Saga Siglar
Saga Siglar is the name of the replica of a Viking ship with which the Norwegian adventurer Ragnar Thorseth successfully sailed around the world from 1983 to 1986 .
The ship was a replica of the Skuldelev I , a type of ship called Knorr , which was mainly used by the Vikings to transport loads around the year 1000. The Saga Siglar (Saga Sailors) was christened on May 17, 1983 by the archaeologist Anne-Stine Ingstad on the grounds of the Sunnmøre Museum in the Norwegian city of Ålesund . The Siglar saga sank in a storm in the Mediterranean in 1992.
Technical specifications
- Overall length: 16.5 m
- Width: 4.8 m
- Side height: 1.9 m
- Draft: 1.3 m
- Draft of the rudder: 1.6 m
- Displacement: 26 t
- of which ballast and equipment: 16 t
- Fresh water tank: 1200 l
- Mast height: 13 m
- Raised length: 10 m
- Sail area: 96 m²
In addition, the Saga Siglar was also equipped with a 22 hp Saab diesel engine. This diesel engine also operated two generators with 0.75 kW each and six bilge pumps.
For the circumnavigation of the world, two containers were installed in front of and behind the mast. The foredeck -Container served to sleep, the containers in the stern as a galley and lounge. Creaks are open boats without a continuous deck and can therefore hit full of water. The two containers, which were lashed to the frames, therefore served not only as accommodation, but also as a float, which in an emergency should delay the sinking of the boat at least until the life raft was deployed.
Boat building
Saga Siglar was built in the Norwegian municipality of Volda in Bjørkedal by the boat builder Sigurd Bjørkedal and his sons Dag Inge, Jakob and Ottar. Situated takelt the ship from the Longva workshop in Haugsbygda on the island was Gurskøy .
The keel , stern , bottom walls and rudder of the Saga Siglar were made of oak, the rest of the ship was made of pine wood. In contrast to the original, the planks were not made by splitting logs, but using sawn planks. Machine-made galvanized nails were used instead of forged nails made from lawn iron ore . For caulking the plank seams, tar-soaked hemp ( tow ) was used instead of sheep wool and cow hair dipped in pitch as in the original.
As with the original, round stones were used as ballast , which were placed on birch twigs in the hull to protect the ship's bottom.
Sails
Longships and carves were both sailed and rowed. Knorren, on the other hand, were pure sailing ships that had only a few oars for maneuvering, for example when mooring in a harbor. The sail was not made of wool, as was customary in the Viking Age, but of Duradon . This material should have about the same quality and properties as wool.
The circumnavigation
The first stage of the circumnavigation on June 18, 1985 led from Norway via Iceland and Greenland to the first known Viking settlement on the American continent, the town of L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada . Other travel destinations were Halifax , Boston , New York , Hudson River , the Great Lakes , Detroit , Chicago , over the Mississippi River to New Orleans , into the Gulf of Mexico , to St. Petersburg and Miami in Florida, Bahamas , Jamaica , Colombia , through the Panama Canal into the Pacific, Galápagos Islands , Marquesas , Tuamotu , Society Islands , Tonga , Fiji , Sydney and Darwin in Australia, Singapore , Sri Lanka , through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea to Crete , Naples , Monaco , and Marseille , via inland waters and canals to Paris and via Le Havre to the English Channel to Dover and London . The last stage of the Siglar saga led across the North Sea to Denmark into the Roskildefjord and on to Oslo , Bergen , Trondheim and Tromsø . This was followed by another trip to Hamburg and Kiel. In Myrvåg on the island of Gurskøya in the western Norwegian municipality of Herøy , the first circumnavigation of the world with a Viking ship was completed.
literature
- Ragnar Thorset: Saga Siglar - In the Viking ship around the world , Delius Klasing Verlag ISBN 3-7688-0727-4
