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Islandegur
- Flagship of the fleet. A full scale replica of the Gokstad ship.
Photo courtesy of The Northern Pen.
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| In the
summer of 2000 A.D. a few of our members traveled to Newfoundland, Canada
to take part in Viking Sail 2000 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of
the settlement in North
America by the Vikings. We were part of the ship's crew of the
Fyrdraca, a ship based on the Railsweic II find. The Fyrdraca is
owned by the Longship Co., Ltd. out of Oakley, Maryland.
This assemblage of Viking ships was reportedly the largest fleet of these vessels since the Middle Ages. There were ships of all sizes from a Gokstad ship replica down to a faering. To complete the effect, a Viking age village was built near the original site at L'Anse aux Meadows. In addition, there were areas of authentic encampments. When we were not on the ship, we manned our own authentic camp, and demonstrated various aspects of Viking life. |
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The
fleet appears and heads toward shore. |
The
Folksvik boat Talja delivers the Captain of the Islendegur safely to shore. |
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When not
on the boat, we demonstrated Viking Activities at our authentic camp. If
you look closely at the night time photo, you will see Skapti at the far left of the photograph.
(Night photo taken by Stefanie or Erica) | |
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The
Glad is a true warship. Very narrow for her length, one of my friends who
sailed on her said that the crew had to know exactly what to do and when to do
it, or they would have capsized in some strong winds! |
The
Krampmacken is also a sixeren. It was used to
re-trace the route of Rus traders to Mikklegard. They have a web site that
details their journey. |
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The
Mjolsen Lange was not patterned after any particular boat find, she was just
built in the fashion of the Viking ships. In my opinion, she was the
prettiest ship up there! She carried eight oars. |
The
Orm was a scaled down replica of the Oseberg ship. Unfortunately she
was damaged while being shipped to Canada. You can see part of the damage
at the stern. There was also a large hole below the waterline on the
starboard side. Though she didn't make it into the water, she was a very
popular static display. She was made of plywood! You really couldn't
tell until you got right up on her. |
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The Norseman is the Viking ship used by the Sons of Norway to promote their organization and to tell the world that 'Leif was first!' She is made of fiberglass! They have disguised her modern equipment in various ways. For example, the barrel in the stern conceals the engine! |
The
fleet at anchor. In the left forground is the Snorri, a Knarr. In
the
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The Snorri was the knarr (cargo ship) that Hodding Carter had built so that he could retrace Lief Erickson's voyage to North America. Land's End sponsored the trip and had a wonderful web site about it. I don't know if it is still up or not, but if it is, it would be worth visiting. A boat shed was built to house the Snorri. Here several people are starting to pull it ashore. They were dreaming! It took many, many more people, including visitors to the site, to get her into the boathouse. | |
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Photos and text
on this page by Michael I. Stratton, 2000. | |
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