Viking Museum Photos

[TimmS]

A friend who does not know a lot about boats recently visited the Viking museum in Schleswig, Germany. He took these photos for me. I have no descriptions, so feel free to add info if you have it. If not, just enjoy them.

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http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs061.snc3/12844_222853451152_585681152_4430983_3444337_n.jpg

[TimmS]

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs061.snc3/12844_222853861152_585681152_4430988_632159_n.jpg

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[Thad]

Nice!

[WX]

Very nice.

[TimH]

very very nice!

[goodbasil]

Nicey nicey.

[David W Pratt]

Beautiful.
Didn't those boats have a reversed strake on the bottom to generate the "luftpulse"?

[James McMullen]

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs061.snc3/12844_222853451152_585681152_4430983_3444337_n.jpg

I wanted to decorate our living room exactly like this but the wife said "No!". :(

[Peerie Maa]

Beautiful.
Didn't those boats have a reversed strake on the bottom to generate the "luftpulse"?

This interests me. Are there any vessels other than Skuldelev 1 (the knarre) that have the hollow streak in their bottom? I have seen a fair amount written about the benefits of this, how it spins off a powerful vortex in the wake, and how clever the shipwright was in building it into the knarre.
However, I am not aware of any other of the growing fleet of viking age vessels found that displays the same feature.
My own Peerie Maa throws exactly the same vortex in her wake, but does not have any hollow worked into her bilge.
So I question whether the feature was intentional and has any benificial effect.

[ShagRock]

Very interesting question, Nick. I can't answer it. However, while I may be off base here, the 'hollowed garboard' technique appears to have been common among certain builders of Norway style yawls/skiffs along the north and northeast coasts of Ireland..the Drontheim comes to mind.

Some of the builders in those areas also used a small special strake attached to the keel..called the sandstroke to which the garboard was attached. It seems the sandstroke may have been a way to 'get around' the idea of having to construct (carve out) a Norway type top-flanged keel. But to 'my eye', the use of the sandstroke at a certain angle seems to achieve a somewhat similar effect as a hollowed garboard.

Maybe others have thoughts on this.
And thanks TimmS for posting the great photos.

[Peerie Maa]

I believe that David was referring to the fifth and sixth streak. The streak at the head of the floors is hung at a steeper angle than the next one, which is fastened to the first layer of beams and standing knees, the two form a groove or hollow at the start of the turn of the bilge.
This has been claimed to be a performance enhancing feature, and has been replicated in a tupperware double ender, whose name I cannot now remember.

[benjaminshr]

I must to say that all photos are too good ...
Hey James McMullen,
I think your are right .. You can decorate your living room like as in the photo..
It's good thinking ..

[heimlaga]

That strake hollowed on the outside is called somehing like meginhufr in old norse. I am not sure about the spelling.

This feature was used in some Danish built plastic double enders sold under the brand name Megin.


A comment to the discussion about sandstrakes.
Back in the late 1940-ies when some men from this village ploughed op a bog for farmland they found the lower part of a strange boat buried there. The boat might have been over 20 feet long originally and was double ended. The keel was T shaped with a very wide top serving as sandstrakes as well. Well over 30 cm (12") wide and hollowed from a log. The first strake was very wide and had been rivited to the keel but the rivets were long gone. The lower part of the stem was there too. Apparently the boat had had two or maybe three strakes per side.

This boat was excavated by an archeologist but apparently it got lost in transport to musaeum storage. The national museum has no records of it arriving. The sound connecting this bog to the sea dried out during the wiking age.

[Peerie Maa]

That strake hollowed on the outside is called somehing like meginhufr in old norse. I am not sure about the spelling.

This feature was used in some Danish built plastic double enders sold under the brand name Megin.


Yes, those are that boats I remembered, their designer refers to Skuldelev 1 in his website blurb.
Meginhufr are the thick streaks fitted at the head of the floors, and form the lower of the two streaks that form the hollow in the Knarres bilge. Meginhufr on the Oseberg ship are thick, wedge shaped strakes that form a chine between the bottom and topsides. On Skuldelev 1 they look to be the same thickness as all of the other strakes.
I am still curious to know whether the meginhufr and next strake form a hollow on any other vessel found to date. As I said above, Perrie Maa throws the same vortex in her wake, without any hollow at the heads of her floors. I suspect that the hollow in the Knarres bottom was a bit of a mistake, rather than a design feature.

[peter radclyffe]

[quote=James McMullen;2391458]I wanted to decorate our living room exactly like this but the wife said "No!". :([/quote
James it looks fantastic, but a galley slave is not a subtle hint

[Scot L T]

Good stuff Timms. Thanks for posting those photos.

As much as I admire the boats those vikings built, I'm more impressed by the guys that actually traveled the world in them. I read a book a few weeks back which the author claimed there is evidence that they may have traveled along the Eastern North American coast as far south as Florida (with some evidence linking them to northern South America) and as far east as India...in open rowing boats, I'm impressed.