Viking Ships and their use

Not all Viking ships were great sea going vessels. A more common sight would have been smaller boats that were used to cross the fjords and rivers. From these, you could ferry a few people from shore to shore, fish, sink fish traps, or move some co-operative livestock to better forage on the opposite bank. This particular boat is called a 'Faering', meaning literally four oars. In modern terms this is called double sculls, where each rower has two oars apiece. The man on the tiller or steerboard is not essential when rowing, as the rowers can steer the boat via the oars. The tiller cannot be lashed into a neutral position so that it doesn't affect the rowers, however it's affect can be avoided when the tiller handle is removed, swivelled clear of the water, and strapped clear. The Steersman takes the problem of direction control off the rowers hands, as he can also see ahead. This is a very relaxing position to be in in the boat, although you tend to get cold as you are not exercising your muscles.

The only time things get very exciting, is when the vessel is sailed. The small boat is very twitchy in the wind, as it is an unballasted vessel, and any sudden change in the wind direction can throw the boat this way or that. The small tiller has a surprising amount of effect as the speed of the boat picks up which requires the man on the tiller to have a steady hand. The rowers, who should really only number two not including the Steersman, then act as 'rope pullers/holders', assisting in the sailing of the boat. There is no anchor, so the Faering has to make for the shore, or tie up to another anchored boat, unless you can rely on not drifting as the crew takes a nap. The lack of a deep keel and relatively high sides encourages the wind to drift the boat sideways in the water, an effect that all Viking ships suffered to one extent or another, whether under sail or not. This is called giving 'Leeway', i.e.; the ship slips sideway into the Lee (downwind side) of the wind. This is solely due to the effect of the wind's force on the side ships hull. Critics of Viking ships have described this tendency to skid or slip sideways as - " having as much leeway as a common raft ". Another curiosity of the boat with such an angular keel is that when the nose of such a small boat touches shore, the craft becomes immediately unstable, and liable to topple one way or the other flinging the crew into the water ironically at the end of a very competent and skilful sail. To prevent a demonstration of forgetfulness, the crew will lower the sail prior to reaching shore, and get at least a pair of oars out to steer and organise the boat square on to the shore. If the water is still deep enough to bring the boat side on to the bank (don't forget that the tiller sits lower in the water than the keel), such as you may find on a river, the crew can then get out easily onto the bank and stay dry.

However in the sea or in most lakes, the crew will get wet feet and legs, as they jump out, which is the better than tipping the crew completely in by accident necessitating the boat to be bailed out. The water comes up to the knees, so that the crew often wear old shoes to protect their feet and take their trousers off to keep them dry for use on shore. On the boat itself, wet leather shoes are a menace. The saturated leather and damp timber cause the crews feet to slip, so some opt to remove their shoes for better grip.

In the photograph at top, the boat seems to be very cramped, but this is due to some foreshortening in the photograph. Even at 19 feet in length (5.8 meters), four people are not particularly crowded, however, the boat is close to the waterline, and in choppy conditions, you would not want anyone else aboard. In very calm conditions, you can get 6 or 7 people aboard depending upon their total weight and how passive they all are. The Faering takes six men to lift it clear of the water with a struggle, although it can be pulled along it's keel by 4 far more easily. It's estimated weight is 200 kilos, although it has never been accurately weighed. This brings into question the practicality of portage. This is the practice of carrying the boat from one river to a neighbouring one to continue your journey. For economy's sake, and the success of the venture, the crew would be as small as was possible, maximising the volume of goods carried. In this case, a three man mission would be apt. However, three is too small to move the boat and the cargo. This would suggest that the famous Viking traders on the Russian river systems may have had to employ locals to assist with either horse, ox or man power to carry the goods, or pull the boat. All adding expense to the trip, and adding cost to the goods.

In the meantime, the newly finished warship is eased from her berth. After the sea trials to determine that the ship is sea worthy, and fit for her duties, the ship is taken on her maiden voyage. Rowing out into the Fjord, the men are prepared for a long sea voyage. They've tied their shields along the side, partly for show and partly for some protection from the driving sea-spray. They will bring them in when the sail is raised, stowing them out of the way below deck. All iron swords, mail axes and things would be in sealed and greased barrels below deck to try to stop them from rusting in the salt air. They are wearing heavy clothes and cloaks - it's always cold at sea.

