Viking ship ready for voyage to Duluth

[jpak]

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4016926-viking-ship-ready-voyage-duluth

A 115-foot oaken sailing craft with an ominous dragon for a figurehead was ready to set sail from Haugesund, Norway on Sunday en route to Duluth and other North American ports timed for summer festivals.

The Draken Harald Hårfagre, which also has 25 pair of giant oars for those calm North Sea days, will be part of Duluth's Tall Ships Festival arriving about Aug. 18.

The hand-constructed ship, said to be the largest Viking ship built in modern times, is being sailed in celebration of what some say was the first transatlantic crossing by Leif Erikson and the Viking arrival in the New World more than a thousand years ago.

The ship has a crew of 32 picked from nearly 4,000 volunteers from several nations. Festivities for the journey started Saturday with a traditional dragon's head festival in Haugesund. Tradition says the dragon will help protect the crew from sea monsters and other perils.

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[haikugal]

1. What a beauty! Thanks for this post!

[jpak]

2. You have to hand it to the Vikings

Crossing the North Atlantic in a open boat with no fire and no modern navigation aids with their families and livestock - had major fuzz.

[tclambert]

9. You have to hand it to the Vikings . . . or they'll burn your village.

[haikugal]

16. Well, even then they might burn it....

[haikugal]

15. Yes they did...super sailors and brave people.

[Downwinder]

3. Ought to stop at Isle Royale for a load of copper.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

6. Or, pillage the local monastery!

[Downwinder]

8. Show that the bronze age could have come from there.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

10. I think the Indians were a match for them,they would have fought back,

not like the monks!

[Downwinder]

13. Copper: a world trade in 3000 BC?

http://philipcoppens.com/copper.html

[yortsed snacilbuper]

17. The Menomonie Indians of north Wisconsin possess a legend that speaks about the ancient mines.

They described the mines as being worked by “light skinned men”, who were able to identify the mines by throwing magical stones on the ground, which made the ores that contained copper ring like a bell.
This practice closely resembles a similar practice that was used in Europe during the Bronze Age. Bronze with a high concentration of tin indeed resonates when a stone is thrown against it. The legend might have confused the start of the process with the result of the process. Even so, S.A. Barnett, the first archaeologist who studied Aztalan, a site near the mines, believed that the miners originated from Europe. His conclusion was largely based on the type of tools that had been used, tools which were not used by the local people.

from your link
http://philipcoppens.com/copper.html

[Downwinder]

18. Haven't there been some Viking relics found in MN?

I tried a search and it all came up football.

[Mister Ed]

22. You're probably thinking of the Kensington Runestone.

Google that phrase and you'll find a lot of information. Ultimately, though, the stone was a hoax.

[1939]

29. They did in Newfoundland

Of course the Vikings didn't have much in the way of boots on the ground. It is hard to base an invasion on a small startup colony in Greenland which in turn was based on a more advanced, but still small, colony in Iceland based on a thinly populated European (Norway). The pickings were easier in the British Isles and in France.

The Vikings in turn didn't have the amount of disease germs serving as an advance guard to weaken the Indian communities. TThe Jamestown and Plymouth colnies got their starts in areas where the Indian tribes had been heavily depopulated by one hundred years of disease germs first spread by DeSoto's ramble through the southeastern states and by contact with European fishermen and traders along the northern Atlantic coast.

[corkhead]

4. here's a lot more about that ship...

http://www.drakenexpeditionamerica.com/

[HooptieWagon]

5. The Viking Longships were quite sophisticated for the age.

Easily rowed and sailed, good turn of speed, able to handle shoal water and rivers, but also open ocean. When the Danes settled in Britain they brought the ship-building and seafaring skills with them, which eventually made England the major sea-power in the world for a thousand years.

[1939]

30. Not really

English ships were based on north German and Dutch "cogs". The Viking longships and knorrs were all "clinker built" with overlapping planks while the cogs were "caravel built" with side by side planks and caulked seams.

The Vikings were done in by "climate change" as the earth cooled from the warm climates of the first millenium into the "Little Ice Age" which reached a climax in the 17th century. Agricultural productivity in the north declined so much that it couldn't support a raiding population. The Greenland colony died completely and the Iceland colony came close to extinction while Scandinavia ceased to be a center of military power.

[HooptieWagon]

33. I should have been more specific.

English small boats were lap strake built. The boats at Deal were hauled out between use, had lap strake construction, and rowed or sailed under multiple purposes.. One to three masts. The metal oarlock developed there. The general type became common on both coasts.

[oldandhappy]

7. Beautiful. I would love to see it.

[Sherman A1]

11. Thanks for posting!

[Yavin4]

12. Yes, the Vikings built great ships, but they also lost 4 Superbowls!!! n/t

[dembotoz]

14. minnesota vikings, women and boats not a good combination......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Vikings_boat_party_scandal

[oneshooter]

19. That is only because they

were not allowed to use their long knives and shields.

[jwirr]

20. That is one festival I intend to attend.

[emmadoggy]

21. I would SO love to go to this!

It's about a 5 hour drive away...

[kwassa]

23. All to honor the great Viking sagas about Duluth.

[greymouse]

24. I'm having trouble parsing that picture

To me it looks like just the front of the boat, a mid piece and a bunch of people on a dock. What are we actually looking at?

[hatrack]

25. Check this out - video of sailing trials, with speeds up to 14 knots!

[jpak]

26. Imagine sailing in those conditions with wool and leather clothng - and no hot food.

One of those dudes was hypothermic in modern outergear...

[hatrack]

32. Apparently they did cook on board, conditions permitting, with a fire pan

Not that accidents didn't happen . . .

http://vikingship.org/ourfaqs/transportation_1.html

OTOH, how often are conditions in the North Atlantic for starting a fire on a wooden ship? Brrrrr!

[Brickbat]

28. The dock and the boat are almost perpendicular.

[greymouse]

31. oh, thanks, now I see it.

[Act_of_Reparation]

27. Hammer of the gods, will drive our ships to new lands...