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
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
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.
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