Nearing the end of the sheltered fjord and close to the open sea, it's time to put away some of the oars and haul the mast up. This is a hard and fairly dangerous job. If a wave, especially one coming in broadside to the ship and striking it at the wrong moment, it could be disastrous. The whole ship is out of balance. Although most of the crew is needed to haul up the mast, some must carry on rowing to keep the ship facing in the correct direction into wind. When the mast is up, the rest of the crew get the oars out to drive the ship out of the Fjord and into the sea proper. When a clear wind is felt, the sail is hoisted and the ship begins to leave the fjord.

Soon, they meet a cargo ship coming home to their village and they shout to the sailors to find out what the weather is like and how their luck has been. You can see how different the cargo ship is from the newly built raider. It is far rounder and deeper in section to contain cargo and only 50 - 60 feet long (17 - 20 meters). The oars are hardly ever used, with the ship being propelled by just the sail and the skill of the sailors. As the Knarr slips into it's home port, some members of the crew ready the anchor, which is a 'gash' replacement for the one it normally carries. The very expensive large iron anchor was lost off Spain, and the crew set to work to make the crude but effective one they now plan to drop in the fjord.

The crew of the Knarr is smaller, however, they will have travelled much further and longer than the new raider ever will, as the trader is a genuine ocean going ship whilst the raider is designed primarily for coastal work, and will head for port as soon as conditions get too bad. The tall sides of the trader's hull make this a very sea worthy ship that 'bobs' on the surface rather than cutting through the sea.

However, it was not impossible for the largest warships to travel great distances. One of the wrecks from Roskilde Ship Museum found at Skuldelev, was a warship estimated at or near 100 feet long (30 meters). For a long time it was thought to have been a locally built vessel until the advent of Dendrochronology, or the art of tree ring analysis. The Oak timbers for the vessel known as wreck one came from Ireland. This suggests strongly that this ship sailed all the way from there. At over 100 feet long, the hull must have warped and twisted with every wave. Even on a smaller ship this can be witnessed by the crew as the Bowpost and Sternposts move out of alignment as the ship ripples forwards over the peaks and troughs of the waves. A large storm could have easily snapped the vessels' back. The art would have been to hug the coast, visiting friendly ports along the way, hopping across the more open stretches on good sailing days. In ideal conditions, Denmark is at least three whole days sail away from England, and often longer. There was a term that meant literally 'A good days sailing' and this was used to describe the estimated distance of 150 miles at sea. The trader would not necessarily get in very close to the shore, as she was drew more, i.e.. floated deeper in the water. A good jetty or quay was needed before unloading could take place.

As an example, the famous Gokstad ship and the various replica versions that have sailed in recent years, have demonstrated that the ship requires about 10 tonnes of ballast, with the ship weighing in at 20 tonnes unladen. With all this, she drew only 3 feet of water, and even then, she could carry another 10 tonnes and still only draw an extra foot of water.

Pressures of profit may have encouraged the traders Steersman to take risks and overload the ship with more than was safe to carry. Any passengers had to be patient, something we don't really understand today with scheduled services. There were no timetables as such, just better times to sail in than others. This also had an effect on when the raiding season began. Over winter, the Viking ships crews, as can be read in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, often laid-up in winter camps. Cnut's army did just this in 1014 AD for instance.

Aside from the tide, which came in an went out twice a day, there was the wind as well. If it was not blow it largely in the direction you needed to go in, it was common sense to stay in port. The crews in a warship could row against the wind, but not for very long, as it was just too much like hard work, and in a trader it was nearly impossible. Even if the wind direction as good, but overall conditions were too rough, you stayed in port. Without any night vision devices or lighthouses, sailing close inshore at night was foolish. The traveller was at the behest of many forces, and may have had to wait a long time for all the factors to come together, which could be days, and days.

