Gokstad ship

• 1. Discovery And Excavation

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  In February 1880, the frozen ground of Gokstadhaugen yielded a wooden bow to the sons of the farm owner. Nicolay Nicolaysen arrived at the site shortly after hearing about the find. He was then President of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments. The mound measured 50 metres by 43 metres before his team began work. Years of ploughing had reduced its height to just 5 metres. Nicolaysen ordered the digging to stop immediately upon confirming it was an ancient artifact. His team started excavating from the side rather than dropping down from the top. They found the ship's bow on the second day of their dig.

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• 2. Construction Techniques

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  The vessel is clinker-built and constructed largely of oak timber. It features 16 tapered planks per side that overlap about 30mm in normal style. Iron rivets sit approximately 180 mm apart where the planks lie straight. Rivet spacing narrows to about 125 mm apart where the hull turns. The lowest nine planks are thinner at 2.5 cm compared to the 3 to 4 cm thickness of upper planks. These bottom planks use withies to tie them to frames below the waterline. This method makes the hull lighter and more flexible. A quarter rudder fastened to a large block known as the wart steers the ship. The mast could be raised or lowered depending on conditions.

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• 3. Burial Chamber Contents

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  A human skeleton lay inside a bed within a timber-built burial chamber during excavation. The man stood between 181 and 183 cm tall and appeared to be forty to fifty years old. Twelve horse bones, six dog bones, and one peacock bone surrounded his body. Professor Anton Willem Brogger later claimed this was King Olaf Gudrodson in the 1920s. No gold or silver was found by the excavators in 1880. Weapons were absent from the grave despite being common grave goods for men. Three small boats, a tent, a sledge, and riding equipment accompanied the remains. Some artifacts likely vanished due to ancient plundering before the modern dig began.

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• 4. Dating And Commissioning

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  Dendrochronological dating places the felling of the timber around 890 AD. This period marked the height of Norse expansion into Dublin and York. The ship was commissioned at the end of the 9th century during King Harald Fairhair's reign. It has 16 rooms corresponding to 32 oars total. A square sail of approximately 110 square meters could propel the vessel over 10 knots. The mast could be raised and lowered as needed. When traveling in shallow water, the rudder could be quickly raised by undoing its fastening. The hull shape suits medium to flat water sailing conditions.

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• 5. Museum Display History

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  The ship now resides at the Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo. It is the largest preserved Viking ship in Norway. The reconstructed burial chamber sits alongside two of the small boats found with it. Two tent boards from the original site are also displayed there. Education Minister Kristin Halvorsen stated on the 3rd of May 2012 that the ship would not move from Bygdøy after thirteen years of debate. Some other artifacts surviving ancient plundering remain on display in the museum. The vessel has been a central exhibit since its initial preservation efforts concluded.

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• 6. Modern Replicas And Voyages

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  A replica named Viking crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Bergen to Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Magnus Andersen captained this replica which remained on exhibit near Chicago. Another exact replica called Gaia was constructed during the winter of 1989, 1990 in Bjørkedal. Ragnar Thorseth sailed Gaia to North America on the 17th of May 1991. Vigdis Finnbogadottir named the ship Gaia on the 19th of June 1991 while it was en route. Knut Utstein Kloster donated the vessel to Sandefjord in May 1993. Gaia reached ten knots under full canvas covering 120 square meters. Other replicas include Munin in Vancouver and Íslendingur in Iceland.

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