbers, particularly the pine planking of Wrecks 1 and 6, were in countless pieces, and each of these had to be recorded. Furthermore, a manual survey would have had to be done from the catwalks, and an accurate record of the details from these vantage points would have been both difficult and time-consuming to make. Therefore, it was a tremendous advantage for the work that surveying could be done photogrammetrically. Poul Winding and Ole Jacobi, civil engineers attached to Danmarks Tekniske Højskole, took the initiative in making the survey and carrying it out, thereby rendering the exca­ vation an invaluable service. A system of triangular markers, 32 in all, was put up on the inside of the cofferdam as fixed points for the photogrammetrical survey, and measured in the conventional manner (10). The fixed points were supplemented by provisional markers on the perimeter of the area being photographed during each survey. After this the procedure was quite simple. Objects were photographed with a double camera from as many angles as necessary for all details to be included. In order to plot the measure­ ments in on the general plan, three of the fixed points on the cofferdam had to appear in at least one pair of the photographs of each section of the excavation. Apart from this there were no other requirements — the distance of the camera from the object could be fairly freely de­ cided upon, with the camera either in a horizontal position or tilted down at an angle of either 15 0 or 30°. Two double cameras were used for the survey: a Zeiss D K 40 and a D K 120 on a subtense bar of respectively 40 cm. and 120 cm. A subsequent check revealed that the D K 120 camera had a damaged subtense bar, and its photographs, therefore, did not meet the strict technical demands required. Consequently the plotting of the measurements had to be carried out solely on the basis of the exposures taken with the 40 cm. camera. This camera was the one most frequently used, and the photographs taken with it covered the entire excavation with the excep­ tion of the middle section of Wreck 3. The missing area, however, was reconstructed without difficulty with the help of ordinary photographs and from the measurements of the salvaged wreckage. The plotting was carried out on a Zeiss Kleinautograf by Mr. Ole Jacobi. Each wreck was reproduced in groundplan to a scale of 1:2 0 , supplemented by a number of cross sections and longitudinal sections, which in some cases {Wreck 5 for example) were plotted into a vertical (10) The markers on the west wall of the cofferdam could not be used because the sheet piling sub-

sided in places during the excavation. This did not effect the surveying.

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Fig. 8. Skuldelev. Record card used during the excavation in 1962.

projection. These projections were chosen because they provided a clear and accurate record of the dimensions of the finds, and their position on the site, in an easy manner. The very fact that all the stages of the excavation are recorded photogrammetrically means that it is possible, at any time, to obtain any detailed plan, cross section or longitudinal section anywhere in the site as required. This is undoubtedly the greatest advantage of the photogrammetrical method. But in addition to this is the time-saving element, for the photographic survey of one ship could be completed in a matter of hours, whereas with measuring tape and pencil it would have been a question of days — perhaps weeks. Moreover, for accuracy the photogrammetrical survey has proved equal to traditional methods. The only real disadvantage was that plotting from the photographs could first be done after the excavation was completed. The survey material, therefore, was not to hand when the ships were described in situ, nor when each piece of wreckage was recorded upon being taken up. In order to counteract this deficiency, each section of every ship was carefully photographed immediately it was uncovered, and enlargements of these photographs were sealed in trans­ parent polythene with the record number marked on the outside with w aterproof ink. Each wreck was given its own series of numbers, and each piece of w reckage was numbered as it was prepared for removal. Because the internal timbers, as well as the planks, were often in numerous pieces, it was a practical impossibility to allot each fragment a special number. Each plank (or broken lengths of some size) wras given only one number, and all the fragments belonging to one piece of wreckage were given the same number, kept together and packed together. Numbers cast in plastic were used for the numbering, and were fastened to the pieces of wrreckage writh small brass nails. The numbers w^ere affixed according to a strictly maintained system. All longitudinal pieces in the ship were numbered at the forward end on the inside at the top — with the numbers read from the keel. Thwartships timbers were numbered at the top to starboard and read from the after end. Vertical pieces wrcre marked at the bottom of the side facing aft. Pieces not found in situ, or to which for some reason these rules did not

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apply, were numbered arbitrarily and a note to this effect made in the record card belonging to the piece of wreckage in question. A record card was made out for each number and filled in as the pieces were marked. The card had printed columns in which the number of the piece, the wreck number, the function of the piece and its position in the boat, the date it was lifted, and — when possible — the type of wood, were noted down. An outline of a ship was also printed on the card, and the position of the piece in the wreck concerned was marked on it. There was also room on the card for a sketch or photograph of the piece and information for future use: detailed measurements, the amount of numbered fragments, conservation, storage etc. (fig. 8). To facilitate the description on the card, and to ensure a uniform entry as a whole, a code had been previously worked out that was based on the system of coordinates formed by the ship’s own units. The keel served as one axis and the mast frame (or when this could not be identified with certainty some other characteristic frame amidships) as the other. According to this system, the strakes were numbered from the keel. The number was followed by the letter S for starboard or B for port, for example iS , zS, j S and iB , zB9j B . Similarly, the mast frame was recorded as 0, the frames in front ofit termed i F , zF, 3F, etc., and the frames aft of it i A, zA, j}A, etc. In an open vessel as simply constructed as a Viking ship, a code of this kind enables an unambiguous and simple record to be made of the position of each element (11). Furthermore, the system has proved to be a precise and expedient aid, not only during the ex­ cavation but also during the work of reconstruction which followed.

S A L V A G IN G T H E SH IPS Following recording and numbering, the wreckage was prepared for removal. It was clear that the pieces would have to be hermetically packed to avoid any risk of dehydration during the journey to the conservation laboratory. Long tubes of extruded polyethylene, that could be cut to the required length and the ends hermetically sealed, were used for the purpose. Four widths were used: 20 cm., 25 cm., 35 cm. and 55 cm. — sufficient for packing all but the largest pieces of wreckage (stem, stern and keelson) (12). The polyethylene chosen was 0.2 mm. thick, and the resulting bags were strong, flexible, easy to seal with the welding device and al­ together entirely satisfactory. Salvaging internal timbers of oak, such as frames, bites, etc., was fairly straightforward. These were carefully loosened from the planking and sprayed with a formalin solution to prevent rot. Each piece was then inserted in a tube of suitable length and width with the addition of a small quantity of water, whereupon the tube was sealed at both ends with an electric welder. The ( n ) For example: strake jS , i F/2^A = that part of the third strake on the starboard side which begins at the first frame in front of the mast, and terminates halfway between the second and third frames behind the mast. Bite-knee 2A , 5S -6 S = that part of the bite-knee at frame 2A on the starboard

side which rests against the fifth and sixth strake. (12) In all 400 m. 20 cm. bags, 600 m. 25 cm. bags, 2,300 m. 35 cm. bags and 600 m. 55 cm. bags were used. A n additional 62 m2 of thick plastic was used for the large pieces and for extra packing.

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Kig. 9. Skuldelev 1962. Salvaging the timbers of Wreck 3.

record number of the find was written on the bag, which was then loaded onto a raft ready for transport. Planking, on the other hand, as well as internal timbers of softwood, had to be strengthened before they were lifted. During the first few weeks of the excavation, experiments were carried out in which strips of hessian were coated with a plastic solution and laid over the pieces of wreckage. These achieved a certain degree of stiffness when the solution congealed, however not only was the method slow but it also involved some risk (corrosion and the danger of explosion), in addition to which the solution penetrated cracks in the wood causing unfor­ tunate changes in the surface grain. Consequently this method was soon abandoned, and only a small part of Wrecks 4 and 6 was treated in this way. Instead the soft pieces of wreckage were laid on lengths of masonite, a type of fibreboard, and wrapped in hessian before they were put into the polythene bags. Planks were undoubtedly the most difficult item to salvage. For although all the clinkcrnails had rusted away, caulking and mud still kept a certain amount of the planking together, and it was occasionally difficult to separate the planks from each other without also dislodging fragments along the edges. After a plank had been carefully freed from the one abutting it, a masonite board, cut to the right size, was laid flush up to the plank, or when possible pushed a little way beneath it. The plank was then carefully lifted onto the masonite, a task for eight or ten men in the case of a long plank. All loose fragments from the edges of the plank were collected after this, and carefully put back in position before the plank and the masonite board were wrapped in hessian. Thanks to the great care taken by the team of helpers, under the leadership of Mr. Willy Johannsen and Miss Vibeke Holten Lange, this was carried out extremely successfully. In order to facilitate the transport and conservation of the pieces, a maximum length of 8 metres was decided upon; therefore the keels and the longest planks had to be divided up before being packed. It would have been an advantage for the process of joining the pieces again after

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Fig. io. Skuldelev 1962. Sealing plastic bags containing salvaged timber.

Fig. i i . Skuldelev 1962. The salvaged wreckage in’ the conservation premises ar Brede near Copenhagen.

conservation, if this could have been done simply by breaking the wood over. But it was im­ possible as far as the oak timbers were concerned, as these had not only retained their strength to a remarkable extent but also their resilience, and they had to be sawn up. A veritable conveyor belt system was developed for lifting and packing the wreckage: one group cut the masonite to the required size, another group freed the pieces and put them on the masonite boards. These were then taken to a long trestle table where the pieces were washed, wrapped in hessian, treated with formalin and packed in plastic by a succession of “ specialists” . When the work was at its peak, this rationalised technique enabled approximately 150 linear metres af wreckage to be lifted and packed in a single day. The packed wreckage was towed on rafts to the harbour at Skuldelev where it was loaded onto a lorry, whose platform was lined with foam plastic batts, and brought to the conservation hall prepared for the ships in Brede, north of Copenhagen. Twenty-four journeys w'ere made in all. On the 28th September the salvaging of the ships in the blockage was completed, and the team of students was sent home. However, the excavation was not entirely at an end, for a considerable amount of loose pieces of wreckage (particularly from the high-lying Wreck 2), that had settled in the channel immediately west of the blockage within the confines of the cofferdam, had been located during the excavation. With the help of a group of workmen c. 80 pieces were recovered in the course of a fortnight, often from a metre thick layer of mud and

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Fig. 12. Skuldelev. Contour map 1:400, showing the passages through the moraine ridge across Peberrenden and the position of the five ships. The surface level of the glacial deposits has been recorded by Mr. Henner Bahnson.

sand. These include the stem or stern piece of Wreck 2 and its keelson. The excavation terminated on the 17th October and the dismantling of the cofferdam was begun. T H E O R IG IN OF T H E B L O C K A G E The Geological Survey Institute of Denmark carried out a series of borings inside the coffer­ dam during the excavation, for the purpose of finding out what the appearance of the fjord bed had been before the barrier was made. With the help of this investigation organised by Mr. Henner Bahnson (13), it is possible to explain why this particular place was chosen, and also to trace the main phases in the building of the blockage. The geological borings show that the blockage was made on a natural moraine clay bank (a spur of the Skuldelev esker) across Peberrenden channel. Currents have worn a channel (13) The Geological Survey’s report dated 7th M ay. 1963. The National Museum owes a debt of

thanks to the Director of the Institute, Dr. H. Ø d u m . for this investigation.

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c. 4 m. in depth through the glacial sand on each side of the moraine bar that has bet­ ter withstood the action of the currents, although three passages have been worn through it: one narrow and winding along the northern edge of Peberrenden, and two wider ones in the southern end that converge in places (cf. fig. 12). The depth of these passages is respectively c. i m., 2 m. and 2.5 m. — considerably less than in the rest of the channel. It was thus an appropriate place for making a barrier; not only where the moraine bar made Peberrenden narrower but also shallower. The two southern passages together formed the principal channel through the moraine bank, and the purpose of the blockage was primarily to close these. Wreck /, the first ship to be sunk, was laid across the northern part of the main channel with its stem resting on the northern edge and its stern on the ridge between the two passages. Along the west side of the ship and around the stern were a number of strong, pointed posts with notches like barbs (14). It is pos­ sible that a number of these posts were driven into the fjord bottom before the ship was sunk, to prevent it from sliding down the moraine slope. Some more barbed posts were driven through the hull of the ship, and the row of posts to the west of the ship extended northwards onto the bar in shallow water between the main channel and the narrow northerly passage. Here the posts were about 1 m. from each other with wattle fascines between, and a large quantity of stones around them. The purpose of this was presumably to stop boats from being pulled over the narrow bar to avoid the blockage, as well as to impede the current from cutting a fresh passage at this spot. Wreck 1 was probably loaded with stones before it was sunk, though not enough to prevent the draining plug from being removed or posts from being driven through the bottom of the boat amidships. The amount of stones found in and around the wreck far exceed what the ship could have carried, and a large number must have been thrown into the wreck. The southern part of the principal channel was blocked at the same time by Wreck jj , which was sunk with stem against the aftermost end of Wreck i ’ s port side, while its stern jutted up over the southern edge of the channel. A thick boundary of fascines had been carefully made along the east side o f the ship, probably to encourage sedimentation, and the desired result was achieved. Wreck 3, like Wreck /, was also heaped with stones almost from gunwale to gunwale. A few posts were found to the west of the ship, but these are unlikely to have been the remains of a row of posts similar to that along the west side of Wreck /. Wreck 5 presumably also belongs to the first phase. The ship was sunk along the north-westerly edge of the moraine bar, so that its stem lay approximately opposite the spot where the narrow passage flowed into the deeper channel. Its hull rested on the mound that was enclosed by stones and posts north of Wreck /, and the stern must have lain almost opposite Wreck /’s stem. The ship had tilted over on its port side down the slope and much of its cargo of stones had rolled down to the bottom of the channel. With this position, Wreck 5 was not a very significant part of the blockage, and the intention may have been to sink it higher up the bar but that the ship could not be kept in position while being sunk. It is possible that the strong barrier of stones (14) The posts are rather roughly fashioned with a diameter of 10 -15 cm. The barbs were to prevent the posts from being pulled up.

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Fig. 13. Skuldelev 1962. The mound north of Wreck / before excavation.

and posts north of Wreck 1 was put up after it was realised that Wreck 5, because of its position on the lower slope, did not fulfill its mission in the blockage. Wreck 2 and Wreck 6 do not appear to have been part of the original blockage but sunk after­ wards, possibly some years after the first phase. The unusually long Wreck 2 (c. 28 m.) was put down to strengthen the main body of the barrier, so that it rested on top of the northern half of Wreck 3, the greater part of Wreck /, and with its stern (“ Wreck 4” ) extending c. 8 m. north­ east of Wreck 1 in shallow water. The reason why it can be said with such certainty that Wreck 2 was not sunk immediately after the two wrecks beneath it, is primarily because the jutting stem and stern of Wreck 1 would have prevented the ship from settling where it did. The posts that were driven vertically through the bottom of Wreck / would have also been a great hin­ drance. It may be concluded, therefore, that one or more hard winters with ice-drift have intervened between the sinking of Wreck 1 and Wreck 2, during which the action of the ice steadily wore away the projecting areas of Wreck /, thus making it possible to manoeuvre Wreck 2 into position and sink it. Wreck 6 rested across the western part of Wreck 3 immediately in front of the mast frame. Here there was also unmistakable evidence of the disintegration of the wreck below prior to the arrival of Wreck 6. Not only was the entire starboard side of Wreck 3 missing beneath Wreck 6, but most of the keelson was worn away presumably due to ice-drift. One year, probably several years, passed between the sinking of these two ships. The purpose of Wreck 6 was to strengthen the barrier across the narrow northern passage; it is also possible that by obstructing the two other passages with Wreck 1 and Wreck 3, the current through the narrow passage so scantily obstructed by Wreck 3 was increased, making it deeper and broader. This may well be the reason why Wreck 6 was added and then heaped with stones. All five ships were stripped before they were sunk of everything that could be re-used. For

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Fig. 14. Passages in Roskilde Fjord near Skuldelev. /: Peberrenden. 2: Vesterrenden. 3 : Jydedybet. 4: Vimmelskaliet. The Skuldelev esker is marked in black.

example, masts and deck planks had been removed before the ships were loaded with stones, and this might also have happened to some of the cross-beams. This thrifty tendency on the part of the builders of the blockage has meant that there are virtually no small finds in the ships. Altogether the objects recovered in the five ships were one bone needle, some animal bones (undoubtedly the remains of a meal), and two potsherds of Wendic type, characteristic of the late Viking period. Although Wreck 5 was not apparently sunk where intended, the blockage as a whole is wellplanned and skilfully made. Its position on the bar in Peberrenden channel shows an intimate knowledge of the fairways and shallows of the fjord. The way in which the ship barrier was extended with stones, posts and fascines against currents, must be considered the work of professionals — carried out by people with a special knowledge of this type of defensive con­ struction. Traces of a number of submerged obstructions have been located elsewhere in Roskilde Fjord, and C 14 tests of timber from some of these show that quite a large number are from the late Viking period. It is possible that the barriers in Jydedybet, Vimmelskaftet and Vester­ renden are all links in the same defensive system as the ships in Peberrenden (15). (15 ) Gf. O le C rumi .in-P edersen : En kogge i Roskilde. Handels- og Sofartsmuseets Aarbog 1966, p. 50 fF. (with English sum m ary).

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Fig. 15. Skuldelev. Technical terms used in the description of the construction of the ships. /: keel, 2: keelson, 5 : mast step, 4: keelson knee, 5 : frame, 6: bite, y: cross-beam. 8: snelle. 9: bite knee. 10 : vertical beam knee, //: horizontal beam knee. 12: stringer or beam shelf. /9: gunwale plank, 14 : trenail. 75: stringer. 16 : plank (5th strake), iy\ land, 18: iron nail clinched over square rove.

The ships were only partially submerged in the blockage when it was made, but heavy winter ice-drifts in the fjord would soon have worn the exposed areas away. As already men­ tioned, numerous loose pieces of wreckage, particularly from Wreck 2, were found in the channel to the west of the blockage (16). Ice was undoubtedly also responsible for pushing the stone loads down the west slope of the blockage. However, this did not affect the strategic value of the barrier, which remained effective until 1962. T H E SH IPS The following description of the construction and nature of each of the five wrecks is based on a detailed examination of the material recovered during the excavation (1). A fairly ex­ haustive description can be made from this of the individual features in the construction of the ships, but it is far more difficult to draw up an accurate picture of their over-all dimensions and appearance. Not before all the pieces of wreckage are conserved, and the work of piecing them together is begun, will it be possible to find the three-dimensional shape (based on the length and shape of each plank) which corresponds most closely to the original lines of the ship. Until then the principal dimensions can only be approximate. (16) The silting up of the channel to the east of the blockage must have set in immediately after the ships were sunk. (1) Prior to conservation all the pieces of ship’s

timbers were drawn in full scale on sheets of trans­ parent polyester. When this task was completed in Ju n e 1967 more than 2000 m. of polyester sheeting in widths of 40 cm. and 60 cm. had been used.

