Skuldelev ships

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  In 1957 the Danish National Museum began lifting the Skuldelev ships out of the bottom of Roskilde Fjord, and the work did not finish until 1962. Five Viking vessels came up in pieces from one of the winding natural channels called Peberrenden, near the harbor of Skuldelev. All five have been dated to the 11th century. Their resting place raises a puzzle. Why would anyone leave five working ships on the seabed in one narrow channel? Where were they built, and what jobs did they do? And how does a set of five ships come to carry a number six?

  14

• 2. Sunk On Purpose

  ›

  The narrow channels of Peberrenden may hold the answer. Researchers think the five ships were scuttled deliberately, as an early form of blockship meant to stop a threat arriving from the sea. A sunken hull in a tight channel is hard to sail around, which is the whole point of the tactic.

  The wreck site therefore works like a sample of the age. It holds a cargo carrier, a long warship and a small fast raider, all gathered by a single act. Before the ships can be sorted by origin, though, the excavators had to untangle a miscount.

  134

• 3. The Missing Number

  ›

  When the first remains came out of the mud, the diggers believed they had found six ships. Two large sections were labeled Skuldelev 2 and Skuldelev 4, on the assumption that they belonged to different vessels.

  Later study showed that both sections belonged to Skuldelev 2. The name Skuldelev 4 was struck from the catalogue. Renumbering the others would have confused anyone who had already read the earlier reports, so the original designations stayed. That is why the series runs 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, with a permanent gap in the middle.

  Of the ships that kept their numbers, two came from western Norway, a long way from Roskilde.

  124

• 4. Cargo From Sognefjorden

  ›

  Around 1030, in Sognefjorden in western Norway, shipwrights built both Skuldelev 1 and Skuldelev 6, using mainly pine.

  Skuldelev 1 measured about 16 meters in length and 4.8 meters in breadth, yet it drew only one meter of water. It was a sturdy seagoing cargo vessel, possibly of the knarr type. A crew of six to eight could run it with a sail of roughly 90 square meters and just two to four oars. That rig could have taken it across the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the North Atlantic, at a top speed of 13 knots.

  Its timbers also record a long working life. Later repairs used oak and linden, and they were carried out in the Oslo Fjord and in eastern Denmark. About 60 percent of the original hull survives.

  Skuldelev 6 is far smaller, at 11.2 meters long and 2.5 meters wide, with a draught of only half a meter. Its purpose is uncertain, but fishing is the likeliest. It had good cargo capacity, with oars, a sail and a crew of five to fifteen. Later in its life it was rebuilt, probably as a coastal cargo ship. Vessels of that kind went by the general name Ferje. About 70 percent of it has survived.

  The next ship was built entirely of oak, and its builders worked in Ireland.

  145

• 5. The Dublin Longship

  ›

  Tree rings gave Skuldelev 2 away. Dendrochronology, the dating of wood by its growth rings, placed its construction in the Dublin area around 1042.

  This was an oak-built seagoing warship, a longship possibly of the skeid type. It was about 30 meters long and 3.8 meters wide, with a draught of just one meter. At most it could carry a crew of 70 to 80. Its shape and a large sail, estimated at 112 square meters, would have allowed speeds of up to 15 knots.

  It is one of the longest Viking ships ever found. Yet it is also the least preserved of the five, with only 25 percent of the original left. Those fragments would later be rebuilt into a full-size ship.

  145

• 6. Built In Danish Waters

  ›

  Skuldelev 3 was finished around 1040, somewhere in Denmark. It was a modest oak cargo ship, 14 meters long and 3.3 meters wide, possibly of the byrding type. Its draught was just 0.9 meters, and it could carry four to five tons of cargo.

  A crew of five to eight sailed it, with a 45 square meter sail as its main power. That made it well suited to shorter trips in Danish waters and the Baltic Sea, at a top speed of about 10 knots. With 75 percent of the original remaining, it is the best preserved of the five.

  Holes along the top planks of Skuldelev 5 once held straps for shields. This was a small warship of the snekkja type, 17.3 meters long and only 2.5 meters wide. Its draught was a shallow 0.6 meters, and it carried a crew of about 30.

  Its builders used a mixture of oak, pine, ash and alder. They designed it for the shallow waters of Denmark and the Baltic Sea. With a sail estimated at 46 square meters, its average speed was calculated at 6 to 7 knots, and its maximum at about 15. Around 50 percent of the hull has been preserved.

  Skuldelev 5 was built in the Roskilde area, close to the fjord that would eventually hold its remains.

  145

• 7. Ships Built Anew

  ›

  In 1969 a replica of Skuldelev 5 named Sebbe Als was built at Augustenborg, also in Denmark. It reaches 5 knots on oars alone and 12 knots under sail. It was the first of several copies.

  The Roskilde Viking Ship Museum went on to build accurate reconstructions of all five originals, while the originals themselves are exhibited in the same museum. Skuldelev 5 became Helge Ask. Skuldelev 3 became Roar Ege. Skuldelev 1 became Ottar, which now lies in the Museum Harbour. Some of the designs have also been rebuilt by other groups across the world.

  The largest project was Havhingsten fra Glendalough, the Sea Stallion from Glendalough, a copy of Skuldelev 2. It ran from August 2000 to September 2004, cost 1.34 million euros and took almost 40,000 hours of labor. In the summer of 2007 the Sea Stallion sailed from Roskilde to Dublin, arriving on the 14th of August. It stayed on show there until the summer of 2008, then sailed home, reaching Roskilde on the 9th of August.

  Skuldelev 6 was rebuilt twice. The museum launched Kraka Fyr in 1998 and then Skjoldungen in 2010. Skjoldungen offers a different reading of the bow and stern, a reminder that the surviving timbers still leave room for interpretation.

  542