History of Viking Shipbuilding
Their historic main power accomplished the Norsemen before the actual Viking Age by ocean-going sailboats developed with which long distances could be overcome. The earliest mention of Nordic canoes is in Tacitus ' Germania from AD 98. The Suionen (which were later equated with the Svear ), who settled on an island (Scandinavia) in the ocean, were a seafaring people. The peculiarity of their ships was that they had a bow in front and behind so that the ship could enter and exit in both directions.
The Viking ship was able to cope with the sea waves and, due to its shallow draft (approx. 1.5 m), rivers could also be navigated. Even overland transport was possible. All types of ships were built without plans, only from the orally transmitted memory of the fathers. All wooden ship parts of all types of ships were chopped with different axes from tree trunks according to the respective grain. All in all, this resulted in enormous strength and resilience. The planks were also not sawn, but split from the trunk and then smoothed.
Fellboot, dugout canoe
The rock carvings indicate that box-shaped boats covered with animal skins were used on the Norwegian coast in the late Stone Age. They made it possible to colonize the skerries and islands off the Norwegian coast. It was mainly used for fishing. The shape was different from the kayak used in Greenland . It is more similar to the Umiak in Greenland . According to the drawings, the boats apparently already had animal heads on the stern .
It is disputed whether the dugout canoe (found around 5000 BC) was at the beginning of the development of the ocean-going Viking ships, that primeval boat made from a tree trunk cut in half and grooved across the world. The dugout canoe was spread open and planks were placed on the side walls (finds around 2500 BC), which overlapped each other like roof tiles. The outward expansion caused the ship's cross-section to widen the higher the side walls became. The majority of research today assumes that at least in Norway the skin boat was at the beginning, since the dugout canoe, unlike the skin boat, had no frame skeleton. The pioneering invention of replacing skin with planks is believed to have occurred in the early Stone Age in places where the forest and navigable waters were close together. The rock carvings also indicate this line of development.
Bronze age
There are rock carvings from the Bronze Age in Norway and Sweden with pictures of ships and drawings of ships on Danish bronze knives. The most detailed rock carvings can be found in Bardal in Beitstad (now part of Steinkjer ), Trøndelag , but also in Viken , Uppland and Östergötland . But the many different images in different places suggest that the boats were built differently in different places.
Remains of a boat from the Bronze Age were found in a barrow on the island of Valderøya (today Giske municipality in Sunnmøre ). It is the oldest boat found in Norway so far and is dated between 240 and 420 AD. The boat was made of spruce wood. The planks were butted, not clinkered, and according to the excavation report of 1827 they were sewn together with raffia or gut and then wooden pins were driven through the seam. It was composed with wool soaked in fat or tar. Otherwise the boat is similar to the Hjortspringboot . The boat was still paddled around. The size and shape of the boat cannot be deduced from the pieces. But it is certain that it was made of thin planks. There was a horse's head on the stern. The ship's bottom was flat and without a keel.
Iron age
In the early Iron Age, the boats were more mature. They could be driven in both directions, which saves turning in narrow waters. They did not yet have a mast and therefore could not be sailed. Characteristic were the flat floor made of a plank without a keel and the raised boat ends. The function of the raised ship's beak is not known. At the ends of the boat a cross board was inserted, to which the planks were attached. But the different rock carvings indicate different manufacturing methods depending on the place and time.
The earliest archaeological evidence of an early Iron Age ship is the Hjortspring boat from around 300 BC. Chr.
The transverse board at the ends of the ship was not a safe construction for the ship. Rock carvings from Kårstad (Nordfjord) indicate that the side planks were subsequently attached directly to the stem, so that the transverse board was omitted. The beak was omitted and the stem ended in two horns. This stage of development can be seen on the Halsnøyboot (dated between 390 and 535) from Hordaland. It has oarlocks for the first time. But this boat had no mast either. Otherwise it has a similar construction to the Nydam boat from Schleswig. Several finds on the coast of Norway show that it is a widespread type of ship.
The Nydam ship of approx. 320, a war vehicle, represents the next stage of development. The almost 23 m long planks are one-piece and extend over the entire hull. Unlike the Hjortspring boat, the slim built ocean-going vehicle has a real bow that is pulled upwards and is connected to the floor plank. It also features iron rivets for the first time , with which the planks are connected to one another and they overlapped, which gave the hull great strength. As with the Hjortspring boat, the oak frames were tied to tenons that were left standing when they were hewn. The ship was designed to be propelled by oars rather than paddles and had no sail. Branch oarlocks tied to the railing probably served as oarlocks. The narrow width did not allow long straps, so they had to be kept very steep. It was something between paddling and rowing.