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Fig. 1 6. Skuldelev 1962. Plan of Wreck 1 based on the photogrammetrical survey. 1 : 100.

For the sake of clarity the descriptions of the details in each of the wrecks follow a set pattern. A short account of the excavation of the ship in question and its condition is followed by a description of the component parts of the wreck, its repairs and alterations, concluding with a short note on the characteristics and nature of the vessel, when this can be decided from the material. To help clarify the technical terms used, the names of a number of details in the ships are marked in fig. 15. In laying down this terminology, the choice was made in several cases from among a number of possibilities. The intention has been to choose recent terms which most closely approximate the Old Norse form. In certain cases terms such as, for example, bite and snelle are taken from Old Norse in an adapted form, because no entirely accurate terms for these appear to exist in English. W RECK 1 The excavation: Wreck 1 lay across Peberrenden at the centre of the obstruction. It was this wreck particularly which had been affected when local fishermen cleared a passage through the ob­ struction in about 1920, recovering pieces of the keelson and frames, among other items, belonging to the ship. Photographs and measurements of the keelson served as the basis on which the blockage was dated in 1956. During the initial underwater investigation in 1957, Wreck /’s damaged keel was found exposed on the bottom of the narrow channel made by the fishermen. A length of about 6 metres wes cleared during that diving season, and sections were

The Skuldelev Ships

Fig. 17. Skiilddrv 1962. Wreck

1

97

see*n from the west after excavation.

uncovered round the keel from frame iA to the forward scarf between keel and stem. Part of frame jA was uncovered in 1959. The excavation of Wreck 1 in 1962 was begun at its northerly end on the 20th Ju ly but was not completed until the 8th September because Wreck 2 lay over part of it, and had to be ex­ cavated and taken up first. A photogrammetrical survey was carried out on the n th Septem­ ber (fig. 16). On the 15th September the work of lifting and packing the wreckage began; this was completed in ten days. Wreck 1 was numbered from P 1 to P 437, and with additional loose pieces a total of over 450 principal numbers was recorded. State of preservation: The great majority of Wreck P s planks had folded out almost horizontally across the level bottom of the narrowest passage in Peberrenden (fig. 17). The planks had fallen away from the stem and stern, and the forward ends of the planks were missing, as well as the stem and the upper part of the starboard side. The lower part of the stern was preserved to­ gether with most of the after ends of the planks. The load of stones in the ship, however, had burst through the planking here, halfway up the port side, causing the top planks to hang ver­ tically just under Wreck 2, resting against Wreck j s bow further to the south-east. The damage to the planking between frames 0 and j F showed wehere fishermen had cut a passage. The starboard planks and the lower part of the planks of the port side were chopped away. Axemarks were visible on the keel where its top had been cut away in order to give the channel sufficient depth. The keelson had also been removed, except for the after end which was found in situ between the stones in 1962. A protruding beam had evidently tempted a souvenir hunter as it bore the traces of recent sawmarks.

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Almost nothing was left of the internal timbers on the starboard side, yet most of those to port were preserved. The condition of the timbers varied considerably — from oak that was as hard as bone, to pieces of other hardwoods so soft that, although of fair size, they could barely support their own weight out of water without collapsing. Generally, the planks of the boat were in good condition and often preserved in long unbroken lengths. Keel, stem and stern: The keel is of oak and preserved intact (12. i m.), from the forward scarf at the stem by 6F to the aft scarf at the stern by j\A . The keel has a clearly defined rabbet (fig. 18), a groove along the entire length of the keel on each side for receiving the bottom edge of the keel strakes. These strakes are nailed at intervals of 16-18 cm. to the rounded top of the keel with spikes. The width of the keel along the top is 12-14 cm. amidships and c. 7 cm. at the ends. The bottom of the keel is worn, but originally its depth was about 16 cm. amidships and about 12 cm. at each end. The bottom is 5-6 cm. broad at the ends, increasing to 7-8 cm. towards the middle. The rabbet is a deep, clear-cut incision in the sides of the keel with a c. 4 cm. broad face for receiving the first strake. The keel scarves fore and aft are vertical, 1 1 - 1 3 cm. in length with iron nails through the joints. Both stem and stern have been attached directly to the keel scarves without any intermediate pieces. The stern (fig. 20) is a complicated construction of which only the lower part is preserved and fragments of the remainder. Its appearance and character, however, can be established with considerable certainty from the course of the planks on the port side, which are intact from the keel up to the eleventh strake (fig. 19). The lower part of the stern is a piece of solid oak, 2.03 m. long and 0.33 m. broad. The cross section of this piece tapers aft, the width being 2-4 cm. at the rounded after edge, and 9-11 cm. at the forward inner edge. The inner edge is worked with two steps. One step for fastening the end of the first strake above the scarf between keel and stern, and the next for the second strake half a metre further aft. The third strake is fastened to the curved inner edge of the stern piece for a distance of 1.2 m., while the aftermost plank length of this strake extends across the lower part of the stern onto the next piece of the sternpost. The third strake appears to end together with a length of plank that has served as the common terminal aft for the fourth and fifth strakes at a step on the second piece of the stern-

Fig. 18. Skuldelev. Wreck i. Gross sections of the keel, i :5.

The Skuldelev Ships

Fig. 19. Skuldelev. Wreck 1. Planking at the stern seen from the inside, together with a reconstruction of the stern.

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post. Only a fragment of the scarf remains of this second part of the sternpost, sufficient to show that the joint is cut as an indented scarf and fastened with little trenails. The cross section is the same as that of the lower part of the sternpost. The top part (the third part) of the sternpost has an open V-section like the stems of Wrecks 2, 3 and 5 and with stepped joints from the sixth to the twelfth strake. A few fragments of the upper part of the stern were found in situ on the after ends of the planks, making a reconstruction of the main features of the stern structure possible. The direction of the grain in these fragments shows that the lower edges of the top part of the stern followed the upper edges of the fifth strake aft for a length of c. 70 cm., and were nailed to these in the normal clinker fashion. The lines of the upper strakes aft have probably continued on the broad »wings« of the upper part of the stern. The forward keel scarf and the forward plank ends are worked in the same way as those at the stern. Moreover, a characteristic piece of pine stem, stepped to receive strakes, was found, and from this it may be assumed that the upper part of the stem was in all likelihood constructed on lines similar to the stern. Nothing definite can be decided about the way in which the stem terminated at the top, but the lines of the strakes probably either converged in a point at the stem as in Wreck3, or finish ed bluntly as shown in fig. 20. The stern projected 2.0-2.2 m. beyond the keel scarf, and if this also applied to thestem in relation to the forward keel scarf, the total length of Wreck 1 would have been between 16 .116.5 m. Planking: The strakes in Wreck 1 are meide up of pine planks to which a number of repairs, have been made in oak. Part of the eight lowest strakes are preserved on the starboard sides and virtually all strakes up to the tenth strake on the port side, while only small pieces of the eleventh and twelfth strakes remain. The stern scarves are preserved in all the strakes, yet only i B and 2B extend as far forward as the stem scarf. The rest of the strakes have broken off about 0.5-1.5 m. from the stem. The strakes are clinkered with an overlap of 3.5-4.5 cm. They are nailed together with round iron rivets driven in from the outside and secured inside with square roves. The rivets are 16-20 cm. apart, but along the low'er and upper edge of the tenth strake the distance between them is 20-22 cm. and 35-40 cm. respectively. The twelfth strake is attached to the eleventh at the forward end with trenails 36-42 cm. apart, and aft with rivets. Two narrow v-shaped inci­ sions with a shallow groove between are carved along the top edge of all strakes on the inside. The distance from the edge of the strake to the first incision is 0.5 cm., and the distance between the incisions is 1.8 cm. The oak planks with which the strakes are repaired have a similar mould­ ing, and the distance of the first incision from the edge is the same, but the distance between the incisions is 2.2 cm. The length of the planks varies greatly. The end planks, that finish with an upward curve at the stern scarf, are 2.2-4.2 m., while the other plank lengths in the area, up to and including the eighth strake sometimes measure as much as 6.4 m. Generally, each strake was originally

The Skuldelev Ships

Fig. 20. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 1. Lower part of the stern in situ. In the foreground frame jA .

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Fig. 2 1. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 1. lo n g u e scarf on the outside of strake 10 B at the after end seen in situ.

made up of four lengths of plank, but repairs have tended to change this pattern. Thus strakes 4B, j B and 8B are divided into five lengths owing to repairs, in which an oak plank had been inserted amidships. The two bottom strakes on each side probably only consisted of three plank lengths. The ninth and tenth strakes are also made up of only three lengths, in that the middle lengths in these two strakes are thicker, broader and longer than the others: 40-45 cm. and c. 50 cm. wide, and 10.25 m - and 12.25 m* length respectively. The length of the planks in the two top strakes 1 1 B and 12B cannot be accurately determined, because they are not pre­ served amidships. The planks are scarved together lengthwise. The planks taper off in thickness for a length of about 8-12 cm. in order for the two plank ends to fit flush with each other. The scarf is secured with 3-5 iron rivets between the nails along the edges of the strake. The scarves in the planking, both in this ship and the others in the blockage, are made so that the opening on the outside faces aft, thus preventing water from being pressed in through the scarf when the craft was underway. There are a few exceptions, for example when a piece of one of the original planks had to be replaced, in which case it was easier to cut both scarves on the iepair plank as outside scarves. However, the scarves generally show clearly what is fore and aft in the ship. Another type of plank scarf in Wreck 1 is the tongue scarf found in the ninth and tenth strakes (figs. 2 1 & 67). Here the plank lying outermost in the scarf projects in a 22-43 cm- long tongue along the middle of the next plank in the strake. The scarf is secured with six rivets in the tongue, and a similar number in the vertical part of the scarf. This form of scarf enables the ends of long broad planks to be effectively joined, and spreads the tension evenly from one length of the curved planking to the next, so that the course of the strake remains unaffected by the presence of a scarf.

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The seven lowest strakes are more or less of equal width, 23-29 cm. midships. They are flatly oval in cross section, and vary in thickness from 2.8-3.4 cm. at the centre to 1-2 cm. at the edges. The width of the eighth strake amidships is 39 cm., it is 3.5 cm. thick in the middle, 1.6 cm. at the top edge and 0.5 cm. at the worn bottom edge. The ninth strake is c. 42 cm. wide and 4.5 cm. thick in the middle, and 1.4 cm. thick at the edges, while the tenth strake is c. 50 cm. wide with a maximum thickness of 6.5 cm. in the middle. The midship scantlings of the eleventh and twelfth strakes cannot be established from the pieces preserved, but on the basis of what remains, and the vertical knees that extended as far as these strakes, they appear to have been approximately 35 cm. and 30 cm. wide respectively at 4\F. At this point the eleventh strake has been c. 3 cm. thick and half this at the edges, while the twelfth strake seems to have been rectangular in cross section and only c. 1.8 cm. thick (2). A hole, 2.3 cm. in diameter, at the edge of the keel on the first starboard strake at 4 \F is the draining hole, which in this ship is situated forward. The frame system: The internal timbers in Wreck 1 are stronger than in the other ships, and so many of these were intact on the port side that they presented an impressive sight during the excavation (fig. 22). O f the original fourteen frames, which all extend upwards onto the fifth strake on each side, six were found in situ in the after end of the ship in 1962, in addition to the three frames from the forward end which were taken up in 1956-57. Two or three of the re­ maining five frames were removed in about 1920 when a channel was cleared through the blockage. The remainder was presumably lost during the process of disintegration shortly after the ship was sunk. A sturdy bite rested on top of the frame with a bite-knee at each side, as evident from the only fully preserved example at the aftermost frame {jB) where the bite and starboard bite-knee have been fashioned in one piece and the port bite-knee is separate. The bite-knees on the port side are preserved at all frames up to jF . Whole bites, or parts of these, are preserved at 4F, i A, 2 A and from 4A to 7A. The sides of the ship have not only been braced above the fifth strake with bite-knees. Side frames are preserved from 6 \F to g\A on the port side, one between each frame and equi­ distant to each. Three or four of the side frames furthest aft to port, and all those on the star­ board side, have disappeared. Vertical knees were found intact from frame 6F to 3 F for sup­ porting cross-beams level with the tenth strake, and also a row of strong horizontal knees along the eleventh strake from 6F to 2F , the purpose of which was to support cross-beams at the top of the eleventh strake at 6F and jF . (2) Tw o marks have been noticed in the topstrakes at 6F-yF. Here a pointed object has been driven into the plank from outside with such force, that a broad splinter of wood has come away on the inside at each side of the point of impact. It appears from the conical hole on the outside of the strake that the point was round with a diameter of

at least 1 cm. The hole is very different from the other holes in the planks for rivets, spikes, trenails, etc., all of which were bored into the wood before the iron or wooden nails were inserted. Th e most feasible explanation for this damage being that it was caused by an arrow, shot at close range off the port bow.

The Skuldelev Ships

Fig. 22. Skuldelev'. Wreck 1. Side frames, bite knees, veriieal and horizontal beam knees etc., port side forward.

103

Fig. 23. Skuldelev. Wreck 1. Side frame of peculiar shape seen from above. Port side at i F.

Therefore, it is possible to piece together a fairly complete picture of the structural principles for the hull, and the way in which it was strengthened, on the basis of the many parts recovered and the pattern of trenail holes in the planks. A constructional change is apparent at the fifth strake, which is fitted at a steeper angle than any of the preceding ones, and strikingly so in contrast to the sixth strake, as this is almost horizontal in the midship section. The following strakes become in turn gradually steeper, forming an ample turn of the bilge, succeeded by the virtually upright upper strakes. The five bottom strakes on each side of the keel, together with the first two parts of stem and stern and the frames, form an organic whole — a V-shaped underwater hull upon which the broad upper hull rested. These two sections of the hull are kept together solely with rivets between the fifth and sixth strake. The side frames and biteknees are nailed to the sixth strake upwards, consequently none of the internal timber has connected the bottom strakes with those of the sides. The frames are of oak except one, which is of pine. They fit over the curved top of the keel and the first five strakes on each side, to which they are nailed with a trenail per strake with the exception of the keel strake. The distance between the frames varies from 83 to 99 cm. ----averaging 92 cm. The angle amidships between the keel strakes measured at frame iA is 154°. The width of the frames over the keel is 10 - 11 cm., increasing to 12-15 cm. at the third strake, and decreasing once more to 10 - 11 cm. at the top ends. The height of the frames over the keel increases from 11- 12 cm. amidships to 25-30 cm. near the stem and stern. The frames are generally squared off in cross section with no moulding. They are slightly concave on the face against the strakes, so that only the edges touch the planks. The surface wood of the frame at 4A is so well preserved that on the side facing midships not only can the strokes from the

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axe that fashioned it be seen, but also the incised lines marking where the underside was to be fitted over the strakes, and where the limber holes were to be cut (fig. 69). The bites rested on the ends of the frames, in some cases with a notch underneath for the top of the frame. Except for the bite at jA which is of oak, lime has been used. The wood was selected so that the bite and one of the bite-knees were in one piece, while the other bite-knee was nailed to the bite. There appears to have been some difficulty in getting wood large enough for uniform scantlings of the bites. Thus the width of the bites varies between 13.5 cm. and 21 cm. at the centre, while their height at this point varies between 8.5 cm. and 14 cm. The tops of the bites have unevenly rounded edges, and there is no trace of any deck planks having been fitted into them. The bite at 4A has an 18 cm. long, 5 cm. wide and 2 cm. deep rectangular cut in the middle of the top; the bottom end of a support for a cross-beam higher up has presum­ ably been fitted into it. Similar traces were not found in the other bites. The bite-knees measure 11- 17 cm. in width at the base, and are 7-14 cm. in height. They gradually decrease in size upwards, terminating in a horizontal edge at the top n - 1 4 cm. wide and 5-10 cm. thick. They fit over the sixth strake and the ensuing strakes. The foremost bite-knees (from pF), and those furthest aft (from 4T), as well as those at frame 0, finish near the top of the ninth strake. i F , 2A and 3 A terminate on the tenth strake, and iA on the eleventh strake. They are secured to the strakes with a trenail per strake. Knees for keeping the cross-beams in position at the top edge of the ninth strake were found over the bite-knees at four frames (from 3 F to 6F ). These knees are nailed to the tenth, eleventh and twelfth strake with trenails, with the exception of the knee at 6F which extends only as far as the eleventh strake. A 4 cm. wide, semicircular groove has been carved in the contact face for the strakes in some of the knees, and the grooves .may have served as a means of securing ropes. The knees are 6-9 cm. broad and 9-13 cm. thick at their vertical end. The horizontal piece is more slender, 7 cm. broad and 3.5 cm. high at 4F, and fastened to a cross-beam (no trace of which has been found) with two trenails. The horizontal part of the knee at 6F has a clearly defined flange facing aft, which shows that these cross-beams supported a deck of longitudinal planks which were fitted into similar flanges in the beams. This deck would have been c. 1 m. over the top of the keel, 0.5 m. above the top of the bites, 0.5 m. below the upper cross-beams and 0.9 m. below the edge of the gunwale. It presumably extended from 6F forward to s F 9 where the beam knee has not been found, but where the bite-knee also terminates on the ninth strake, and where trenail holes in the tenth strake suggest that an upper knee was fastened here. Corresponding beam knees are not preserved in the after end of the ship. Yet the fact that the bite-knees from 4A and further aft terminate at the ninth strake, and the preserved sections o f the tenth and eleventh strake in this area all have trenail holes above the ends of the biteknees, and that there are traces of oarholes in the twelfth strake fore and aft, indicates very strongly that a similar deck has extended from 4A to the stern. As mentioned earlier, the biteknees at iF , i A, 2A and 3A extend as far as the tenth strake, which means that there were no deck beams between o and 2F , or between o and 4A. However, at the mast frame o there was probably a beam for supporting the mast, level with the other cross-beams at the top edge

