Ponder the extent of support needed to keep seagoing fleets of longships going to sea. Those state-of-the-art weapons needed maintenance and supplies. Robert Ferguson suggests in The Vikings – A History that shipbuilding would have been a significant industry in many communities for the duration of the Viking age. Think about the range of skills […]
Comments from a few other books fit well with the previous post Background on Viking Age – ships for warfare, travel, and cargo – 4 of 5 Vikings: Raiders, Traders, and Masters of the Sea by Rodney Castleden, provides more explanations of ship types, starting on page 111. When thinking of Vikings crossing the sea, […]
A number of Viking ships, or parts thereof, have been recovered by archaeologists. Those few ships reveal much of ship construction. Viking Age: Everyday life during the extraordinary era of the Norsemen, by Kirsten Wolf, provides some background on ships of the era. This post has five illustrations of Viking ships. Ship construction – warships […]
I’ve found a few websites that provide a few details on how to build a Viking ship. This post won’t go into much detail. Check these sites for more info that could you possibly want: Regia Anglopum – Making a Viking Ship – Great line-drawings of construction steps. Vikingskip.com – Viking ships and Norse wooden […]
This is another in my series of posts on ancient finances. Let’s ponder how much time it would take to construct a Viking longship and consider how much of an investment that would be for a community. Any way you look at this, a longship is a major capital asset. (Cross post from Attestation Update.) […]