Northumberland

Northumberland

Potter

Hand

Corn
Old McDonald

Viking
Botero

Norse
Gokstadt

Prov.19:8
"He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good." 

Gen.42:2
"And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die."

 Golden Eyes

by James L. Amos / Corbis

Gokstadt

Close-Up of a Poinsettia Leaf
by George D. Lepp

Chess:  "Northumberland" "Potter" "Hand" "Old McDonald"  "Corn" "Viking" "Norse""Gokstadt" "Botero"

GoKstad ship

The Gokstad ship is a Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad farm in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway.

Discovery

The place where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen (from the Old Norse words kóngr meaning king and haugr meaning mound), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in Norway bear similar names. Shortly after the 1880 New Year the sons of the owner of Gokstad Farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the bow of a boat and its painter while digging in the still frozen ground. As word of the find got out, Nicolay Nicolaysen, the then President of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, reached the site on 6 February 1880 and, having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artefact, liaised for the digging to be stopped.^[1]
Nicolaysen returned on March 27 and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing. With his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging was surprised to find the bow of a ship.

Construction

Side view of the ship

The Gokstad ship is clinker-built, constructed largely of oak. The ship was not intended for long voyages but for warfare, trade, and transportation of people and cargo. The ship is 23.24 metres (76.2 ft) long and 5.20 m (17.1 ft) wide. It is the largest in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The ship was steered by a quarter rudder fastened to a large block of wood attached to the outside of the hull and supported by an extra stout rib. The block is known as the wart, and is fastened by osiers, knotted on the outside passed through both the rudder and wart to be firmly anchored in the ship.
The ship was built to carry 32 oarsmen, and the oar holes could be hatched down when the ship was under sail. It utilized a square sail of approximately 110 square metres (1,200 sq ft), which, it is estimated, could propel the ship to over 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The mast could be raised and lowered. While the ship was traveling in shallow water, the rudder could be raised very quickly by undoing the fastening. Dendrochronological dating suggests that the ship was built of timber that was felled around 890 AD. The Gokstad ship was commissioned during the reign of Harald Fairhair at the end of the 9th century. The ship could carry a crew of 40 men but could carry a maximum of 70.^[3]

Gokstad Viking ship excavation. Photographed in 1880

The ship's design has been demonstrated to be very seaworthy.