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105

of the ninth strake, because here the bite-knee ends on the ninth strake and there are two tre­ nail holes in the tenth strake for a strong beam knee. Thus the system of cross-beams has been the following: a bite at each frame level with the fifth strake, a deck beam at frames 6F to 2F , and 4A to jA or 8A, and a mast beam at o, all of which are level with the top edge of the ninth strake. In addition to this is another system of cross-beams near the top edge of the eleventh strake. These beams have been attached to the sides of the ship by strong horizontal beam knees of pine, a continuous row of which is preserved from 2 I F to 6F. These supported beams at 3 F and 6F, and are fitted over the numerous side frames and knees for the deck beams that reach as far as the eleventh strake. The knees are fastened to the cross-beams and the eleventh strake with trenails. The ends of the trenails are fastened in a 6-9 cm. wide stringer along the outside of the eleventh strake level with the knees. The stringer has a c. 4 cm. high triangular cross section. A number of the numerous notches in the horizontal knees do not correspond to the side frames or the vertical knees, and it is possible that the horizontal knees also served as a base for removable stanchions for some sort of wash­ board. The explanation, however, may also be that one or more of the knees have been used before in another ship. There were thus two beams level with the upper part of the eleventh strake forward at 3 F and 6F. It would be reasonable to assume that the broad hull was also strengthened with simi­ lar beams midships and aft, for example at o, 4A and yA> but there is no definite proof of this. The two top beams forward carried .no deck, and they could only be used with difficulty — if at all — for rigging up a tent over the forward deck, when the ship was underway, because this would prevent the beiti-ass, the tacking spar, from being manoeuvred as it was rigged from the cleat on the tenth strake at 3 F~4\F, described below. Between the bite-knees are strong side frames of lime and pine. The two farthest aft on the port side are missing, but the others from 6%F to 3 \A are all in situ, and almost all are preserved in their entirety. Their length varies somewhat; but generally they span from the sixth strake to the gunwale. One abuts the fifth strake without being nailed to it, three of the side frames do not begin until the seventh strake, and in one case, not until the eighth strake. They are fitted over the clinkered strakes and nailed with trenails to most of these. Several reach as far as the gunwale strake and terminate on a stringer fastened to the inside of this strake which, judging from the notches in the side frames, measured c. 4X 14 cm. in cross section. These side frames clearly show that the twelfth strake ran continuously from the forward end to the stern, although it is not preserved amidships. The dimensions of the side frames vary considerably. They are flattened or pointed at the lower end, and are 10-15 cm. wide at the centre, and 9-13 cm. thick — this decreases a few centimetres at the top. Some of the side frames have a very special shape, in that their width varies from one end to the other, increasing and decreasing no less than twice. For example at \ F there is an increase in width from 12 cm. at the bottom to 21 cm. at the eighth strake, decreasing to 12 cm. on the ninth strake and increasing again to 22 cm. on the tenth strake, decreasing finally to 12 cm. on the eleventh and twelfth strakes. This particular shape (fig. 23),

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Fig. 24. Skuldelev. Wreck 1. 'The een Ira I part of the keelson (now lost). fK ai Uldall phot. 1924).

combined with careful workmanship — moulding along the edges etc. — does not appear to have had any functional purpose. On the other hand, the top part of the side frame at 2 \ F has had some special purpose, for it is pierced by a hole, 4 cm. in diameter, with Worn edges. In contrast to the other side frames that are at right angles to the keel, the side frame at 6\F is put in as a cant frame at the most favourable angle for the rake of the planking in the broad bow section. There has been a similar cant frame at ?F, although this is no longer pre­ served, whereas there appears to have been no cant frames in the after end of the ship. The se­ quence of nail holes here shows that side frames were not used aft of 5 AT. Nail holes in the upper strakes at 8A and gA are traces of various strengthening timbers that have now vanished. Propulsion and steering: There is clear proof in Wreck 1 that this has been a true sailing vessel, with only a small number of oars fore and aft which could be used when the wind dropped. The mast was stepped in the keelson immediately aft of frame 0, c. 0.3 m. in front of the mid­ point for the keel which presumably is also the midpoint of the whole ship. The shape of the keelson and its extension aft can be determined by the preserved piece that extends from 2A to a little way beyond jA , and the main piece from 2A and i F which is now only known from measurements and photographs taken in 1924 (figs. 24 & 25). The forward end of the keelson is not preserved, but it may well have terminated at j F in analogy with the after end. At the ends the keelson is high and narrow (c. 1 8 x 7 cm.) in cross section, while it is sturdier and rounded at the middle section between frames o and i A. Here it is 25 cm. high and 36 cm. wide, providing space for the mast step measuring 1 6 x 1 7 cm. and 10 cm. in depth. The keelson is fitted over the frames with notches, 12-16 cm. broad and 8-12 cm. deep. Under the mast it rests on top of the keel, but fore and aft of this it rides clear. There is a c. 8 x 10 cm. mortise in the top of the keelson immediately in front of frame o, presumably for the insertion of a

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107

Fig. 25. Skuldelev. Wreck 1. Reconstruction of the keelson. Total length c. 5.1 in.

removable stanchion of some kind. From the keelson a stump of branch, part of the same piece of wood as the keelson, projects upwards at frame o in front of the mast step, in order to strength­ en the system of cross-beams at this frame, and to support the base of the mast when it was raised. The keelson was kept in position by vertical knees at frames o and i A. There is no trace of nail holes from keelson knees or snelles at frame jA , where both the frame and keelson are pre­ served. The base of the mast was inserted in the mast step, and its forward edge presumably rested against the cross-beams at frame o. As already mentioned, it may be assumed that, in addition to the bite, there was once a cross-beam just below the gunwale at the mast frame, and another level with the deck fore and aft. No trace of a mast-fish has been found on the preserved bites. The mast is more likely to have been braced at the sides by two longitudinal beams attached to the top set of cross-beams, but this cannot be proved with certainty. The same applies to the question of how the shrouds were secured. These were presumably rigged from the mast to the upper part of the ship’s sides amidships which is no longer preserved. Clear proof of an advanced sailing technique was found forward, between j F and 4 \F on the tenth strake just above the deck, where a strong cleat with three indentations facing obliquely forward (fig. 22) was fitted. This cleat served to secure a beiti-ass, the tacking spar, in three different positions when the wind was abeam to port or across the port bow. The cleat is pre­ served for a length of 1.25 m. It is rounded at the top and measures c. 20 cm. in width; its maximum height is 15 cm., and it is nailed to the side frame a tj^ F a n d the deck beam knee at 4F with trenails. As mentioned before, the side frame at 2 \ F has a large hole, 4 cm. in diameter, through its broad top end. The pronounced wear marks round the edge of the hole indicate that a rope from the running rigging has passed through it. This heavy ship must have relied primarily on the sail as its means of propulsion. There are, however, traces of oarholes fore and aft in the top strake {12B) at j F and between $ \ F and 6F,

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as well as at c. jA aft. The full length and breadth of the plank is not preserved at any of these places, consequently the number and size of the oarholes cannot be accurately estimated. It may be assumed, though, that there were at least two pairs of oars both fore and aft. The oar­ holes are curved at the top and flat at the base, so that the oars rested along the top edge of strake n B and its outside stringer. The lower edges of the oarholes are 60-70 cm. above the planks of the half-deck. No trace has been found of the side rudder or the timbers to which it was attached, but it is plain from the preserved port side that the side rudder was not here but on the starboard side, probably at frame 8A. Construction and repairs: The construction of the hull generally, and that of the stern in par­ ticular, clearly shows that the vessel was built as follows: first of all the keel and the lower parts of stem and stern were joined and placed on the berth. Starting from the keel, the five bottom strakes were then built up one by one, fitted to each other and to the stem and stern. The frames, which all span these five strakes, were fitted and nailed after this, and the top pieces of the stem and stern attached to the pieces already in position and to the top edge of the fifth strake. Whereupon the rest of the planking was laid and lastly, the keelson, bites, bite-knees, side frames and upper beam system (fig. 26). Signs of wear are only pronounced in a few places, and although the planks at the bottom of the boat have been fairly extensively repaired, the general impression is that the ship was by no means old and dilapidated when it was sunk. Repairs to the bottom follow a certain pattern. They are concentrated on the keel strakes and port side as far as the eighth strake. Oak planks either in full or half width are used to replace pieces of pine planking, and patches have been used for covering cracks. The oak planks are obviously secondary because their forward scarf often faces the wrong way, and when they are nailed to the internal timbers, it is with spikes or fresh trenails beside the old. While these repairs occur over the greater part of the port side up to the eighth strake, there is no sign of any on the preserved areas o f the starboard side which include the eight bottom strakes from midships to stern. This strongly suggests that the ship was repaired after suffering some damage; for example, it may have run aground damaging the port side, or perhaps have toppled over to port for some reason when beached. Moreover, the fact that pine planks have been extensively repaired with oak could well mean that the ship was not built and mended in one and the same place.

Summary Type and characteristics: The pieces of wreckage preserved clearly illustrate the construction and appearance of the original ship. It was a broad deep vessel with a marked division between the bottom of the ship terminating at the fifth strake, and the broad rounded bilge followed by the almost vertical upper strakes. It had a low rabbet keel, and the principal measurements of the ship are provisionally: maximum length 16 .1-16 .5 m*> width amidships

The Skuldelev Ships

F ig. 26.

S k u ld e le v .

109

Wreck /. P r e l i m i n a r y r e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f l o n g i t u d i n a l s e c t i o n . 1 : t o o .

4.4‘ 4.8 m., height from the bottom to the gunwale amidships i .8-1.9 m., height aft to the top edge of the uppermost strake c. 2.6 m. Its draught can only be roughly estimated at present as c. 0.6 m. when unloaded, with a maximum of 1.5 m. when fully loaded. These measurements give a ratio of 3 .5 :1 between length and breadth. The boat had fourteen frames with an average distance of 92 cm. between each, and a deck both fore and aft, c. 1 m. above the top of the keel, c. 0.5 m. above the top of the bites, and c. 0.9 m. below the gunwale. It had an open hold midships, 5.5 m. in length, extending two frame spacings in front of the mast and four aft of it. Calculated from the edge of the gunwale, the volume of the hold was 30-35 m3 with an additional few cubic metres of cargo space below the two half-decks. Heavy cross-beams attached to strong horizontal knees above the forward half-deck, and also presumably at the mast and above the after deck, acted as a considerable reinforcement for the ample hull above water. There were holes fore and aft in the gunwale for a small number of oars, but the principal means of propulsion was undoubtedly provided by a sail which could be set in a number of positions with the help of a special spar, the beiti-ass. This enabled the vessel to sail with the wind forward of the beam and to tack. The keel and part of the stem and stern were of oak. All the strakes were of pine, but damaged keel strakes and those in the port side were repaired with oak planks. The boat was not beyond repair at the time of sinking. In short, the primary concern of those who built the ship, with its strikingly roomy and sturdy hull, was to achieve the most solid construction possible. The light resilient construction typifying the other craft in the blockage, which were designed inter alia for pulling ashore easily, does not appear to have been the aim as far as Wreck 1 is concerned. Nevertheless, the draining hole in the forward end shows that the boat was occasionally hauled ashore. It was undoubt­ edly a cargo vessel, built for the purpose of transporting a heavy or bulky cargo in waters where depth was not normally any problem, and where as a trader the question of dragging it across isthmuses etc. did not usually arise.

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Fig. 27. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 2. Plan based on the photogrammctrical survey.

Fig. 28. Skuldelev 1962. Aerial photograph of Wreck 2 on top of Wreck 1.

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111

W RECK 2 The excavation: The southerly part of Wreck 2 was localised in 1957 and partially excavated in 1 957-58. Some wreckage, found in the northern end of the blockage in 1957, was thought to belong to a “ Wreck 4” , for although it consisted of only a few planks they were separated from the other wrecks, and could not be directly associated with any of them. It became clear during the excavation in 1962, however, that Wreck 2 was an unusually long vessel, and that “ Wreck 4” was in fact part of the port side aft of Wreck 2. This ship rested on top of Wrecks 1 and 3, and virtually blocked the channel from side to side at this point. It had not been entirely submerged and was very damaged. All the upper parts of the hull had been removed — possibly for re-use in another ship — and pieces of the bottom planks lay scattered not only in the direct vicinity of the wreck, but even some distance away from the actual blockage. For example, some wreckage localised in 1959, c. 300 m. south-east of the blockage (see p. 76), appears from its characteristics to have belonged to Wreck 2, and to have been shifted by the ice in the same way as some of the boulders in the shallow part of the fjord. The two separate parts of the wreck were treated as independent units during the 1962 exca­ vation. “ Wreck 4” was excavated in the period i2th-20th Ju ly and photogrammetrically sur­ veyed on 19th Ju ly. It was taken up in two days and numbered from 1501 to 1570. The second part of Wreck 2 was excavated between the 27th Ju ly and the 7th August, and photogramme­ trically surveyed on the 9th August. The pieces were lifted in the course of eight days, begin­ ning on the 10th August and numbered from 501-599. The deeper pit west of the blockage was excavated from the ist October to the 14th October, and yielded a considerable amount of loose wreckage from this ship. State of preservation: Wreck 2 (figs. 27 & 28) is the uppermost wreck in the blockage. Conse­ quently the process of disintegration set in immediately after it was sunk, or in connection with the sinking. It is also possible that part of the hull was removed for re-use either just before the vessel was sunk or soon afterwards. The southern end of the ship, the entire bow area which lay over Wreck 3 , is missing. In the after end part of seven of the port strakes are preserved, the maximum length of which is 6.8 m., with nail holes for nine frames, but the rest of the

Fig. 29. Skuldelev. Wreck 2. Gross sections of the keel. /: amidships, 2: forward part, 3: stern. 115.

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Fig. 30. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 2. The excavated stern in the deep pit west of the blockage beside the ship’s keelson.

planks at the stern are missing. A large area aft of midships was destroyed when fishermen cleared a channel through the obstruction in the 1920’s, and nowhere is the ship preserved intact to the gunwale. The largest part comprises a length of keel from the midship area and forward with pieces of six starboard and five port strakes that bear traces of fourteen frames. The condition of the planks is not good. The boat has rested on the stone load in Wreck 1 and this caused much of the planking to be broken. The planks were also undoubtedly worn and soft with age when the ship was sunk. In spite of this the basic structural characteristics of the ship can be established, due chiefly to the pieces of wreckage that became detached shortly after the sinking, and which were found to the west of the blockage during the excavation. The most important of these finds were the keelson and a stem or stern piece, as well as pieces of frames and side frames and two lengths of a stringer upon which bites have rested. At present the exact position of most of the loose pieces in the hull cannot be established, but it is hoped that it will be possible to fit most of these into the ship during the process of reconstruction. Keel and stern: A 7.6 m. length of keel is preserved, the forward end has broken away and the after end has worn away. It is of oak with a convex top and a pronounced rabbet to the keel strakes, which are fastened to the keel with spikes at intervals of 10-16 cm. (fig. 29). The maxi­ mum width of the keel at the top is 17 cm., the width of the underside c. 9 cm., and its height is c. 14 cm. Originally, the keel was undoubtedly a couple of centimetres higher, for like the keel strakes it clearly shows signs of wear. The main part of the ship’s stem or stern — probably the stern — was among the loose wreck­ age recovered together with its intermediate piece, which fitted between keel and stern. This intermediate piece is 82 cm. long with a cross section 25 cm. in height above a step to which

The Skuldelev Ships

1 x3

Fig. 3 1. Skuldelev. Wreck 2. A triple end plank (P 652) from the stern seen from the outside.

the keel strakes are fitted, 7 cm. in width at the inner edge and 2 cm. at the outer edge. At the other end the scantlings are 14 cm., 6.5 cm., and 3 cm. There are traces of two trenails and three iron nails in the vertical scarf joining it to the stern, whereas at least three iron nails have secured the keel scarf, which is also vertical. The after end of the keel strake has been attached to the step of the intermediate piece into a rabbet, held by four spikes at intervals of 5-6 cm. The stern piece is of oak, 1.72 cm. long and 0.45 cm. wide at its widest point (fig. 30). The inside is hollowed out to a maximum depth of 20 cm., and the sides are carved so that the course of the clinker-built strakes continues up the stern piece. There are three steps at each side for the end planks. The number of lines carved on each side of the preserved piece of stern show that the first six strakes ended here, except for the keel planks which terminated at a step in the intermediate piece for the keel. The double and triple end planks are nailed to the stern with 4-6 clinkernails. At the top end of the stern piece are the traces of four iron nails in a scarf to which the upper part of the stern has been joined, but only a fragment of this is left. How­ ever, it is evident that the seventh strake has terminated here as well as the following strakes. Planking: All the preserved pieces of Wreck 2 ' s planking are of oak. They are clinker-built with a 2.5-3 cm. overlap, and clinkernails at intervals of 12-15 cm. clinched to square roves on the inside. There are traces of a shallow groove in the land for caulking, and along the top edge of the planks are sporadic traces of two v-shaped incisions at a distance of 2.2-2.3 cm. from each other with a shallow groove between. The first incision runs at a distance of 0.5-0.7 cm. from the edge of the plank. Only portions of the seven lowest strakes are preserved intact in relation to each other, and the preserved internal timbers offer no opportunity for determining the total number of strakes on each side. The strakes are made up of several plank lengths scarved together with an over­ lapping of 7-12 cm., and with 2-4 clinkernails between the nails along the edges. Five lengths of

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F ig . 32. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 2. The port side aft first thought to be a separate wreck (“ Wreck 4” ) seen from the north-east.

plank are preserved in their full length from scarf to scarf in the third strake to the sixth strake. These pieces measure 2.08 m., 2.72 m., 5.35 m., 5.88 m. and 6.19 m. in length, while four lengths from the port side aft measure between 2.5-3.6 m. in length. Two broad end planks were recovered with the stern piece, one of which had served to terminate the second, third and fourth strakes, while the other had a scarf to which the fifth and sixth strakes have been joined. These broad end planks are 1.5-2.5 cm. thick, and stepped on the outside so that the course of the clinker-built strakes is imitated along them (fig. 31). It is difficult to say exactly how broad and thick the strakes originally were, for they are very worn and damaged along the edges. However, the notches in the frames indicate that the width of each strake from the second to the seventh was 24-27 cm., while the first strake — the keel strake — was originally 27-29 cm. wide but later repaired and divided into two planks. The strakes are less worn in the preserved area of the port side aft, where they are 2-3 cm. thick at the centre, and 1-2 cm. thick at the edges. The seventh strake has an oak stringer, 12.5 cm. broad, against the strake, and 9 cm. thick. The stringer is fastened to the strake with trenails at intervals of 64-79 cm- and notched for the top of the frames and for the side frames, and its top is grooved for each of the bite ends. Two pieces of this stringer were among the loose pieces of wreckage recovered, lengths of 4 .11 m. and 1.44 m. respectively. One of the pieces terminates in an indented scarf, c. 35 cm. in length, indicating that, unlike Wrecks 3 and 5, the stringer was not in one piece from stem to stern. The frame system: The preserved frames and side frames, as well as the nail holes in the strakes and the stringer, illustrate the construction of the lower part of the frame system. But there is