Some men on the warship will take a turn at the rudder, keeping an eye on the sail as the ship gathers speed, the rising noise of the sea rushing past the hull brings a smile to their faces. The steering arm thrums under their hand, the deck heaves beneath their feet and the keen salt wind cuts like a knife through even a good sealskin cloak. Within a week, they could be in England, fighting with friends against the Saxons for land or silver. If they're lucky and perhaps even the old Gods of Asgard will smile on them on such a pleasant spring day. They turn their shoulders toward their home, as one day the lucky ones will be back, richer, wiser and older, but for now the whole world is waiting for them. Meanwhile on the trader, the crew could reminisce on their voyage, with perhaps a lot less romance and more satisfaction at completing the venture.

They sailed to ports in the Mediterranean. That involved hugging the coasts of Denmark, the Low Countries, France, south to Spain and into the Med. Depending upon the welcome, the ship would have visited some ports to restock supplies and trade some goods. They had to overnight and anchor up on occasion when the weather allowed them to. At these points, they would take the opportunity to cook some of the fish they had caught on the trip. The ballast in the bilge's was an ideal place to actually start a fire and cook some food. It was highly unlikely for any embers to catch on the hull as everything would quite saturated. The real problem lay in the fact that you were unlikely to have any dry wood to burn. One alternative if the boat was moving too much with the swell, would be to start a fire in a large cauldron that was suspended from a tripod or some element of the rigging, and hang over that a smaller metal pot to cook in. This would swing with the motion of the boat, so that the pot was always over the fire. On board at the start, there were dry casks of salted and some smoked meats, but the fish helped to stretch the rations. Fish were often hooked, landed, killed, filleted and then spread with small wooden or bone skewers and hung to dry out in the rigging for later use. Another key reason to visit other ports was to take on new fresh water. As the going got hotter as they proceeded south, the crew naturally drank more water.  Fresh water was always kept in special barrels that had a lid with a small opening in it, to prevent salt water getting in, and reducing the volume of spillage. On some of the more elaborate versions, the men could drink from a small spout in the top of the cask.

The ports were a good place to clean themselves up too. Despite the traditional image of hairy, smelly Vikings, the opposite was the case. They combed their hair regularly, washed more often that many other peoples, even though they didn't have the bathtub. Their hair was cut short as well. All of the carvings that the Vikings left to us demonstrate this. In addition to dressing their hair, they combed and plaited their beards, and never let them get too shaggy and straggly.

Apart from hugging the coasts, the trading ships had to sometimes cross open water that had no clues as the correct direction to make the appropriate landfall. Experience and being part of precious crews counted for a lot. However, known currents, dead-reckoning, the movement of sea-birds (even the presence of a sea-bird on voyages that went deep into the Atlantic), stars and the direction of the travel and height of the Sun at midday, would all together help the ship steer a correct course through the latitudes. Many times though, the wind had other ideas, and the Sun wasn't always visible during the day, let alone that it deserted you at night. Then it was time for the stars to guide you, so long as the skies were clear.

During the day, even when the sun was reclusive, a device in the same vein as a sun dial was used to determine your longitude. This is sometimes called a shadow compass. In essence, it was a small disk of wood held horizontally with a handle on the underside. From the centre of the disk pointing up was a short gnomon, or pointer. This cast a shadow even when the sun was rather poor onto the face of the disk. All around the edges of the disk were triangular marks, and from these, curved marks could be made on the disk face, which were the track of the suns shadow as cast by the pointer. By matching the shadow and the set marks, and following them, you could keep on a fairly steady longitude. This however, could not take complete account of any drift that was caused by the ship slipping sideways with the wind. At this point pure experience and intuition had to take over, and a certain amount of good luck.