Another refinement can be found in the ship found at Sutton Hoo , dating from the first half of the 7th century. It is 84 feet long, which is slightly larger than the Gokstad ship . It is built very slim and has strongly protruding ship ends. This ship could not be sailed either, it was a rowing vehicle. The boat shows that the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian boats followed the same construction lines and apparently went through the same stages of development.
The next stage of development in solving nautical problems can be seen on the 18 m long Kvalsund boat from the 7th century. It was found southwest of Ålesund (western Norway ) on Nerlandsøya island in 1920 . It is still in the building tradition of the Nydam boat. But the vertical keel is new. It is not set as in the later Viking ships, but it was left standing when the floor plank was cut. This gave the floor plank greater stability. The ship could be built wider and thus with greater load capacity and more space on board. For the first time, the side planks were made narrower and pitted. This made the boat more elastic. The oarlocks are attached to the railing with wooden nails. Although no reference to a mast has been preserved, the hull is designed so that the boat could have had a mast and sails. For the first time, the rudder was attached to the starboard side with a right-angled tiller that protruded into the hold.
This boat was the transport and war vehicle during the clashes between the petty kings and made it possible to colonize the islands north of Scotland.
Sailing ship
The move to the sailing ship was made between the 6th and 8th centuries. It is not known why the development of the sailing ship started so late. The fact that you can sail must have been known since Caesar's sailing ships appeared in the North Sea region. But it may not be enough just to see a sailing ship to be able to build it.
An important innovation was that the floor plank, a critical point in the stability of the hull, was omitted. The side planks were attached directly to the keel beam. The development of the keel made it possible to cruise on the winch. However, the development of a functional rigging was the most important technical advance in shipbuilding, since longer distances could only be covered with the help of the sail. The sail mast on the Viking ships was foldable and could be dismantled and erected in a very short time (approx. 1.5 minutes). This had the advantage that these ships could be rowed under bridges on rivers and then sailed on again. In connection with the slim, double-ended ship type, the Viking ships were able to reach speeds that were otherwise unattainable for larger sailing ships until modern times. The elastic connections of planks and frames proved to be very advantageous because the hull could adapt to the different circumstances (e.g. wave valley and mountain). While the width of the planks of the Nydam ship was 50 cm, they were up to 30 cm narrow at the height of Viking shipbuilding, e.g. B. on two Viking ships from the ship cemetery of Skuldelev .
In total, more than 30 reconstructions have been made, which confirm the excellent properties of the Viking ships. The replica of the Gokstad ship z. B. testified that the ships could be steered by just one man using the rudder, even on the high seas. Overall, the experiments with the replicas have shown that Viking ships as displacement hulls under sail could reach speeds of up to 20 knots - even motorized cargo ships did not go faster in the first half of the 20th century. This also explains the extremely short travel times handed down in Icelandic sailing instructions, e.g. B. West Norway-South Iceland (around 1300 kilometers) 7 days, around Iceland 7 days.
Merchant ships
In the more recent ship discoveries, especially by Skuldelev , the typical Viking Age design features are gradually disappearing. The floors of the ships are wide and flat, they resemble the medieval cog . This makes the ships more suitable for cargo and lose their importance as warships and troop transports.
Footnotes
- ↑ Brøgger p. 14.
- ↑ Brøgger p. 49 f.
- ↑ Brøgger p. 42.
- ↑ Brøgger p. 51.
- ↑ Brøgger p. 58.
- ↑ Brøgger p. 63.
- ↑ Brøgger p. 60.
- ↑ Brøgger p. 60 f.
- ↑ Shetelig, p. 140.
See also
literature
- AW Brøgger and Haakon Shetelig : Vikingeskipene. Their forgjengere and etterfølgere . (Viking ships. Their predecessors and successors). Oslo 1950.
- Dirk Husemann: Reform backlog in the dragon boat. in: Adventure Archeology. Spectrum of Science Verl.-Ges., Heidelberg 2006, 1, 78ff. ISSN 1612-9954
- P. Cornelius Tacitus : De origine et situ germanorum liber (also Germania ).