The Skuldelev Ships

“ 5

i r =

Fig. 33. Skuldelev. Wreck 2. The keelson. Total length 13.3 m.

nothing to show how the sides of the ship were constructed above deck level, or how they were strengthened, as pieces from this area appear to be entirely missing from the wreckage recovered. It is possible to decide the position of the mast in relation to the preserved areas with the help of the keelson knees, for these can be placed not only in relationship to the preserved keel­ son but also to the existing frames. Thus the damaged point of the keel (that was situated at the edge of the passage cleared in the 1920s) represents a position about 1 m. aft of midships. The keelson has notches for ten frames in front of the mast frame. The trenail holes for these frames are found in the planking, and in the fifth and sixth strake to starboard are the nail holes from yet one more forward frame. Aft of the mast frame, the keelson is notched for eight frames, and the nail holes left by the two first of these are to be seen in the strakes to starboard. The average distance between frame stations in the area of the keelson is 72 cm. The preserved part of the port side aft (“ Wreck 4” ) (fig. 32) bears the nail traces of nine frames with an aver­ age distance between each frame of 67 cm., the foremost of which appears to be the eleventh or twelfth aft of the mast frame. This is on the assumption that the pieces o f planking represent­ ing “ Wreck 4” have not shifted lengthwise in relation to the main body of Wreck 2. From the great quantity of stones on top of the planks and from the lines of the planking, it would seem that this assumption is correct. Consequently the number of frames behind the mast frame total 19-20. With a mast situated almost amidships, this means that the ship presumably had 37-39 frames throughout the hull at an average distance between the stations of barely 70 cm., giving a length of c. 26 m. in all. Allowing for the stem and stern, the estimated total length of the ship is c. 28 m. The frames rest on the convex top of the keel and extend as far as the seventh strake on each side. The frames are nailed to the planks with a willow nail at every strake, from the second strake to the sixth. The nails are cut with a conical head and secured on the inside with an oak or pine cotter. The preserved pieces indicate that the frames were not attached to the keel, keel strakes or seventh strake. The keel strakes have been fairly steeply raked, the angle between these at the midship frames is 90°-95°. The frames are broad and flat, 10-14 cm. in height and 9-10 cm. broad over the keel amidships; at the third and fourth strake their height de­ creases to 5-8 cm. and their width increases to 12-16 cm. At each of their upper ends the height

i i

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is 1-2 cm. and width 5-7 cm. All the frames are concave on the underside and convex across the top, and c. 1 cm. higher at the middle. Thus the height in each cross section is the same from side to side, and only the edges of the frame touch the strakes. The surface of the frames is fashioned with great care, and along the top edges is a moulding consisting of two v-shaped incisions with a shallow groove between — even where this part of the frame is hidden by keel­ son knees, etc. The first incision is c. 0.5 cm. from the edge, and the distance between the incisions is 1.8 cm. A horizontal knee, 8 cm. wide and 53 cm. long, was found far aft, fastened to the fifth strake with a trenail and an iron nail — presumably attached originally to a bulk­ head at the stern. Equidistant between every frame is a side frame, with the exception of the extreme after end. These begin at the fifth strake and rest against the top edge of the fourth strake. They continue upwards, but as none of them are intact at the top, it cannot be established how they terminated. Most of the side frames are broad at the lower end, 9-13 cm., decreasing to 5.5-7.5 cm. on the seventh strake where a stringer is fitted over the side frames. In some cases, however, the side frames finish in a 2 cm. broad point at the lower end. They are only 1-3 cm. thick, and are fastened to the fifth and seventh strake with rivets — also sometimes the sixth strake. The stringer on the seventh strake is notched at each frame station to receive a bite 8 -11 cm. broad, nailed to the stringer. Nothing else is known of the shape and size of the bites as none have been recovered in Wreck 2. Apart from the pieces of frame timbers described, a number of small, right-angled knees (c. 15 X 15 cm., 3-5 cm. thick) were found in and around the wreck, which had been fastened with one or two spikes at each contact face, but their purpose cannot be determined. Propulsion: Although there is good reason to believe that Wreck 2 had a number of oars, no conclusive proof of this was found in any of the wreckage, because the entire hull beyond the seventh strake appears to be missing. The steep angle of the keelson and keel strakes are unequivocally characteristic of a sailing vessel, and clearly show that a sail has had a major role in propelling the ship. The keelson (fig. 33) is of unusual size and length, not only serving as a base for the heel of the mast but also considerably reinforcing the longitudinal structure of the hull. Its two pieces are joined forward by means of an indented horizontal scarf, making a length of 13.3 m. in all, the biggest piece of which is 10.0 m. long. The keelson is 11 cm. wide, except in the area of the mast step, where its width increases to c. 38 cm. The mast step is c. 18 X 18 cm., its present depth is c. 5 cm., and its original depth has not exceeded 8 cm. The keelson has not rested directly on the keel, but on top of the frames, hooked 2-8 cm. in depth over the frames. It is between 9 -11 cm. in height fore and aft of the thick midships area which is c. 30 cm. high. Immediately in front of the mast step is a vertical branch of considerable thickness and broken off at a height of 45 cm. above the bottom of the mast step. The keelson is secured to the frames with keelson knees and snelles, whose shape and width correspond to the top of the frames to which they are nailed. The keelson knees amidships fit against frame and keelson, and are cut with a narrow fin down the middle of the top, in

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Fig. 34. Skuldelev. Wreck 2. Bottom section near amidships. The reconstruction is drawn on the basis of wreckage recovered, except for the bites, the details of which are unknown.

order to strengthen the knee while keeping its weight to a minimum (fig. 34). The pair of knees, respectively fore and aft of the broad midship area, are joined and carved in one piece — either connected by a low “ bridge” over the keelson, or by a more substantial piece of greater height that also serves as a bite stanchion and resembling the snelles in Wrecks 3 and 5. These two types of snelle have holes in which the lower ends of bite stanchions have been inserted. Nothing is preserved to clarify how the mast was secured, the sail rigged or the side rudder mounted aft. Construction and repairs \ Judging from the pieces of hull recovered, the shell was built up from the bottom: keel, stem, stern and the first seven or eight strakes — before the frames and side frames were put in, and the stringer on the seventh strake finally added. The length of the ship, and the slender lines of the hull below water, meant that the upper strakes had to be particu­ larly strong, and these were presumably built up of extra long planks and strengthened athwart by a system of cross-beams. The bottom planks are very worn on the outside from scraping against sand and gravel when the ship was pulled ashore, especially the keel strakes, the bottom half of which on each side has been changed out. These repairs have been made by cutting away the bottom quarter of the keel strake, and smooth hewing the outside across the middle of the strake, whereupon the new bottom edge, 16-18 cm. in width, was nailed to the keel rabbet and clinkered to the out-

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side of the remaining length of plank with a 12-14 cm. overlapping caulked with sheep’s wool and wood tar (fig. 34). The ship was in use for a good while after this repair was made, and sub­ ject to renewed wear. This can be seen from the narrow strip of original keel strake on the outside, several millimetres of which are worn away in relation to the smoothed area covered by the repair plank. The other strakes have been repaired here and there, but no entire plank lengths appear to have been changed out. Further proof that the ship was old and worn by the time it was sunk is evident from the trenails between frame and strake which, due to the movements of the ship, in many cases resulted in a reduction of their diameter and enlarged their holes in the strakes. Some of the enlarged holes are packed with caulking, but leakages must have been extensive in spite of this, requiring constant attention and frequent bailing when the ship was afloat. Summary Type and characteristics: This wreck is mutilated to such an extent that it gives only a very incomplete picture of the original vessel. However, those features which can be established are distinctive enough to show that the ship differs radically from the others in the blockage, partly on account of its length and partly in the details of its construction. As mentioned before, the length of the craft may be estimated as having been approximately 28 m. Its width across the beam and depth amidships, on the other hand, cannot be accurately estimated. But judging from the preserved frames, its breadth at deck level amidships appears to have been c. 3 m., therefore its maximum beam measurement could scarcely have exceeded 4.5 m. A rough estimate of the ratio between length and breadth is 6 :1 . The shape of the bottom with keel strakes at a fairly steep angle and a shallow rabbet keel — very obviously worn — indicates that the ship was a good sailing vessel and that it was often pulled ashore. The light, resilient construction of the hull was of fundamental importance for beaching this long ship. From the description of the other ships in the blockage, especially in the case of Wreck 3 and Wreck 5, it is evident that certain characteristics separate the trading ship from the true Viking ship designed for transporting warriors. In a trader the ratio between length and breadth is c. 4 : 1, with only deck and oars fore and aft, and the mast stepped deeply into the mast step because the mast was only lowered when the boat was pulled ashore. Structurally the two types are very much the same, but the ratio between length and breadth in the “ warship” type is c. 7 :1 , there are both deck and oarholes from stem to stern, and the mast was often lowered during rowing. In Wreck 2 neither the extent of the deck nor the number and position of the oars can be established, but the ratio of c. 6 :1 between length and breadth, as well as the fairly shallow mast step in the keelson, indicate that this was a true Viking ship designed to carry a company of warriors — perhaps as many as 50 or 60 — across the sea, disembarking them on a sandy shore or up rivers far inland. W RECK 3 The excavation: Wreck 3 was localised to the south of Wrecks 1 and 2 during the underwater examination in 1958, when part of the starboard side from keel to gunwale was uncovered

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Fig. 35. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 3 parlially excavated, the bow still with its load of heavy stones and the stem not yet uncovered. In the background Wrecks / and 2.

and measured, as well as the keelson and parts of the internal timber amidships. From the observations made on this occasion, the measurements taken and from the pieces of wreckage brought ashore, it was possible already then to deduce that the ship was a trading vessel with a half-deck fore and aft, and to get an impression of the details of the open hold midships. In 1959 a small section of the port gunwale amidships was uncovered. The high lying southern end of the wreck could be excavated as soon as the draining of the cofferdam was begun in 1962. The excavation of this ship lasted from the 6th Ju ly until the 15th August. Photogrammetrical surveys of the aft and forward sections were made on the 19th Ju ly and the 14th August respectively. The work of dismantling and packing the planking etc. commenced on the 6th September and was completed in the course of seven days. The component parts of Wreck 3 were num­ bered M i-M 339, and 1001-1047: 386 numbers in all. Stale of preservation: Wreck 3 is the best preserved of all the ships in the blockage. The boat had settled against the southern side of the channel with a north/south orientation when it

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Fig. 36. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 3. Plan 1:10 0 based on photogrammetrical survey and aerial photographs.

sank, with its stem across the deepest part of the channel and its stern jutting out of the water at the southern edge of the channel. The pressure of the stones had loosened the planks of the starboard side from the stem, and these rested against the port side of Wreck f s stern, but the stem itself followed the planks to port and was found fully preserved below Wreck 2. The planking at the after end was found worn down to the same level as the fjord bed in the shallow water south of the channel, and nothing of the aftermost end of the ship was preserved (fig. 35). The keel was intact as far as the worn point aft at 4\A. The port strakes and the stringers along them had all broken off between frames 4A and 3 A, while the starboard strakes had broken off at approximately frame at frame jA in the case of the seventh strake, and at 2 \A at the eighth strake (the gunwale strake). The top edge of the gunwale strake in the area around frame o and further aft bore traces of vandalism carried out some time between 1958 and 1962, when part of the gunwale plank and its stringer had been chopped away (fig. 36).

Fig. 37. Skuldelev. Wreck 3. Cross sections of the keel. 115 .

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Fig. 38. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 3. The stem and forward bulkhead as found in situ fully preserved beneath Wreck 2.

Most of the internal timbers from frame iA to the stem were intact and found in situ except those taken up in 1958. Those from frames 2A to 4A were sufficiently preserved for all the more important structural features to be determined. Keel and stem: The keel is of oak, and a length of 8.6 m. is preserved which extends from the forward scarf at the stem by 4 \F to the damaged after end at 4\A (fig. 37). It curves up­ wards towards the ends, and has presumably had a curve of o.3-0.4 cm. amidships. The full length of the keel must have been in the region of 9-9.5 m. It has no rabbet, and the keel strakes are fastened to the sides of the keel amidships with iron rivets at intervals of c. 15 cm. and with spikes at intervals of 14-19 cm. towards the stem and stern. The top of the keel is slightly rounded at each end, and slightly hollow in the midmost length with a longitudinal ridge along the centre line. The cross section of the keel changes at 2 \ F and 2%A respectively, corresponding to the transition from rivets to spikes. Although the bottom of the keel is very worn, its original dimensions can be determined with considerable certainty. Fore and aft its cross section is 12-13 cm. high with straight sides, the top edge is slightly convex and measures

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8-12 cm., and the bottom edge is 5 cm. broad. Wear has reduced the height of the keel amid­ ships to 8-10 cm.; here its cross section is U-shaped, with a maximum width of 15 cm. at the top. The longitudinal ridge along the concave top surface is 3-4 cm. wide and c. 1 cm. high. In the vertical scarf at the stem are the traces of a trenail and at least four iron nails which have kept the keel and stem together. There are no intermediate pieces between keel and stem and stern in this ship. Nothing is left of the stern but the stem is preserved in its entirety (figs. 38 & 39). It is carved from a single piece of wood, 3.7 m. long and up to 0.55 m. broad; its cross section is V-shaped with an incision up to 22 cm. in depth. The strakes have been nailed to the 2 cm. thick after edges of the stem at each side with 2-5 clinkernails at each of the seven steps. The lines of the clinker planking of the hull are continued in the stem piece, the sides of which are carved to correspond to the overlapping bottom edge of each strake. These lines follow an upward narrowing course up each side of the stem, so that the longitudinal lines of the planking from gunwale to keel converge at the tip of the stem. The outer curve of the stem is 4.05 m. long and follows the arc of a circle with a radius of c. 3.5 m. The tip of the stem appears to have had a slight backward curve, and the foremost point of the stem is actually level with the edge of the gunwale. This point is c. 2.1 m. beyond the keel scarf, and the tip of the stem rises c. 3.2 m. above the lower edge of the keel amidships. There is a hole, 4 cm. in diameter, 12 cm. from the forward edge of the stem piece and level with the gunwale. There are no visible signs of wear along the edges of the hole. Planking and stringers: The strakes of Wreck 3 are of oak. There are eight to a side, clinkerbuilt with an overlap of 3-4 cm. and fastened by round rivets, o.7-0.9 cm. in diameter, at intervals of 12-16 cm., with square roves c. 2 x 2 .5 cm. on the inside. The rivets through the sixth and seventh strake, however, are at intervals of 18-20 cm. in a 5-6 cm. broad land, and the eighth strake — the gunwale strake — is spiked to the seventh strake and its stringer with spikes at intervals of 23 cm. in the 8 cm. broad land of the two strakes. Two v-shaped incisions run parallel to the edge along the top of some of the strakes. In the land along the bottom edge of each strake is a shallow groove in which are the remains of a caulking of twisted animal hair and tar that had been inserted before the planks were nailed together. Some of the scarves are also caulked with animal hair and tar. No strake is preserved in its entirety fore and aft, but assuming that the line of the stern was similar to that of the stem, which is very probable, only a length of 1-1.5 m. is missing from strakes iS and 2S and from iB to 6B. Lengths of 1.5-2.5 m. appear to be missing in strakes 3 S to 6S, as well as in jB and 8B, and 3.5-4.5 m. seems to be missing in yS and 8S. The strakes consisted originally of two or three planks, 2.5-5.5 m. in length, although planks of greater length were used in the two top strakes in order to strengthen the midship area on each side. Thus, the second strake from the top comprises two lengths of plank joined approximately at midships, the preserved pieces of which measure up to 7.1 m., whereas the eighth strake — the gunwale strake — has a short end plank forward 1.8 m. long, and a middle

The Skuldelev Ships

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:5//£-knees found, this through deck over the full length of the ship appears to have extended from j F to 8A. From 8A and further aft there seems to have been a little horizontal seat for the helmsman resting on the top edge of the fourth strake. The upper edge of this plank just here is horizontal and does not follow an upward curve normally expected so near the stern. The bites recovered are fairly slender, measuring 9-10 cm. in width, 2.5-3 cm. in height with an extra c. 3 X 3 cm. at the ridge along the top. Supports were inserted between the frames and the bites to strengthen the latter. These supports are round or octagonal oak pegs, 2.5 cm. in diameter, with two decorative incisions near the middle; their diameter decreases towards each end. The pegs are fitted vertically in holes bored into the frames just above the keel and into the bottom of the bites at the middle. Each of the frames from 6F to j F and from jA to jA (or 6A) have had a bite support, while bites in the section from 2F to 2A were sup­ ported by the keelson and keelson-knees, and by snelles. These latter will be described with the keelson. The stringer along the fifth strake has a notch, 7-10 cm. wide, above each frame. These notches have served as horizontal shelves for cross-beams. All these beams are missing, but their presence can be proved above the frames from 6F to 6A by the notches and nail holes for vertical knees on top of the beams in the fifth and sixth strake. The beams were placed 28-30 cm. above the deck, and 25-27 cm. below the lower edge of the oarholes in the gun­ wale strake. The beams appear to have been 7-10 cm. broad and 3-5 cm. thick at the ends. The vertical beam knees fastening the cross-beams to the sides of the ship are preserved at frames i F and o, but the nail holes in the upper strakes show that there must have been similar knees at each cross-beam from 6F to 6A. At i F the knee is fastened with a trenail to the fifth strake and through its 10 cm. broad, flat top with two iron spikes to the stringer on the sixth strake. A single spike hole remains in the 7.5 cm. broad contact face to the beam.

