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Sometime around 900 A.D. * a Viking of significant wealth and importance died. He was buried with rich grave goods that included the now famous Gokstad dragonship and three smaller boats. Two of those boats were faerings, or four oared boats, and one was a sixern, or six oared boat. One of the faerings has been very well documented in two publications, both of which are now out of print: Christensen, A.E. (1959) “Faeringen fra Gokstad”. Viking, 23: pp. 57-69. and McGrail, Sean. (1974) The Building and Trials
of the Replica of an Ancient Boat: The Gokstad Faering Part
I Building the Replica. Maritime Monographs and Reports, No. 11.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. 59pp. However, you may be able to
get them through inter-library loan, or by visiting a library that has the
publications. I found the McGrail monograph at the Library of Congress,
and the Christensen article at the Anthropology Library at the Smithsonian. Vest Rus Viking Ships’
first boat project will be to build a replica of this boat, using plywood for
the strakes, and pine for the fore and aft stems and the keel.
Construction should begin in late January or early February 2002. * The Gokstad ship has been dated by dendrochronology to 895 – 900 A.D. Crumlin-Pedersen, Ole. (1991) Viking Age Ships and Shipbuilding in Hedeby / Haithabu and Schleswig: Ships and Boats of the North, Vol. 2: The Viking Ship Museum, Schleswig and Roskilde. ISBN 87-85180-30-0. Michael I. Stratton, 2000. |
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The Faering replica in the
Visitors' Center at | |
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The fore and aft stem pieces are the most difficult part of the Faering. | ||
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| This photograph of the aft stem details the shape and how the strakes are attached. Photo and text by Michael I. Stratton, 2000. |
The
steerboard is shown quite clearly on this photograph of the L'Anse aux
Meadows faering. Photo and text by Michael I. Stratton, 2000. | |
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Faering Plans: Christensen, A.E. (1959) "Faeringen fra Gokstad". Viking, 23: pp. 57-69 | ||
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Gokstad Faering – Details of the Bow and Stern Posts The most complex pieces on the faering are the bow and stem posts. On the original, they were carved from one piece of oak from a naturally curved tree (see photos of the L’Anse aux Meadows faering for more detail). On our plywood version, we believe we can glue together pieces of 2” X 12” pine to make a piece of lumber large enough to carve the bow and stern posts. The following drawings and measurements were made using the detailed plans in “FAERINGEN FRA GOKSTAD” by Arne Emil Christensen, Jr. (1959). | ||
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| The stems may be made from standard dimensional lumber. A building supply store standard ‘2X12’ is 11.25 inches wide. By gluing three boards together in the approximate configuration shown below, it should be possible to obtain the needed width. | ||
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Photos and text by Michael I. Stratton, 2000. | ||
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