Whilst the men in the warship will have probably other ships in the fleet and men to reassure each other when they reach England, the men in the trader were entirely on their own, with just their wits to defend themselves. It is impossible for us today with our cosy lives to really understand the risks and surprises that the Viking traders must have endured, although the Saxon poem 'The Seafarer' gives a few clues. Even though they were sometimes called pirates by the Anglo-Saxons, they were subject to just the same problems out of home waters. Pirates across the ages have by and large followed the same plan. Once you have selected your target, approach with stealth, and try to appear innocuous. At the last moment, speed up in your smaller but swifter craft and overrun the target. Once contact is made, overwhelm your opposition with extreme force, as they will be largely unarmed and few in number. The only option for the trader is to avoid being seen (which is a matter of luck), by sailing well offshore. Poor weather will also help as the pirates are unlikely to have such durable vessels. It would seem to our Anglo-Saxon minds ironic for Vikings to become slaves themselves, which undoubtedly occurred.

Not all other vessels in the Mediterranean were pirates, even if the traders crew were jumpy enough to believe so. The Arab nations plyed the Mediterranean far more often than the Vikings. They too suffered from pirates, so that when vessels from both sides of Europe 'bumped' into each other, the crews if they had never seen the likes of their various ships would have been very alarmed. The Arab 'Dhow' technically called a 'Boom' would sport a variety of different construction techniques, sail and rigging styles that the Vikings if they had picked up on them, would have altered their sailing abilities for the better. It carries a 'Lateen' rig or sail which is excellent for sailing 'into the wind' with in combination with the bow-sprit or jib. This means that even when the wind was blowing in largely the opposite direction that you desired to sail in, you could still make some headway even though it was slow work. The Boom carries two masts, nearly doubling the efficiency of the sail area. The jib on the nose also carried extra sail, even though the ship was not vastly longer than the Knarr. The cargo hold was huge, and was virtually enclosed, not an open boat such as the Knarr. And most obvious, it uses a rudder that sits at the rear or stern of the ship, a vastly superior method of control. If they ever got the chance to talk to the Arab captain or 'Mallah', they may have picked up some superior methods of navigating as well. The Arabs had the advantage of geographical and historical proximity to the Greeks, and it was the Greeks who pioneered modern methods of navigating by calculation rather than by dead reckoning. The lodestone or magnet was one such example. The kind of ore that attracted iron was once called magnesian stone, because it was discovered in the part of Asia Minor near Magnesia. The name of the ore came into English as magnet.

The discovery of the magnet's use in determining direction seems to have been made independently in China and Europe certainly before the 12th century. If a bit of magnetised iron was allowed to float freely on a stick in water, it consistently pointed in a north-south direction. In the late 12th century an English theologian and natural philosopher named Alexander Neckam mentioned the potential use of magnets for navigation. Soon afterwards the magnetic compass was devised as an aid to sailors in navigation. Another tool that Arab navigators used at this time was the cross-staff and the astrolabe, two devices that the Greeks had invented to measure the altitudes of celestial bodies. From these measurements it was possible to determine the approximate latitude of the vessel as well as approximate local time. The simplest version of the cross-staff was a stick, or staff, about one yard (0.9 meter) long with a shorter sliding stick set at right angles to the staff. The navigator pointed the staff at a spot about halfway between the horizon and the sun or a star. The crosspiece was then moved until the sights at its ends were in line with both the observed body and the horizon. A scale along the staff showed the altitude, or angle above the horizon, of the body.

The astrolabe was a disk of brass or bronze, from 4 to 20 inches (10 to 50 centimetres) in diameter. A pointer, called an alidade, was pivoted at the centre of the disk. One person held the astrolabe by a small ring at the top while another person knelt facing the rim of the instrument. The person kneeling pointed the alidade at the sun or a star and read the angle from the markings on the disk. From these readings, calculations could be made to determine the ships position. However, the key to all these innovations was the written word and the chart on which you plotted your course. Neither of which, the Vikings used, with the exception of Runes, and with Runes, you could not calculate short of simple mental reckoning. And to compound the problem, the Vikings as a rule couldn't read, let alone understand Arabic. Not that any of these unrealised setbacks prevented the Vikings from sailing nearly everywhere in Europe, the Mediterranean, and crossing the Atlantic, all of which are well documented elsewhere. Only a few years ago, a replica Knarr was sailed around the world by a Norwegian crew. The weather however does not re-enact, and in 1997, the Knarr and an Oseberg replicas were lost at sea in the Bay of Biscay.