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The beam at frame o had been specially strengthened: apart from the vertical knee nailed with a trenail to the fifth, sixth and seventh strake, its aft edge (possibly also its forward edge) was braced by a horizontal knee spiked to the stringer on the fifth strake. This cross-beam was heavier than the others (at least 10 cm. thick judging from the beam knees), presumably because it acted as a support for the front of the mast. The majority of cross-beams, however, do not appear to have been particularly strong for like the bites, they were supported with pegs — in this case, let into the ridge on the bite and the underside of the beam. Each beam seems to have had two pegs but the short beams fore and aft have only one. The gunwale strake with its many oarholes was not very effectively strengthened, in that the nail holes indicate that only the knee at frame o (and possibly jA and 4F or jF ) extended beyond the stringer on the sixth strake and up the gunwale strake. The other knees terminated at the sixth strake. Over a scarf in the gunwale strake at 4IA is a side frame which runs from the top edge of the stringer on the fifth strake, over the sixth strake and its stringer to the gunwale strake. There is no trace of any other side frame apart from this, but there may have been a corresponding one at the forward end of the gunwale strake which is not preserved. As mentioned before, among the loose pieces of wreckage found was a large knee, pre­ sumably Wreck j ’s horizontal stern knee, from which it could be seen that the angle of the ship’s sides at gunwale level aft was 28° (fig. 51). The knee is c. 4 cm. thick and completely intact along one side which is 127 cm. in length, ending in a slender cross section measuring 3 X 4 cm. This side of the knee was attached to the strake with one small trenail and an iron nail. The general construction of the thwartships strengthening has followed the pattern illus­ trated in fig. 54. The frame extends across the three bottom strakes on each side of the keel; the bite rests on the frame ends against the top edge of the third strake, attached to the fourth strake on each side by means of a knee, the top end of which is covered by the stringer on the fifth strake. The ends of the cross-beams rest on the stringer and stabilise the upper part of the ship’s sides via a knee at each side. The cross-beams are braced by vertical pegs to the bites and may have served as thwarts, while the bites carried a deck of loose planks that had the character of a high floor. The mast beam is stronger than the others with additional support at the ship’s sides. Propulsion and steering: Numerous holes in the gunwale strake for oars show with all desirable clarity that Wreck 5 was originally intended to be propelled by a considerable crew of oarsmen, but the keelson, on the other hand, bears witness to the existence of a mast and sail. There were presumably twelve oars a side, and the holes for eleven of these can be seen in the pre­ served section of the gunwale. The oarholes in the gunwale strake are otherwise very confusing because many more than eleven have been made (fig. 52). In the area between 2F and jA , apart from the five “ real” holes, there are a further six oarholes at slightly shorter intervals. These holes are circular,

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Fig. 53. Skuldelev. Wreck 5. Reconstruction of the keelson. 1:2 5 .

9-10 cm. in diameter, and permanently blocked from the outside with small square oak plates secured with small wooden cotter pins. Whereas the other set of holes in this area are clearly defined square openings with 9-10 cm. sides and a diagonal measurement of c. 12 cm. As the eleven oarholes are disposed in accordance with the distribution of the frames, which in turn decided the position of the oarsmen at the fixed cross-beams, the system of round blocked holes seems foreign to this craft. It suggests that the long middle section of the gunwale strake has earlier been used in another ship. The distance between the foreign oarholes from centre to centre varies from 70 cm. to 88 cm., averaging 78 cm., while the eleven open oarholes, some of which had to be fitted between the round holes already cut, are at intervals of 72-100 cm. — averaging 90 cm. and all according to the distance between the frames. The distance of the eleven holes from the nearest cross-beam in front, measured along the strake, is 27-54 cm. with an average of 42 cm. The bottom edge of the hole is c. 26 cm. above the top of the cross­ beam. These distances indicate that the beams have served as thwarts (7). It is unlikely that there were oars between all frames because of the lack of space fore and aft. Aft, where the side rudder was situated (presumably at frame 8A), there would scarcely have been enough room for oars between 7A and 8A due to the limited width of the boat at this point. Moreover, the top of the side rudder had to be tilted forward in shallow water to avoid hitting the bottom — a manoeuvre requiring some space in front of frame 8A. It is also (7) These measurements are comparable to those of the old Danish lifeboats used off the west coast of Jutland in the past. For example, the vessel of this type built in 1890 which is now at the National Museum. This boat is 9.4 m. long and 2.65 m. broad with five pairs of oars worked from 24 cm. broad thwarts placed 36-41 cm. over the floor at intervals of c. 1 10 cm. Crosspieces for the feet are fixed to

the floor c. 80 cm. aft of the middle of the thwart. The oarlocks are c. 40 cm. aft of the middle of the thwart and 22 cm. above it. As there is a close typological relationship between the coastal lifeboat and Wreck 5, and the rowing technique for both of the boats, the similarity between the disposition of the oars in the two craft suggests that the cross­ beams in Wreck 5 were used as thwarts.

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possible that the oarhole preserved at 6\A is the last one at the after end. The breadth of the ship forward by frame 6F is the same as that aft at frame 7A, as the beam here has been 1.21.3 m. in length. Nothing is preserved of the oarholes which undoubtedly existed in the for­ ward section of the gunwale strake, between 4F and 5F, where a pair of oars could be worked by oarsmen sitting at frame 5F. On the other hand, limited space possibly prevented an extra pair of oars being used forward between 5 F and 6F. Therefore, the eleven oarholes found on the port side in this ship were presumably supplemented between 4F and 5 F by an additional oarhole. This would mean that the ship probably had twelve oars on each side, and was rowed by 24 oarsmen. As mentioned earlier, the after end of the keelson as well as the midship part, in which the lower end of the mast was stepped, had worn away entirely, but the pieces preserved and the traces of keelson knees etc. on the frames nevertheless provide a good basis on which to determine its size and shape (fig. 53). The keelson must have been c. 3.7 m. in length. It extended from frame 2F to 2A} secured by a keelson knee on each side at i F and o, and at 2F by a snelle, which incorporated in one piece of wood the function of two keelson knees and a bite stanchion. No trace of these knees has been found at frames iA and 2A, but there were presumably two keelson knees at iA and a snelle at 2Å. The keelson is made of two pieces of wood held together with iron nails and joined with a vertical scarf immediately in front of frame iF . It has a high cross section from 2F to \F, c. 1 2 x 5 cm-5 and broadens out after this to a width of 26 cm. at frame o. The mast step was presumably immediately aft of this frame in the thickest part of the keelson, so that the mast stood c. 30 cm. in front of the keel’s midpoint. The keelson lies 5-6 cm. above the keel in the area from i F to o, but between i F and 2F (and probably also between iA and 2A), the distance between it and the keel increases in a curve to 11 cm. It may be assumed, however, that the keelson touched the keel from frame 0 to iA in order to take the weight of the mast off the frames. Not enough is left of the keelson to decide whether there has once been an upright branch in front of the mast step as in the keelsons of the other ships in the blockage. Yet this is very feasible because the cross­ beam by the mast, situated approximately 30 cm. above the top of the keelson, may have needed additional support. The very nature of the ship suggests that the mast had often to be lowered when the boat was rowed into a head-wind, but the distance between the deck and the keelson is so small, that a mast-fish with opening aft would not have supported the mast sufficiently at deck level when this was raised or lowered. Some sort of steering arrangement for the mast, level with the cross-beams, is a more likely solution — possibly in the shape of two beams running length­ wise beside the mast from frame i F to /A. There is no definite evidence to show where the stays were secured, and the fact that all iron has rusted away makes it impossible to establish whether iron rings were used amid­ ships as for the shrouds of the Ladby ship. The shrouds could well have been tied at the ship’s sides to the beams, as these would have been well suited for this purpose. Two sets of holes with worn edges, comprising two and four holes respectively 3-3.5 cm. in

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i."" .

Fig. 54. Skuldelev. Wreck 5. Reconstructed cross section near amidships.

diameter, are preserved along the top edge of the gunwale strake between 5A and yA. Ropes for the sail may have been tied through these. There is nothing to show how the side rudder was attached aft. It was presumably at frame 8A, although the preserved part of this frame above the keel, and at the three first strakes to port, is not any stronger than the other frames. The rudder was probably on the starboard side which is now missing. Construction, repairs and alterations: When, during the excavation, it was noticed that the beam knee at frame o concealed half an oarhole belonging to the series of round oarholes, it was taken as an indication that one or more cross-beams had been built into the ship during its latter years, causing the original system of round oarholes to be abandoned and replaced instead with square ones at a greater distance from each other. This conclusion, however, can hardly be maintained when it can be proved that each cross-beam is an integral part of the construction at each frame (as explained in the above), and that this frame-ifte-beam system and the eleven square oarholes are in structural harmony. Conversely, the distance between the round oarholes is generally 13 centimetres less than the distance between the frames, and several of the cross-beams would have had to be removed if oarsmen were to have sufficient room for rowing at these oarholes. It is, then, more natural to suppose that the long

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gunwale plank was originally made for another ship, from which it was salvaged after a ship­ wreck or perhaps when it was broken up, and fitted to this ship. Certain features in the two ash planks j B and 6B, which are also very long, may indicate that these too have been re­ used. For example, a number of trenail holes under the stringer on the sixth strake have no counterpart in the stringer or in the patches, cleats etc. on the outside of the plank. Similarly, there are places where rivet holes occur just along the edge of the strake at intervals of 12-18 cm. — in the top edge of the fifth strake between jA and yA for instance — so that half the rims of the holes have been planed off when the plank was fitted to this ship. Considering that the long middle planks in the three upper strakes measure between 10 m. and 13.8 m. in length, and the long narrow lines of the ship necessitated a longitudinal strengthening of the hull by having these planks in complete lengths at the middle, it is understandable that an effort was made to salvage material from another ship rather than to find trees tall enough for turning into planks of the right length. Plenty of repairs have also been made. There are numerous traces of additional rivets and repairs in the oak planks at the bottom of the ship, where pieces of split or splintered planks have been partially changed out and replaced with short lengths of full width (e.g. iB at jA and 8A, as well as 2B at 2 F and 5F ), or where one edge of a plank has been replaced so that the strake is made up of two narrower planks over a certain distance (e.g. 4B from 2F to 6F). Patches made from fairly thin, fiat or slightly rounded oak laths are nailed over cracks, either along the inside or outside of the strakes, and in one instance a thicker carved piece has been let into the top of the keel to replace part of the edge where the keel strake on the forward port side is fastened to the keel. The extremely worn condition of the bottom planks along the outside, apart from all the repairs, show that this ship was old and dilapidated by the time it was taken out of service and used in the blockage. Although scarcely fit for long voyages, it was nevertheless kept repaired until the last — evident for example, from the unworn piece of plank fitted into strake 2B at 5F. Summary Type and characteristics: As it may be assumed that Wreck 5 remained the same type of ship from the time it was built until it was sunk, with no visible alterations although very repaired, its appearance and dimensions may be fairly accurately judged (fig. 54). The bottom of the vessel is round with a low T-keel giving a shallow draught, probably a maximum of o.5-0.6 m. Its beam is c. 2.6 m. at the top of the gunwale strake midships, and the height of the ship from the lower edge of the keel to the gunwale is c. 1.1 m. The length of the keel is 14.9 m. although the main section is only 11.9 m. On the assumption that the stern construction cor­ responds to that of the stem, the total length would have been 18 m. giving a ratio of c. 7 :1 between length and breadth. The ship has sixteen frames with oars between twelve of them. The average distance be­ tween frames is 90-91 cm. The oars have rested in square oarholes in the top strake, and the

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oarsmen presumably sat on cross-beams over the frames, about 30 cm. above the through deck which was level with the upper edge of the third strake. The existence of a keelson shows that the ship also had a mast and sail, and was not solely dependent upon the thrust of the 24 oars for propulsion. The finds yielded few details con­ cerning mast supports or the standing and running rigging. Nothing remains of the side rudder or its attachment. The keel, stem, stern, internal timbers and four lower strakes are of oak; the three upper strakes are of ash. The gunwale strake, and possibly also the two strakes below this, appear to be re-used pieces. The gunwale strake was originally fitted with oarholes at an average distance of 78 cm. between each. The shield ledge, through deck, many oars, and the light construction of the hull with its long low lines, its shallow draught and the pronounced wear marks along the outside of the bottom planks, all bear witness to the fact that Wreck 5 represents a vessel designed to carry a considerable crew swiftly to its destination. It could disembark a crew on a sandy coast and be pulled ashore, possibly even hauled overland for short distances. Its cargo capacity was negligible, in any event it was not equipped to carry cargo. When the vessel was not in use, it either rode at anchor or was pulled ashore, as the exposed shield ledge prevented it from being moored to a jetty or another ship. The boat was therefore used to transport and land people. It was either the personal vessel of a chieftain or a true Viking ship, that is to say a transport craft for some 26-30 warriors.

W RECK 6 The excavation: Wreck 6 was discovered at the northernmost end of the obstruction in 1959 when a section across the ship was uncovered at frame 2 A. The timbers of the frame were taken up and the width of the planking was measured in situ. The extension of the wreck to the south was ascertained by probing, but the pieces of timber localised in this way were so soft that further work here had to be abandoned. With its cargo of stones, the wreck appeared as a low stone ridge in shallow water (c. o.3-0.5 metres below the surface). The measurements of the section examined were roughly plotted in relation to the base line. This wreck was the first target for the excavation in 1962 because of its position high up in the blockage. The work of uncovering it was begun on the 6th Ju ly and completed on the 15th August; the photogrammetrical surveys were made on the 19th Ju ly and the 19th August (fig. 55). The difficult salvaging operation, during which the method earlier described for lifting and packing the timbers was tried out, could be started on the 20th August and com­ pleted in nine days. The component parts recovered from Wreck 6 were numbered 2501-2577 and 4001-4098 (175 numbers in all), most of these were in numerous fragments. State of preservation: The majority of timber was softwood that had been subject to consider­ able distortion and splintering from the pressure of the stones in the hull and the stones of the

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Fig. 55. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 6. Plan based on the photogrammetrical survey. 1:100.

fjord bottom — in this case, sharp white limestone (fig. 56). The only exception was the south­ westerly end which lay over Wreck 5. Here the angle of the hull had caused most of the stones in it to roll out, and the fjord bottom also provided a softer resting place, with the result that the forward ends of the first strakes in the starboard side were preserved in good condition (fig. 57). Both the stem and the stern were missing, and the planking and timbers were only preserved where the heap of stones had offered sufficient protection — best in the area around frames o to 2A. The uppermost part of the hull (nearest the stern) was totally pressed out of shape against the level fjord bottom, while the keel and planks in front of frame i F followed the downward slope where Wreck 5 lay. Here the upper starboard strakes were loosened and pressed down the slope, so that a wedge-shaped space was formed between these planks and the remainder which followed the line of the keel. Keel and stem: 8 .11 m. of the oak keel is preserved, from the worn point forward to the very damaged scarf aft. It is a rabbet keel with a rhomb-shaped cross section, broadest at the top (fig. 58). The top of the keel, severely damaged by the pressure of the stones, is plane with a moulding along the edges, 8.5 cm. broad at the ends increasing to 11 cm. at the middle. The underside is 4.5 cm. broad. Wear has slightly reduced the depth of the keel which originally was probably 10 cm. amidships. The keel strakes are joined to the 2.3 cm. broad rabbet with clinkernails at intervals of 15-18 cm., spikes are used near the ends. The scarf at the stern is vertical and secured with iron nails. The forward scarf is worn away, but by comparing the

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Hl

Fig. 56. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 6. The north-east part alter excavation.

scarves at the stem and stern of strake i S , it would appear that 25-30 cm. of the forward part of the keel is missing. A trenail, 2.6 cm. in diameter, runs vertically through the keel at c. 3\F \ its exact purpose is difficult to determine. There does not appear to have been inter­ mediate pieces between keel and stem. Nothing is preserved of either the stempost or the sternpost, but the forward length of the strakes shows that the planks were joined to the stem without a rabbet, terminating in steps as in the other ships. Planking: The ship’s planks are of pine with occasional repairs in oak. Parts of seven strakes on the port side and six on the starboard side are preserved. O f these, i S , 2S and j S extend to the scarf at the stem, but no strake is preserved as far as the scarf at the stern, although judging from the beginning of the upward curve of its under edge aft, strake iS broke off only approx­ imately 10 cm. from the stern scarf. The planks are fastened together by roundheaded iron rivets with shafts 0.6-0.7 cm. in diameter and roves on the inside. The distance between the rivets is 15-20 cm., and they are inserted in the middle of a 3-4 cm. broad land in which there is a faint groove, thinly filled with a caulking of animal hair and tar. However, the rivets joining the seventh strake to the sixth are a greater distance from each other, viz. 40-70 cm. Along the top edge of the sixth and seventh planks are holes for trenails (c. 1.5 cm. in diameter) at intervals of 15-40 cm., 2.5-3 cm- below the edge. The rivets in the top edge of the seventh plank may have secured a stringer along the gunwale although no trace of this has been found. The question of how

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Fig. 57. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 6. The south-west part covering some of Wreck 5.

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Fig. 58. Skuldelev. Wreck 6. Cross sections of the keel. 115 .

the holes should be interpreted will be dealt with below in the section on alterations and repairs. The fully preserved planks from the ship’s sides vary considerably in length, in that the two bottom strakes are each made up of two lengths of planking joined amidships. The front part of iS and 2S measures 4.60 m. and 4.75 m. respectively, while the remaining strakes are made up of three lengths: one long plank amidships and two shorter end planks. In strake 3 S the plank amidships is 7.15 m. in length and the forward end 1.75 m. long. The plank lengths are scarved in the overlap manner with a tapering of 9-10 cm., and with three rivets between the row of rivets along both the upper and lower edges. The width of the planks amidships is c. 25 cm. in the lower strakes and between 30-40 cm. in the three upper ones. The cross section of the pine planks is flatly elliptic, between 2.2 cm. and 2.8 cm., widest at the centre in the first, second and fourth* strake. The remainder are a little thicker, increasing to almost 4 cm. in the case of the sixth and seventh strake. The edges are only two-thirds to one-half as thick as the middle, and the dimension is further reduced along the upper edges of the planks because of the planing of the land for the next strake to be correctly raked. The planks are decorated along the inside of the upper edge with a shallow groove flanked on each side by a v-shaped incision. In the first strake to port, just beside the keel at 3\F> is a hole 2.6 cm. in diameter — ap­ parently the draining hole, and thus in this ship situated forward. The frame system: The frames, bites and knees in this wreck are almost completely preserved at frames 0, iA and 2Å, whereas both tø-knees are missing in i F and 2F, and only part of the frames remain at 3 A and 4T, although the bite-knee to port is preserved in 3 A. A loose frame was found off the southern end of the wreck to the west which, judging from its sharp lines, appears to have come from the foremost part of the stem. Remains of slender side frames were found at i\ A , 2\A and 3\A to port and 2\A to starboard. From the parts preserved and the nail traces in the planks, it appears that the characteristic frame-bite system (fig. 59) was used in seven frames from 2 F to 4A. The upper strakes are not sufficiently preserved at 3 F and 4F to decide whether these also had bites with fo’te-knees like the other frames. The nail holes in the fifth, sixth and seventh strake, midway between the nail holes for the bite-knees, show that side frames have existed along the whole length of the

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Fig. 59. Skuldelev. Wreck 6. Frame, bite and bite-knees (2 .4 ) salvaged in 1959 and temporarily mounted after conservat ion.

