Secrets of the Viking Navigators: How the Vikings Used their Amazing Sunstones and other Techniques to Cross the Open Ocean - Softcover

Karlsen, Leif K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0972151508 ISBN 13: 9780972151504

Publisher: One Earth Press, 2003

Synopsis

How the Vikings used their amazing sunstones and other techniques to cross the open ocean.

About this title

About the Author

Leif K. Karlsen has 45 years experience at sea, including many years in the North Atlantic where he served as a professional navigator and radio electronics officer with the US Merchant Marine. He has also twice sailed as a crew member on a replica Viking ship.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I become the owner of my own ship

My name is Hákon Leifursson. I have just completed the first passage from my homeland to Iceland on my own ship. I ve made the passage ten times on my father s ship since I was fifteen, but this time on my own ship I made the passage. But let me start at the beginning and tell you the story.

My father is a merchant and trader who still sails his own ship from our home port of Trondheim, Norway. He is well respected and knows the sea better than anyone else I know. He taught me so much for the past ten years that my head is full of his voice saying, "Do this if this happens do that if the wind changes." We came back to our home port of Trondheim from a very successful voyage to Iceland in the late summer of last year, number 987. He told me then he had decided this was a good time for me to have my own ship because I had learned all he could teach me, and he could tell that I was ready to be independent. I was happy to have his blessing to be the captain of my own ship.

I went to the boatbuilders in Sunndalen who had been building ships for generations and had a reputation for building strong ships of the best quality. Both my father and some of our best friends had their ships built there. I talked things over with the boatbuilder Sverre Sunndalen. We decided that they should build for me a hafship, a seagoing vessel called a knarr.

The ship was to be built for cargo and seaworthiness, and to be a good heavy-weather sailer. It would have an open cargo hold amidships with decking at both ends, but with little protection for the people onboard. The knarr would also be fitted with two sets of oars fore and aft, mainly to be used for rowing in and out of the harbors. Since I wanted to expand on the size of my father s ship, I asked them if they could make my ship even larger. They said they could; it would be the largest ship they had built in Sunndalen.

And so my ship was started in Sunndalen. This is where the finest trees for boatbuilding are to be found. The timber was selected by Sverre Sunndalen using trees from his own farm. I talked with the boatbuilders and discussed whether to use oak or pine for the planking. They decided to use pine, both for lightness and for flexibility on a ship of this large size. Tall pine trees with straight grain and without low branches were used for the planking. The trees were split for the planking using wedges, and then carefully shaped with axes and scraping tools. As they were finished, the planks were stored under water to keep them green and workable until they were needed.

The frames and curved pieces of the ship were formed by following the grain of specially selected trunks and crooked limbs of oak trees. These were trees where the burden of winter snow and ice had bent the trunks and limbs into natural curves. Pieces with the right curves were carefully selected. This made for pieces of greater strength, which were easier to finish to curved shapes than if they were bent from straight-grained wood. The curved fore-and-aft stems were carved from a single piece of oak from an old bent trunk. The keelson, keel, and frames were also made out of oak. All of these pieces were carefully shaped by hand.

Edition details

• Publisher: One Earth Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0972151508
• ISBN 13: 9780972151504
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220