The Gokstad ship was discovered in February 1880 when 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 and ordered his team to begin excavating from the side rather than dropping down from the top.
A human skeleton lay inside a bed within a timber-built burial chamber during excavation, standing between 181 and 183 cm tall and appearing to be forty to fifty years old. Professor Anton Willem Brogger later claimed this was King Olaf Gudrodson in the 1920s, though no gold or silver was found by the excavators in 1880.
The Gokstad ship has 16 rooms corresponding to 32 oars total. A square sail of approximately 110 square meters could propel the vessel over 10 knots while its hull shape suits medium to flat water sailing conditions.
The ship now resides at the Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo where it remains the largest preserved Viking ship in Norway. Education Minister Kristin Halvorsen stated on the 3rd of May 2012 that the ship would not move from Bygdøy after thirteen years of debate.
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 and Knut Utstein Kloster donated the vessel to Sandefjord in May 1993.