Fig. 60. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck 6. Frame o and keelson in situ after (he removal of surrounding timber,

preserved strakes, i.e. from jh A to bb' on the port side and from z\A to 2bb' on the starboard side. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that there were once side frames in between all the frames. Apart from the strengthening elements of the hull’s shell mentioned: frames, bites, knees and side frames, as well as the presumed stringer along the gunwale, no trace of other internal reinforcing timbers was found. The distance between each frame, measured from centre to centre, varies between 90 cm. and 98 cm., with an average of 94 cm. The frames are modest in size: 7-8 cm. wide and 6-8 cm. high over the keel, decreasing upwards to 3-4 cm. The frames do not have the same char­ acteristic narrowing of width over the keel sections as those in the other wrecks. The frames are cut to fit tightly to the steps of the planking. There are limber holes in the underside of the frames on both sides of the keel, and the angle between the keel strakes is 1550 amidships. The frames are nailed to the first and second strake on each side with pine trenails, 2 cm. in diameter. There are usually two trenails between each frame and strake although some strakes have only one. The frames are fastened higher up to the third strake on each side with an iron rivet. The bites are of pine and elegant in shape. They are 20 cm. broad and 4 cm. thick at the middle (the mast-bite is 2 2 x 7 cm.), narrowing towards the bite-knees to 12 cm. and 10 cm. respectively. This tendency continues up the bite-knees which measure 8 x 6 .5 cm. at the end on the sixth strake. The wood has been selected so that each of the bites and one bite-knee are in one piece, while the other bite-knee is carefully mortised and nailed into the top of the bite. The well-shaped lines of the bite are emphasised by profiled grooves along the upper edges similar to those on the keel and planks. The bite-knees are nailed to the fourth, fifth and sixth strake with two trenails per strake, and at the sixth strake each knee is fastened with an ad­ ditional iron rivet. The side frames are lightly made: 5.5-6.5 cm. broad and 3.5-5 cm. thick. These joined the

The Skuldelev Ships

I5 I

Fig. 6 i. Skuldelev. Wreck 6. The keelson. 1 125.

fifth, sixth and seventh strake, notched into the inner side of the planks in between the frames and secured by small 1.2 cm. trenails, one in each strake and sometimes supplemented with an iron nail. None of the side frames preserved are full length, and the way they terminated at the top is consequently not known, although it appears that their lower ends finished in a flat, round tongue against the edge of the fourth strake. Propulsion and steering: The keelson is unusually small. It rests on the keel and fits over frame o to a width of 15 cm. (figs. 60 & 61). Immediately aft of the bite at this frame is the 7-8 cm. square mast step (originally 6 cm. deep). The width and height of the keelson is greatest under the bite, c. 17 cm. and 21 cm. respectively. Its length may be determined by the distance be­ tween the nails at each end of it, viz. 1 1 3 cm., plus an allowance for the points of the keelson beyond the nails — c. 132 cm. in all. The tapered and pointed ends would not extend as far as the neighbouring frames but terminate at §F and \A respectively, where the ends of the keelson are nailed to the keel. The keelson has been subject to great pressure from the load of stones and parts of the end pieces are missing altogether. The bite in this case rested directly on the keelson in front of the mast step, apparently se­ cured with a trenail hammered vertically into the top of the keelson. Furthermore, the after edge of the bite seems to have been cut to fit the round mast, but as the bite is broken just here it is difficult to be absolutely certain about these details. On the other hand, it is clearly evident from the shape of the preserved bites that these have not carried any mast-fish to support the mast on being raised and when it was upright. The mast, therefore, must have been kept in position with ropes to the sides and forward — shrouds and stays — although no trace has been found of cleats or other arrangements for securing these. The mast step was 4.55 m. from the keel scarf aft, which means that the mast stood c. 35 cm. in front of the keel’s midpoint that in turn would correspond fairly accurately to midships. Although the tops of the bites are broad enough to be used as seats, the bites could not have functioned as thwarts for the oarsmen to sit on. For if this had been the case, there would be holes for the oars at the upper edge of the fifth strake or the lower edge of the sixth. No such holes have been found in any of the strakes in question, viz. between $ F and jA in the fifth strake and between i F and 4A in the sixth strake. Neither in the preserved piece of the seventh

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strake (between iA and 4A) is there anything that indicates the use of oars in this craft. How­ ever, this does not exclude the possibility of holes for oars in one of the two upper strakes, for example forward by frame j F and/or or of oartholes attached to the gunwale both fore and aft and perhaps amidships. In the latter case, where the vertical distance from the top of the bite to the oarthole at frame 2A would be c. 80 cm., the oarsmen would have to row the boat standing up. No trace of any fixture for a side rudder was found on the starboard or port side, presumably because the upper starboard strakes aft are missing. Repairs and alterations: In common with the other boats in the blockage, the preserved timbers of Wreck 6 bear evidence of wear and repairs. The third strake to starboard, for instance, has been repaired by replacing the lowest part of the strake between frame 2F and jA with a narrow oak plank, wedged in and secured by spikes to the frames. The trenails in this section of the strake were cut off during the repair and not replaced with new ones. Moreover, several of the strakes were patched with flat pieces of oak nailed over the cracks in the planking. This applies to the upper edge of the fourth port strake, where oak patches cover the rivets between 2 F and 2A except at the bite-knees, and the lower ends of the side frames rest against these patches. Several factors indicate that the original gunwale was placed along the upper edge of the sixth strake, and that the seventh strake and the side frames (primarily serving as supports for this strake) were added some time after the boat was built. The trenail holes along the upper edge of the sixth strake, mentioned earlier, support this assumption. In spite of being in the land adjacent to the seventh strake, there are no corresponding holes along the lower edge of this strake. I f there were a stringer along this strake earlier, it would have had to be removed before the seventh strake was attached to the sixth. The marks of the rivet roves on the upper edge of the sixth strake are evidence in favour of this, as well as the fact that the side frames are flush against both the sixth and seventh strake which leaves no room for a stringer on the sixth. Other features indicate that the side frames are secondary; for example, they cover the patch on the upper edge of the fourth strake, and a rivet, the impression of which can still be seen in the land between strake j B and 6B at s\B> has been replaced by a spike driven into the side frame. Therefore, the original gunwale stringer was presumably along the sixth strake, and after some time had elapsed, the height of the ship’s sides was increased by adding a c. 40 cm. broad seventh strake, strengthened by side frames, and by moving the gunwale stringer from the sixth to the seventh strake.

Summary Type and characteristics: It is possible to reconstruct the midship section of Wreck 6, both with and without the seventh strake, on the basis of what was recovered. The craft appears

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*53

Fig. 62. Wood splitting technique. Gross sections of an oak log (left) and a pine log (right), and an indication of the way the planks of the Skuldelev ships are orientated in these.

to have had a rounded bottom with a low rabbet-keel, giving it a shallow draught — about 0.3 m. when lightly loaded and c. 0.7 m. when fully loaded. The measurements of the beam and height from keel to gunwale were c. 2.3 m. and c. 0.9 m., and c. 2.5 m. and c. 1.2 m. be­ fore and after the alteration respectively. The length of the keel is c. 8.40 m., and the total length of the ship presumably c. 12 m., whereby the ratio between the length and breadth is 5.2: i and 4.8: i in the two versions of the boat. No trace of a deck nor any features were found to indicate whether the space between the frames was utilised for different purposes. The mast was stepped into a keelson of very modest size slightly forward amidships, but no trace is left of cleats etc. for securing the standing and running rigging. Equally little can be said about oarholes or fixtures for oars or a side rudder, although this does not eliminate their existence. The bites are suitable for sitting on but are too low for thwarts had the vessel been propelled by oars at gunwale level. The planking, bites etc. are chiefly of pine both originally and in the later alterations, although two oak planks were used for the large repair carried out in the third starboard strake. The chief characteristics of the ship’s construction are known, apart from the bow and stern, but a closer classification of its type raises some difficulties. The absence of a deck and oar holes at a “ normal” level above the water line clearly show that this boat is not a warship in type, but rather a transport craft used over short distances, a fishing boat for net-fishing for example, or a passenger or goods ferry for crossings of limited length.

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Fig. 63. Splitting a log. The initial Q in a manuscript of Citeau. completed 1 1 1 1 . (Bibi, de Dijon).

M A T E R IA L S AND T O O LS In many cases traces can be seen on the ships’ timbers of the tools with which they were fashioned. Impressions of some of these toolmarks were taken before the wood underwent conservation, and a considerable number were photographed. A record was made of the basic measurements of each separate element in the ships, the wood used and the position of the element in the piece of timber or log from which it was cut. It has been possible on the basis of this information to identify, inter alia, a number of the working processes undertaken before the elements were fitted into the ships. The type of timber used The following table lists the types of wood used in the ships in order of predominance. Some of the smaller pieces have not yet been classified and are not included in the table (1).

Wreck j Planks Keel Keelson Stem & stern Frames Bites Side frames Other pieces Trenails Trenail wedges

pine (oak) oak oak oak, pine oak lime, oak lime, pine pine, lime willow pine

Wreck 2 oak oak oak oak oak — willow oak willow' pine, oak

(1) The classification has been carried out by E. Tellerup, B. Brorson Christensen and Ole Crum-

Wreck 3

Wreck 5

oak oak oak oak oak oak oak oak, beech willow oak, willow

oak, ash, pine oak oak oak oak oak oak oak, alder willow' oak

Wreck 6 pine (oak) oak birch — alder, pine pine, birch oak — pine pine

lin-Pedersen — all of the Danish National Museum.

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Fig. 64. The Bayeux Tapestry. William’s men felling trees, cutting planks and building ships before the Conquest in 1066.

Wood used for repairs only is given in brackets. As shown by the above, oak is the wood generally used in the Skuldelev ships; Wrecks 2 and 5 are entirely of oak with the exception of such small details as rigging cleats in beech and trenails of willow. Likewise in Wreck 5 there is a preponderance of oak, although the three uppermost strakes are of ash and a single end plank is of pine. In contrast to these are Wrecks 1 and 6 whose planks are of pine, and in which oak is used only for the keel, stem and stern, and for certain internal timbers, as well as in connection with repairs to the planks. There were no pine trees suitable for shipbuilding in the forests of eastern Denmark during the Viking pe­ riod (2). The cutting of curved timber, straight timber and planks Great care was taken by those building the ships to choose wood whose fibres followed the shape of the end product as closely as possible. The number of joints were therefore reduced to a minimum, for example in several of the ships a bite and bite-knee on one side were cut in one piece, and the strakes that had to bear the greatest strain were in long unbroken lengths (3). This method of selection would not have posed any great difficulties when choosing wood for the small timbers of a ship, such as knees etc. On the other hand, considerable choice was needed for finding sufficient curved wood for the c. 38 frames in Wreck 2, for example, or in the same ship, a straight trunk — 10 m. in length with a strong branch projecting halfway up (2) O p p e r m a n n has examined the early sources containing evidence of the geographical distribution of pine (Pinus sylvestris) in Denmark, and he has incorporated North and West Jutland in the natural area of distribution (A. O p p e r m a n n : Skovfyr i Midt­ og Vestjylland. Det forstlige forsøgsvæsen i Danmark V I ,

Kobenhavn 1922, pp. 16 1-2 35 ). (3) This was a sensible structural disposition as the bending strength of a beam scarved with a strongly bolted indented scarf is only about one half of the strength of the unbroken length of beam.

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Fig. 65. Skuldelev. Wreck 3. Part of the upper strakes on the port side at 2 F with axemarks on the inside of the planks.

it — for the keelson, with its upright branch in front of the mast step. The elements were fash­ ioned with great care from the heartwood of oak, and sapwood is only found in one or two of these. Long elements of equal width and height (10-18 cm.), and up to 12.1 m. in length, such as the keel and stringers, were cut from slender logs. The pith of the trunk is visible in the cross sections of the keel, and this shows that a whole log was used for each keel. Wreck 5^ keel ap­ pears originally to have been 13-14 m. long, and that of Wreck 2 15-20 m. long, probably lengthened fore and aft. The logs from which the stringers were cut are hewn so that each log has provided enough material for two stringers. Pine planks can be roughly divided into two groups. The first comprises planks 20-30 cm. in width and up to 7.2 m. in length with which the greater part of the ship’s sides is built. The second group consists of planks, 35-50 cm. in width and up to 12.2 m. in length, which are used in the upper strakes to give the ship the necessary longitudinal strength. In both groups the planks are tangentially orientated in relation to the annual rings of the log from which they were cut (fig. 62). In no case is the pith visible in the cross section of the plank; sometimes this

The Skuldelev Ships

'57

Fig. 67. Skuldelev. Wreck 1. Pine plank (in B ) seen from the outside. Marks made by a small plane are preserved under a tongue scarf. Fig. 66. Skuldelev. Wreck /. Axemarks on both sides of a bite fragment of pine, port side at o.

has been just beyond it. This shows that each pine log provided sufficient wood for two planks, and possibly four in some cases (4). The ash planks in Wreck 5, 10.0-13.8 m. in length and 27-32 cm. wide, are tangentially orientated in the cross section of the log like the pine planks. The same applies to the long midship length of the oak gunwale strake in Wreck 5, which is 42 cm. wide in the middle, and which has originally been at least 9 m. long. This gunwale plank is the sole exception to the (4) A n d e r s S a n d v ig has carried out experim ents in splitting pine logs for planks and it was only possible to get two planks — one on each side o f the pith — from each tree trunk. (A n d e r s S a n d v ig :

Om bord og plankehugging fö r vannsagens tid. — De Sandvigske samlinger, årsberetning 1928-30, L illeh am m er

19 31, PP* 3-37) •

Fig. 68. Skuldelev. Wreck i. Pine plank (g B) seen from the outside with traces on the surface of dressing by a scraping plane iron.

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Fig. 69. Skuldelev. Wreck 1. Detail of frame 4 A showing the original marking off of centerline, limber holes and notch for first strakc.

rule, in that all other oak planks in the ships are radially cleaved — as opposed to the planks of pine and ash. Planks cut radially are in lengths of up to 9.1 m., and in widths of up to 38 cm.; in one case, a plank of 7.1 m. in length is as much as 42 cm. wide at one end. The pre­ requisite for this method of splitting timber is a supply of’ straight oak logs of considerable dimensions. Thus a diameter of c. 1 m. at chest height is necessary if a trunk is to give enough for planks with a width of 30 cm. at the broadest end (fig. 62) (5). Experiments show that the radial splitting of large oak logs can be done without undue difficulty because the pith rays, that form a broad, radially orientated “ mirror” between pith and bark, assist the cleaving. To get uniform plank elements with a triangular cross section, it is necessary to split the logs in a series of diminishing halves, and by continuously bisecting the angle, pieces which are £, £, J-, ^ or 32 of 360° are obtained. The ships5 planks of oak all seem to have been fashioned (as shown in fig. 62) from wedge-shaped elements obtained by splitting the log into thirty-two sections, viz. with a wedge angle of c. i i ° in cross section. Utilizing timber in this way has several advantages as it reduces wastage to a minimum, and provides plank elements of uniform breadth. Moreover, a knot in the wood only affects those wedge-shaped sections that lie within the angle of the knot. The pith in oak trunks of this size often suffers from an incipient attack of fungus, but as this is the area chopped away, either when the timber is split or when the planks are fashioned, it does not affect the finished product. Oak planks cleaved in this manner have a number of advantages in constructional respects over the tangentially orientated oak planks, because the pith rays affect the strength in such a (5) The technique for radially cleaving oak planks is no longer practised in Scandinavia, except for cutting such small items as barrel staves etc. It was gradually superseded in the Middle Ages by the method in which logs were “ plane cut” (tangentially cut) into planks with a manual or water-powered saw. The radial cleaving technique for planks ap­ pears to have survived longest in boatbuilding; in Blekinge, for example, this method was still used until the middle of the 19th century. (N ils N il s s o n :

Mårtenssons på Hästholmen. — Blekingeboken 1967, Karlskrona 1967, pp. 97-98). In c. 1800 the same technique was used in Germany for oak trunks which were felled too far from roads or rivers to be transported to a saw-mill. (F. A . L. v o n B u r g s d o r f : Versuch einer vollständigen Geschichte vorzüglicher Holz­ arten . . . II, 2. Berlin 1800, pp. 12 -15 , pi. X ). The Middle English term cloveboards probably refers to this type of plank.

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r59

Fig. 70. Skuldelev 1962. Wreck /. Detail amidships between frames 3 A and 4 J with traces similar to sawmarks, but caused by a natural growth phenomenon in the oak.

way that the cloven plank can sustain a heavier load than a plane cut plank of the same thickness before splitting (6). In addition to which, fluctuations in the width of the planks due to changes in the moisture content of the wood are only half as much in the radially orientated planks as that in the tangentially orientated planks. It is these factors which made the radially cut planks particularly valuable for such slender constructions as the light ship-types of the Viking period (7). (6) Pine planks are differently affected, in that the rad ially orientated plank takes r. 20°,, less strain than a plank o f the sam e thickness w hich is tangen­ tially orientated. (F. K o l i .m a n n : Technologie des Hol­ zes und der Holzwerkstoffes, vol. 1. Berlin 19 5 1. p. 906 ). (7) In the V ik in g period w edge-shaped tim bers w ere also com m only used in houses, either with no additional shaping other than to chop aw ay sapwood and smooth the sides, or by chiselling out a tongue or groove in the thick end o f the plank into w hich the thin end o f the next plank was fitted. T hese planks w ere wrell-suited for w allin g as the

reaction o f the wood to variations in m oisture is m inim al, and the wralls rem ain w eatherproof. W ood is also utilized m ore effectively when rad ially cleaved rather than tangen tially cleaved in cases when the latter yields only one plank at each side o f the pith. For exam ple, a knot-free oak log, 75 cm. in diam eter, yields c. 5.5-6 m2 o f w all planking per linear m etre when rad ially cleaved, as against c. 1.2 m 2 per linear m etre when tangen tially cut. T h e division o f a log into 16 or 32 sections for use in housebuilding is known in finds from V ik in g and early m edieval times in D enm ark, for instance T relleb o rg in Z ealan d

i6o

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Fig. 7 1. Skuldelev. Wreck 1. Traces as from a saw across an oak plank (2 B ). The traces are in fact caused by a wavy fibrous growth. It can be seen running across mouldings along the plank edges and right through the cross section of the plank.

The working process is depicted in contemporary sources. For example, a 12th century miniature (fig. 63) shows the initial log splitting, while in one of the scenes in the Bayeux tapestry is shown not only timber felling but cleaved planks and the way in which their surface was dressed (fig. 64). The pile of planks around the woodsman probably indicates that large logs were split in the forest, and then transported to the shipyard where they were squared and finished. This would facilitate the transport of the timber considerably, and the fact that al­ most all the planks of the Skuldelev ships have straight edges, indicates that the plank elements did not have to be selected individually. Toolmarks The original surface of many of the component parts of the ships was so well preserved that the way these were cut and dressed was clearly distinguishable. Axemarks in the form of a series of short chopmarks terminating with straight cuts at an angle of 30°-90° to the direction of the grain were found almost everywhere in the oak planks (fig. 65), and the internal timbers (fig. 66). The oak planks were smooth-hewn from both edges without any additional dressing, which explains why the planks tend to increase in thickness towards the middle. The axe-type used does not appear to have had a broad blade. Adzemarks have not been noticed although the adze must have been used for a number of tasks, such as for shaping the concave underside of the frames. Plane traces in the form of long, continuous, slightly concave traces, 1-2 cm. broad, on the (P o u l N ø r l u n d : Trelleborg. Nordiske Fortidsminder, IV . vol., no. i. København 1948, p. 74), Borringholm in Jutland (M o g en s C l e m m e n s e n : Bulhuse, Studier over gammel træbygningskunst. København 19 37, p. 254), and in South Schleswig from Hedeby on the Schlei, Hammaburg (R. S c h in d l e r : Ausgrabun­

gen in Alt-Hamburgs 1957, p. 120), and fromStellerburg in the Ditmarshes (M a r t in V ik t o r R u d o l p h : Germanisches Holzbau der Wikingerzeit, i.T e il. Neu­ münster 1942, figs. 37, 44, 45, 8 1, 105, u i , and pp. 1 3 3 - 1 35, in which the author assumes that this splitting technique is of West German origin).

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Fig. 72. Skuldelev. Cross sections of the keels in the ships, r : 3,

surface of the wood can be seen where the planks were fitted to each other in overlappings, scarves and similar joints (fig. 67). The traces of strippers {plane irons) or similar tools, that can both cut and scrape, used for dressing the surface of the wood, were found on most of the pine planks. These have been smoothed so that apart from areas with knots, there are no axemarks left on them. The traces are characteristic, long and fairly broad (2-6 cm.) strokes, similar to the plane marks along the length of the wood, but with a series of straight marks across these strokes at a distance of o. 1-0.5 cm- from each other (fig. 68). These have been left by the blade of the tool when this was worked almost at right angles to the surface of the wood, both cutting and scraping it at one and the same time. The tool was presumably pulled towards the user, as opposed to a plane, which is normally worked in an outward direction. No transverse traces are left in wood when a plane is used, as this is less liable to jump because it is kept steady by the weight of the person using it. Most of the mouldings along the edges of the planks, frames, etc. have similar transverse marks, which seem to have been made by pulling a scooping iron along the edge. There is a large number of bore holes in the planks and internal timbers for all trenails and iron nails. What kind of bore was used can only be judged from those bore holes which do not pierce the wood right through, such as the holes in which the stanchions between frame and bite have been fitted. These indicate that the bore used was a spoon-bore, which leaves a conical hole with a rounded apex. Traces of marking off made with the point of a knife, or another pointed tool, can be seen along some scarves (fig. 67), and on one frame (fig. 69) where the middle, limber holes and notches for the strakes are clearly marked. Although all the traces left by tools were carefully examined, there was no sign of sawmarks, either across or along the grain of the wood. A number of the oak planks have a pattern of pale and dark stripes across the surface, at intervals of 0.5-1.5 cm., which when first studied bears a striking resemblance to sawmarks (8) (figs. 70 & 71). A closer inspection of this pattern, H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d has described a number

c. 110 0 excavated at Galtabäck in Halland in 19 2 8

o f similar traces on the planks of the wreck from

(H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d : Galtabäcksbatens ålder och här-

(8)

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Fig. 73. Stempiece, 1.93 m. in length, found in a bog on the island of Eigg in .Scotland.

however, revealed that it was a fairly common phenomenon in oak, where the fibre structure develops a wavy course during growth which takes on the appearance of narrow, pale and dark stripes across the surface of the wood after it is split and dressed. The clearest evidence that the stripes are associated with this growth phenomenon is found at the edges of the planks, where the stripes continue into the groove of the moulding, and where sawmarks would have obviously been planed away. Iron Iron in the form of spikes and rivets was used in the ships. As no iron is preserved, either partially or as corroded lumps, these nails can only be judged by their impression in the wood. For the same reason, it cannot be determined whether some of the nails in the ships had ring bolts or similar additions for securing ropes. Both spikes and nails are forged with flat, circular heads, c. 2-2.5 cm. in diameter, and with a round shaft, o.7-0.9 cm. in diameter. The only exceptions are a few spikes with a square cross section, used in the repair to Wreck 2's keel strake, and the small tacks with which the thin repair patches were nailed to the planks. The rivets are clinched to square roves on the inside. The roves appear to have been cut from a c. 2 cm. broad flat-bar in suitable lengths, 2-2.5 cm., as two sides are parallel and two slightly irregular. D A T IN G AND T Y P O L O G IC A L P A R A L L E L S It is already very evident from the preceding pages that the five ships vary widely in charac­ ter. Although several stages can be established in the construction of the blockage, commencing with the sinking of ships /, 3 and 5, and followed by 2 and 6 — in this order, the differences cannot be solely explained by the possibility that they were built at different times. Without reservation the boats must be seen as representing a shipbuilding technique in which both typological and regional characteristics have been under development. No evidence was found stamning (I). Göteborgs och Bohusläns fornminnesförenings tidskrift 1942, pp. 24-49. Galtabäcksbåtens ålder och härstamning, II. Sjöhistorisk årsbok, Stockholm 1948). These were first explained as sawmarks, and were

later taken to be a phenomenon resulting from the dehydration of the planks. Both these explanations can be ruled out in respect of the Skuldelev material, which was not subject to dehydration.

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Fig. 74. Models of stemposts (for toy boats?) found in the Norse ruins at Sandnes in Greenland. Danish National Museum.

during the excavation which allowed a closer dating of each phase in the building of the block­ age. A series of C -14 datings have been made of wood and caulking samples from the find in Peberrenden in order to ascertain the age of the ships and the rest of the obstruction.

0 0

00

Wreck 1 caulking 1010 ± 100 A.D. (K-876) Wreck 2 caulking 910 ± 100 A.D. (K-584) Wreck 2 willow nails 990 ± 100 A.D. (K-908) Wreck 3 willow nail 1030 + 100 A.D. (K-877) Wreck 5 caulking 960 ± 100 A.D. (K-875) ± 100 A.D. (K-878) Fascines by Wreck 3, hazel twigs Oak twigs in Wreck 2 ± 100 A.D. (K-583) 940 In attempting to calculate the approximate time at which the ships were built and the block­ age established on the basis of these tests, the datings listed above have to be corrected by adding the number of years that elapsed from the time the organic material comprising the sample was formed, to the time it was used in the ship or the blockage. For the samples of twigs from the fascines (940 and 980 ± 100 A.D.) the correction is negligible, as these were only a few years old when they were cut for use in the barrier. The samples of trenails from the ships have to be calculated with a correction of up to about 40 years, according to their position in the section of wood from which they were cut, in order to bridge the span from formation to the slightly later date at which they were used. The dating of the caulking in ships /, 2, and 5 has also to be corrected to give the approximate date at which the ship in question was built or repaired. But in this case a satisfactory correction cannot be made, as these samples comprise animal hair, which may be assumed to have been formed shortly before it was used, mixed with wood tar in unknown quantities and probably of considerable age — in that the tar was extracted from trees of some maturity. Therefore, the C-14 dating of the samples can alone show that the period in which the ships

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Fig. 75. A fleet depicted on a 13th century rune stave found at the excavation of “ Bryggen” in Bergen, Norway.

were built and sunk falls between 900 A.D. and 1100 A.D., probably in the period between 950 A.D.-1050 A.D. (1). Typological parallels A number of the characteristics evident in the construction of the five Skuldelev ships have not been observed earlier in archaeological material of this kind in Scandinavia, although the main features and most of the details have parallels in other finds. Keel shape: The keel cross sections of the Skuldelev ships represent a wide variation (fig. 72). Ships /, 2 and 6 have a clearly defined rabbet to the keel strakes, a feature which was earlier considered to belong to a far later period (2). But apart from the Skuldelev find, this occurs in a 7th century wreck from Kongeåen, near Gredstedbro in south-west Jutland (3), found in 1945, the fragments of which are at the Ribe Museum. The flat keel of this boat has a plane top which becomes slightly concave towards stem and stern with a V-shaped transition similar to Skuldelev 3 and 5. There are similar details in other finds where the top of the keel changes towards the ends from concave to convex (4), and also in recent Norwegian shipbuilding (5). The convex keel top in both Skuldelev / and 2 has a parallel in the keel o f the Eltang ship (6). (1) The C -14 datings are based on a C -14 half life of 5570 years. However, the calculation of the half life has recently been corrected to 5730 - 4 0 years, consequently all the datings given above must be increased by 3% (H e n r ik T a u b e r : Danske kulstof14 dateringer a f arkæologiske prøver. II. Aarbøger fo r nor­ disk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1966, København 1967, p. 102). In this case the correction adds c. 30 years to the age of each of the samples. (2) P h . H u m b l a & L e n n a r t v . P o s t : Galtabäcksbåten och tidigt båtbyggeri i Norden. Göteborgs Kungl. vetenskaps- og vitterhetssamhälles handlingar. 5. följden, ser. A ., vol. 6, no. 1, Göteborg 1937, p. 36, and

H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d : Fartygsfynden i den forna hamnen i Kalmar. Uppsala 19 51. p. 132. (3) O l e G r u m l in -P e d e r s e n : The Gredstedbro Ship. Acta Archaeologica, X X X I X (in the press). (4) B e r n h a r d F æ r ø y v i k : Båtfunnet i Vdgsbotnen 1948. Foreningen Bergens Sjøfartsmuseum, årshefte 1948,

PP- 52 - 53 (5) K r ist ia n K i e l l a n d : A f jordsbåten (Staværingen). Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum, Oslo 1938, no. 28, p. 15. (6) S ig v a r d S k o v : E t middelalderligt skibsfund fr a Eltang Vig. Kumi 1952, p. 7 1. O l a f O l se n & O. C r u m lin P e d e r s e n : The Skuldelev Ships (I). Acta Archaeolo­ gica X X I X , København 1958, note 14, p. 172.

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Fig. 76. Skuldelev. The midship frames of the ships seen from aft and from above.

Vertical scarves at the ends of the keel appear to have been usual in the North during the Viking period and the Early Middle Ages for they occur in all finds. Shape of stem and stern: In contrast to most of the earlier ship finds — from the Nydam ship through to the Gokstad ship — not one of the Skuldelev ships has a rabbet at the stem or stern. However, their stem and stern construction is not unknown in other ship finds. The open V-shape with steps to which the strakes are attached, and the continuation of the course of the strakes on the sides of the stem and stern, are found in the small ship’s boat from the Gokstad ship (7), and in a stempiece, 1.93 m. in length, from a bog in Scotland (8) (fig. 73). The stem of the first of the three boats excavated near Danzig in 1933 (9), Danzig-Ohra I (in Polish: Orunia I (10)), was the same in shape but without the cleft in the inner edge. The lower part of the stern in Skuldelev / is likewise without a cleft, but in this case neither is there any charac­ teristic continuation in the course of the first and second strakes across the sides of the stern from the steps. Details similar to those of the lower part of the stern of Skuldelev I are known in a number of finds: from Greenland in the West (fig. 74) to Pomerania in the East (11) . (7) N . N ic o l a y s e n : Langskibet fra Gokstad ved Sandefjord, The Viking-Ship discovered at Gokstad in Norway. Kristiania 1882, pi. V . A r n e E m il C h r is t e n s e n j r . : Færingen fra Gokstad. Viking 1959, p. 59. (8) H a a k o n S h e t e l ig (ed .): Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland. Part II. Oslo 1940, pp. 179180. (9) O t t o L i e n a u : Die Bootsfunde von Danzig-Ohra

aus der Wikingerzeit. Quellen und Darstellungen zur Ge­ schichte Westpreussens. Danzig 1934, pp. 7 -12 . (10 ) P. S m o l a r e k : Inwentaryzacja zrödet do dziejöw

techniki szkutniczej Stowian pomorskich (.Inventarisation der Quellen zur Geschichte des Bootsbaus der pommerschen Slawen,.) Materialy zachodnio-pomorskie I, Szczecin 1955. (1 1 ) Models of stemposts from Sandnes in Green­ land ( A a g e R o u s s e l l : Sandnes and the neighbouring farms. Meddelelser om Grønland, vol. 88, no. 2, Køben­ havn 1936, fig. 69); Norwegian bog finds ( A r n e E m il C h r is t e n s e n j r .: Frå vikingskip til motorsnekke. Oslo 1966, p. 4 7 ); the Eltang ship in Denmark (S i g v a r d S k o v : Et middelalderligt skibsfund fra EUang Vig, pp. 70 -72); Swedish finds such as Galta bäck

Acta Archaeologica

1 66

Fig. 77. Snelles from different ship finds. /: Tune ship, 2: Skuldelev 2, 3 : Skuldelev 3,

Hedeby ship.

No rabbet stems or sterns occur in finds from the period between c. 950-1200 A.D.. although the possibility that this type was also used cannot be excluded, as the material recovered to date cannot be considered fully representative. There appears to be little chronological basis for the development of stem and stern shapes as outlined by Humbla, which progresses from the cleft stem piece of the Hjortspring boat over to the stepped type and thence to the rabbet technique used in the Nydam boat (12). The course of development sketched by Arne Emil Christensen, on the other hand, is in better agreement with the individual dating of the ship finds (13), and according to which the endeavours to find a truly sound method for joining the end planks to the stem and stern have evolved via the raked rabbet stem of the Nydam boat, and the sweeping, curved prow of the Oseberg ship, to the stepped rabbet construction in the Gokstad ship, and thence to the stepped version in which several strakes are in some cases fitted to one broad end plank. Prows like that of Skuldelev 3, in which the course of the strakes converges in a high point, are depicted on loose planks in the Oseberg ship (14), and on a 13th century rune stave from Bergen (15) (fig. 75). This type is also known from a number of other representations and finds. Planking: Like the other Scandinavian ship finds of the Viking and early medieval periods, all five of the Skuldelev ships are clinker-built with round iron rivets — in contrast to those ( P h . H u m b l a & L e n n a r t v. P o s t : Galtabäcksbåten, pp. 8 4 - 8 5 ) , Falsterbo ( H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d : Skeppsfyndet vid Falsterbo 1932. Sjöhistorisk årsbok 1 9 5 2 , Stock­ holm, pp. 9 7 - 9 8 ) and two loose pieces from Kalm ar ( H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d : Fartygsfynden i den forna hamnen i Kalmar, pi. 2 7 ) , and the Pomeranian ship finds: Danzig-Ohra II and III ( O t t o L i e n a u : Die Bootsfunde von Danzig-Ohra, pp. 2 1 - 2 7 ) . ( 1 2 ) Ph. H u m b l a & L e n n a r t v . P o s t : Galtabäcks­

båten,

pp. 35 -4 5 .

(13) A r n e E m il C h r is t e n s e n j r .: Færingen fra Gokstad, pp. 59-66. (14) A . W . B r ø g g e r , H ja l m a r F a l k & H a a k o n S c h e t e l i g : Osebergfundet, vol. 2. Kristiania 1928, p. 202. (15) A s b jø r n E. H e r t e i g : Die archäologischen Un­ tersuchungen an “ Bryggen” , dem alten Hanseatischen Mittel­ punkt in Bergen. Acta Archaeologica, vol. X X I X , Køben­ havn 1958, p. 137.

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recovered along the Pomeranian coast which have planks nailed together with trenails (16). The broad end planks with more than one strake fitted to each, as found in all the Skuldelev ships with the exception of Wreck 6, are already known from the Äskekärr ship (17) and the Danzig-Ohra I (18). The broad tapering scarves in the broad planks of Skuldelev 1 also appear to occur in the Hedeby ship (19). An unpublished Danish find from Hasnæs (20) near Ebeltoft (Hasnæs II), together with Danzig-Ohra I (21), appear to be the only parallels to Skuldelev 2, 3, and 3 as far as the strin­ gers and beam shelves on the strakes below the gunwale strake in these ships are concerned. Hasnæs II has a broad beam shelf that was nailed to the strake above the top of the frame, and notched for bites and side frames. These longitudinal reinforcements, nailed directly to the inside of the strakes, appear to replace and complement the thick plank “ meginhufr” to be found where frames and bites terminate in the Norwegian burial ships (22), the Äskekärr ship (23) and also probably the Ladby ship (24). These characteristics have not been found in any Scandinavian ship of the medieval period. The frame system: The average distance between frames in Skuldelev /, 3 , 5 and 6 is between 90 and 94 cm., which corresponds to that in the following ships: Äskekärr, Ladby, Hedeby, Eltang and Hasnæs II. The distance between frames in the Norwegian ships — Oseberg, Tune and Gokstad — is slightly greater: c. 95— 100 cm., while in the medieval ships from Galtabäck, Falsterbo, Kalm ar I (25), and Asker (26) it is c. 40-50 cm. The exceptions to this regular pat­ tern in Scandinavian ship finds are Skuldelev 2, where the average distance is c. 70 cm., and the ship in which Skuldelev j ’s gunwale plank was originally fitted. Here the distance between frames seems to have been c. 78 cm. A parallel to this is seen in a ship (probably 12th century), found in 1948 at Holmen in Bergen (27), the pine planking of which resembles the heavy upper strakes in Skuldelev /. The distance between frames can be judged by the nail holes, and amounts to 65-75 cm* (16) Trenails as well as square iron rivers have been used in the planking of the Falsterbo ship (H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d : Skeppsfyndet vid Falsterbo, p.96). A survey of the Pomeranian finds is given in O l e C r u m l in -P e d e r s e n : Das Haithabu-Schiff. HaithabuBerichte und Studien. Die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu, vol. 5 (in the press). ( 17 ) Ph. H u m b l a : Båtfyndet vid Äskekärr. Göteborgs och Bohusläns fornminnesförenings tidskrift 1934, pp. i 5" i 6 -

(18 ) O t t o L i e n a u : Die Bootsfunde von DanzigOhra, fig. 10. ( 1 9) O l e C r u m l in -P e d e r s e n : Das Haithabu-Schiff\ fig. 8. (20) The Hasnæs find comprises pieces of at least two vessels (Hasnæs I, dated by C -14 to 5 9 0 ^ 1 0 0 A .D . (K -1096), and Hasnæs II, dated by the same method to 9 9 0 ^ 10 0 A.D . (K -10 9 7)). The pieces

were excavated in old beach strata c. 160 m. and c. 50 m. behind the present coastline. (2 1) O t t o L ie n a u : Die Bootsfunde von Danzig-Ohra, figs. 10, 12. (22) A . W. B r ø g g e r & H a a k o n S h e t e l i g : The Viking Ships, their Ancestry and Evolution. Oslo 19 5 1, pp. 1 19 -120 , 15 4 ; H a a k o n S c h e t e l i g : Tuneskibet. Norske Oldfund II, Kristiania 19 17 , p. 12. (23) P h . H u m b l a : Båtfundet vid Äskekärr, pp. 16 -17 . (24) K n u d T h o r v il d s e n : Ladby-Skibet. Nordiske Fortidsminder V I , 1. København 19 57, p. 36. (25) H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d : Fartygsfynden i den forna hamnen i Kalmar, p. 30. (26) A r n e E m il C h r ist e n se n j r . : Et middelalder­ skip i Asker. Viking 1964, p. 1 3 1 . (27) B e r n h a r d F æ r ø y v i k : Leivder av eit kaupskip på Holmen, Bergenshus. Foreningen Bergens Sjøf'artsmuseum, årshefte 1948, pp. 30 -31.

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The use of trenails for fastening frames to the ship’s sides instead of lashing them, as in most of the Norwegian burial ships and earlier finds, has a number of parallels. For example, the 7th century ship from Gredstedbro has trenails in its frames, and the same applies inter alia to Äskekärr, Hedeby, Eltang and Hasnæs II, as well as all the medieval finds. Yet characteristics of the lashed frame’s round cross section are still preserved in the frames of the oldest ships, i.e. Gredstedbro and Äskekärr, and there are relatively few nails between each frame and the plank-shell. In the later ships, frames have a rectangular cross section and sometimes vary in width from one end of the frame to the other, such as those in Skuldelev /, 2, 3 and 5, as well as in Hasnæs II. The frames are nailed to most of the strakes but not usually to the keel strakes. Skuldelev 6, however, has frames of constant width nailed with one or two nails to each strake (fig- 76). The slender side frames of Skuldelev 2 and 6 between the frames, and equidistant to them, have parallels in the Äskekärr, Hasnæs II and Hedeby ships, whereas the thick side frames in Skulde-* lev i have no counterpart in any of the published ship finds. On the other hand, the long and sturdy bite-knees in the Eltang ship are similar to those in Skuldelev /. The small flat føtø-knees in Skuldelev 3 and 5 overlaid by a longitudinal stringer are also to be found in Danzig-Ohra I. The system with cross-beams over a number of the bites in Skuldelev /, 3 and 5 was recognised for the first time when Skuldelev 3 was examined in 1958, but already in the preliminary report on the Skuldelev find (28) a likely parallel was suggested in the Eltang ship. Cross sections of three of the South Scandinavian finds (Eltang, Galtabäck and Kalm ar I) were shown in the report to illustrate the continuity between shipbuilding techniques of the Viking period and the Middle Ages in the North. This continuity can be discerned, for example, in the development of the thwartships strengthening in Scandinavian trading vessels from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Bites, found at all frames in Viking ships, are later moved down towards the bottom of the hull, and the sides of the ship above the bites strengthened instead with cross-beams, although these do not occur at all frames — and eventually at only a few of the frames but then with one or more cross-beams, one above the other. Since 1958, Skuldelev /, the Asker wreck and the wreckage of a 13th century ship excavated at Bryggen in Bergen (29) have supplied further evidence in support of this outline of the constructional changes in trading vessels from Viking times to the medieval period. The fairly slender cross-beams in Skuldelev 3 and 5, braced by stanchions set in the bites, are also indicated in the Hedeby ship. Propulsion: After the spread of the sail in the North during the centuries prior to the Viking period, it appears that the hard and fast rule was to step the mast in a longitudinal keelson. This is found in the ships from Äskekärr and Oseberg and in the sailing vessels of the following centuries. The tendency was for the keelson to span an ever-increasing number of frames, and (28) O l a f O l s e n & O. C r u m l in P e d e r s e n : The Skuldelev Ships (I), pp. 1 7 2 -17 3 . (29) A sb jø r n E . H e r t e i g : Bygget likevel nord-

mennene handelskib i middelalderen? Jernindustri nr. 5, Oslo 1964, pp. 91-94.

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by the Middle Ages it had almost the same length as the keel, as well as becoming incorporated in the lengthwise reinforcement of the hull by being nailed to the frames (30). In small ships, however, the keelson was quite short as in Skuldelev 6*, or even non-existent — in which case the mast was stepped in a transverse floor-timber (31). The branch projecting from the keelson at the mast step is a characteristic feature, and apart from the Skuldelev ships it also occurs in Äskekärr, Oseberg, Gokstad, Tune and Hasnæs IL The beautifully curved snelles in Skuldelev 2, 5, and 5 have close parallels in Äskekärr, Tune and Hedeby (fig. 77). On the other hand, these details have not been found on any medieval keelson so far recovered. Round oarholes with a slit for the oar blade in one of the uppermost strakes are known from the Oseberg and Gokstad ships, as well as from pieces of ship’s timber found in Grønhaug and Gunnarshaug on the island of Karmø (32) in Norway. The round type without a slit, found in one of the two series of oarholes in the gunwale plank of Skuldelev 5, the square type in Skulde­ lev 3 and 5, and the round-arched type in Skuldelev /, all appear to be varieties that have not been found earlier. But this is undoubtedly because top strakes are rarely preserved. As yet no oarholes have been observed in any medieval ship find, although this feature is sometimes depicted in other medieval material (33). Summary In spite of fairly considerable individual differences, a typological examination of the Skulde­ lev ships, as a whole, shows that the find is typologically later than the Norwegian Viking ships from Oseberg (c. 800 A.D.), Gokstad and Tune (both c. 850-900 A.D.), and also the Swedish Äskekärr ship (C -14: 830+ 75 A.D. (34)), yet older than the Swedish ship finds from Galtabäck and Falsterbo (C-14: 1070 + 65 A .D ., and C -14 : 1 1 0 0 1 7 0 A.D. (35)), as well as the Norwegian Asker wreck (C-14: 1200 + 80 A.D. (36)), and the ship’s timbers excavated at Bryggen in Bergen (earlier than 1248 A.D. (37)). The closest typological parallel is Hasnæs II, (30) E.g. Kalm ar I, see H a r a l d Å k e r l u n d : Fartygsfynden i den forna hamnen i Kalmar, p. 32. (31) This is the case, for example, in a find from Sandnes, Greenland (A a g e R o u s s e l l : Sandnes and the neighbouring farms, fig. 70) and from Bergen (B e r n ­ h a r d F æ r ø y v i k : Båtfunnet i Vdgsbotnen 1948) pp. 5 1 54). In finds from the Frisian, English (O l e C r u m l in P e d e r s e n : Cog— Kogge— Kaag. Handels- og Søfartsmuseets årbog 1965, p. 99; P. R . V . M a r s d e n : A Ship of the Roman Period, from Blackfriars, in the City of London. Guildhall Museum Publication, London 1967, p. 17) and Slavonic-Pomeranian areas, the mast is generally stepped in a transverse floor-timber. (32) H a a k o n S c h e t e l i g : En plyndret bådgrav. Ber­ gens Museums Aarbog 1902, No. 8, pp. 1 1 - 1 3 ; A . L o r a n g e : Storhaugen paa Karmøen. Nyt Skibsfund fra Vikingetiden. Bergens Museums Aarsberetning for 1887, no. I V , pi. I l l , figs, i & 2.

(33) For example, in the Bayeux Tapestry, on the rune stave from Bergen (A s b jø r n E . H e r t e i g : Die Archäologischen Untersuchungen an “ Bryggen” , fig. 4), and on carved stones from the island of Iona, Scot­ land ( F r ie d r ic h M o l l : Das Schiff in der bildenden Kunst. Bonn 1929, pi. D II 24, 26, 30). (34) L . G . E n g s t r a n d and H. G. Ö s t l u n d : Stockholm natural radiocarbon measurements IV , Radiocarbon, Vol. 4, New Haven 1962. The Äskekärr dating is numbered St. 661. (35) H. G. Ö s t l u n d : Stockholm natural radiocarbon measurements /, Science, vol. 126, 1957, pp. 493-497The datings of the Galtabäck and Falsterbo ships are numbered St. 204 and St. 137. (36) A r n e E m il C h r is t e n s e n j r .: Et middelalder­ skip i Asker, p. 132. (37) A s b jø r n E . H e r t e i g : Bygget likevel nordmennene handelskib i middelalderen? p. 03.

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dated by C -14 to 990+ 100 A.D. Typological criteria, therefore, confirm the indications sup­ plied by the C -14 tests of the Skuldelev find that this belongs to the period between 900 A.D. and 1100 A.D., very possibly between 950 A.D. and 1050 A.D. The dating of Skuldelev 5 can be somewhat narrowed down, as the decoration carved on one of the planks in the Ringerike style is unlikely to be earlier than c. 1000 A.D. All in all, there is reason to believe that the blockage is from the first half of the n th century. No characteristic in the Skuldelev ships indicates that they were built outside Scandinavia; on the contrary, all features point towards parallels within the North. By comparing these characteristics, the materials chosen, dimensions etc., with those of parallel finds, it is possible to piece together the following picture of each of the Skuldelev ships: Skuldelev 1 is a broad cargo vessel with high sides, c. 16.5 m. in length, solidly built and cap­ able of long journeys in the North Atlantic, for example to Iceland and Greenland. It was not intended for frequent pulling ashore. It is built with pine planking, presumably in southern Norway, where this building material was available, and where similar features have been found in later finds, i.e. in some ship’s planks excavated in Bergen in 1948, and in the Asker wreck excavated in 1963. Skuldelev 2 (which incorporates “ Skuldelev 4” ) is of oak, and originally c. 28 m. in length. It is difficult to determine with certainty the nature of the craft because o f its poor state of preservation, but it appears to have been a vessel for transporting 50-60 warriors — a true “ Viking ship” . Really close parallels to this ship have not yet been recovered, although it bears some resemblance to Skuldelev 5, Ladby, Hedeby and Hasnæs II. It was probably built in southern Scandinavia. Skuldelev 3 is a small or medium-sized cargo vessel, c. 13.5 m. in length, built entirely of oak and it possibly represents (together with Skuldelev 5), the local boatbuilding traditions of the period in the Roskilde fjord area. Its structural details closely resemble those of Skuldelev 5, Hasnæs II and Hedeby, while in type it is in the line of development which can be traced in cargo ships: from the Äskekärr ship via the Eltang and Galtabäck ships to Kalm ar I. Skuldelev 5 is a typical, medium-sized “ warship” or “ Viking ship” for transporting 26-30 men, and disembarking them on an open beach. It is c. 18 m. long, low and narrow, and of the same type as the Ladby, Hedeby and Hasnæs II ships, as well as those portrayed in the Bayeux Tapestry (38). Danzig-Ohra I seems to represent a Slavonic copy of this ship type, while Skulde­ lev 5 appears to be of southern Scandinavian origin, possibly a local product as in the case of Skuldelev 3. Skuldelev 6 is the second pine built ship in the Skuldelev find, and the one which is the most difficult to place in context with comparative material. However, judging from its character­ istics, it appears to have been a utility vessel — possibly a ferry or fishing boat. It is unlikely to have been built in Denmark as the planking is of pine. (38) This ship type is at present being examined by the author for the purpose of revising the reconstruction of the Ladby ship (O l e C r u m l in -P e d e r s e n

& T . H a r t v i g N i e l s e n : T il søs med vikingeskibet “ Imme Gram” . C N Post no. 68, published by Christiani & Nielsen A /S, København 1965, pp. 20-23).

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T H E V IK IN G SH IP M U SEU M IN R O S K IL D E Until the final excavation of the ships, there were few preconceived ideas about the museum which was one day to shelter this exhibit. Only a fairly limited impression had been gained of the true extent of the find, and it was not known how' many of the ships would prove suitable for exhibition. Therefore no advance plans could be made concerning the future of the ships, and the question of where the museum should be situated was only lightly touched upon. However, as the ships gradually emerged from the muddy fjord bed, public interest in their future grew, and at the close of the excavation the National Museum had a number of sugges­ tions to consider. The first idea was to erect a building over the site itself and to keep the sheet­ piling of the cofferdam. A rough project worked out by Ghristiani & Nielsen Ltd. showed that no great technical difficulties were involved, and that the structure would not be unduly costly. The main reason for abandoning this plan was the relative inaccessibility of the site. The second possibility was to incorporate the ships among the exhibits of the National M u­ seum, but there was no space in the main buildings of the museum in the centre of Copenhagen, although the extension of the museum in Brede, on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen, could have accommodated them if this had been necessary. But Brede is not on the coast, and it was obviously desirable for the ships to be exhibited in close proximity to their natural element. For the same reason a suggestion by the Slagelse Town Council for exhibiting the ships in a specially designed building at the Trelleborg Viking fortress was turned down. Interest was centred, therefore, on two towns situated on the shores of Roskilde Fjord: Ros­ kilde and Frederikssund, the Town Councils of which had each offered suitable sites and finan­ cial aid. The area suggested by the authorities of Frederikssund was on a promontory called Kalvøen, four kilometres from where the ships were found, in beautiful surroundings with a magnificent view across the fjord. Roskilde Town Council offered three possible sites: one in Provstevmget by the cathedral, one in the park between the cathedral and the harbour, and one on the shores of the fjord a few hundred yards east of the harbour. It was this site which was chosen for the museum. Preference was given to Roskilde because it already possessed a considerable historical at­ traction, the cathedral, visited annually by more than two hundred thousand people. It is indeed likely that a considerable number of these tourists will also visit the Viking Ship Museum, and conversely, that the number of visitors to the cathedral will be increased by those who come primarily to Roskilde to see the Viking ships. Negotiations with the four foundations and concerns financing the excavation and conserva­ tion of the ships, and the representatives of the Town Council, resulted in the founding of a self-governing institution known as The Viking Ship Museum of Roskilde with the purpose of housing the ships, and carrying out research in this connection that will contribute to a greater knowledge of Danish maritime history.

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Fig. 78. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. Project by Erik Chr. Sørensen.

The four donors, the Town Council of Roskilde, the National Museum, the Danish Maritime Museum at Kronborg, and the Danish Naval Museum, are represented on the board of govern­ ors. The expected net working profits will be divided according to the charter into three por­ tions: 50% for projects connected with maritime archaeology and as recommended by the board, 10% for studies relating to the history of Roskilde, and the remaining 40% for deposit in a building fund to be used when extensions are needed for the accommodation of new ship finds. It is agreed that the National Museum deposits the five ships with the new museum, which will also have office premises for the National Museum’s Institute of Maritime Archaeology — the leader of which will also act as the director of the Viking Ship Museum. The governing body arranged a closed competition for the museum project in February 1963. The architects invited to participate were Bent Alstrup & Erik Villefrance, Jørgen Bo & Vilhelm Wohlert, and Erik Chr. Sørensen. The participating architects were supplied with sketches of the ships together with a general outline of the way in which they were preferably to be exhibited. A silhouette effect was recommended, achieved by placing one or more of the dark hulls in front of a great window facing the fjord. The architects were advised to give Ships /, 3 and 5 the most prominent positions in the interior. The building was also to include a large entrance hall for special exhibitions, a cafeteria, offices, workshops etc. Special attention

The Skuldelev Ships

m

Fig. 79. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde 1968. Photographed immediately after completion.

was to be paid to the position of the building in order to preserve the view across the fjord from the town centre. On the 27th April, 1963, the design entered by Erik Chr. Sørensen was unanimously voted the winning project by the judges. It is now in the process of being built as it was conceived with almost no alteration. The museum is a long, low building of glass and concrete, the north facade of which is at the water’s edge. The entrance in the south-west corner leads into the entrance hall, and from here, four of the ships are immediately seen: / and 2 are at a slightly lower level than the entrance hall, while in the background 3 and 5 rise in silhouette against the glass facade of the north wall with the fjord beyond. The visitor then follows an ingenious system of gangways past all five ships, presenting them at different levels and ending once more in the entrance hall, from which there is access to the cafeteria in the north-west corner of the building. A small cinema and lecture room in the basement is reached from the entrance hall; workshops and storerooms are also in the basement. The south-easterly end of the build­ ing accommodates offices and a library. The building is heated by warm air. The heating plant is connected to a climatic plant which maintains the relative moisture content of the air at a constant 60% with a maximum deviation of 5% to each side. It was hoped that the museum would be under way by 1964, but because building costs proved far greater than originally anticipated its construction had to be postponed until suffi­ cient financial support was secured, and building was not begun until the autumn of 1966. The estimated cost of the building is c. 5.3 million kroner towards which the Danish government has contributed 3.4 million and Roskilde Borough Council 1.5 million. The A. Jespersen & Son Foundation has awarded a grant of 100.000 kroner, and The Knud Højgård Foundation, The

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Otto Mønsted Foundation and The Tuborg Foundation have together granted the sura of 200.000 kroner for equipping the museum and the cinema. The building will be completed early in 1968, and the task of assembling Wreck 1 will be commenced immediately at the museum. When this has been done the museum will be opened to the public, who will then have the opportunity of following the assembly of the rest of the ships which will presumably be carried out in the following order: Wreck 5, Wreck 3, Wreck 2 and Wreck 6. I f no unexpected difficulties arise this should be accomplished by 1971.

V IK IN G E SK IB SH A LLEN I RO SKILD E DANMARK