How fast did viking ships go

Long, narrow and flat, longships were fast, durable and capable of navigating both choppy seas and shallow rivers. They were also light enough to be carried over land. The design principles that led to the Viking longship can be traced back to the beginning of the Stone Age and the umiak, a large open skin boat used by Yupik and Inuit people as long as 2, years ago.

Spaces between planks were then filled with tarred wool and animal hair, ensuring a watertight ship. A shallow draft allowed navigation in waters as shallow as one metre and made beach landings possible.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Submit Comment. How Fast Were Viking Longships? Age: ca Length: Age: ca Length: approx. Age: ca Length: 14 meters Breadth: 3. Breadth: 2. How fast did Longships sail?

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The period known as the Viking Age lasted from AD until During the Viking age many Vikings travelled to other countries, such as Britain and Ireland. They either settled in these new lands as farmers and craftsmen, or went to fight and look for treasure. Archaeologists have studied the remains of Viking farms, villages and towns and have put together a picture of how they might have lived.

Graves have given us lots of information about the Viking way of life, because some important Vikings were buried with their possessions. Several buried or sunken ships have been found, and these have helped us to understand their seafaring technology. The Vikings built many different kinds of craft, from small fishing boats and ferries, to their famous longships.

They were all made from planks of timber, usually oak, overlapped and nailed together. The ships were made watertight by filling the spaces between the planks with wool, moss or animal hair, mixed with tar or tallow. The ships were all the same long narrow shape, with shallow draughts. This meant that they could be used in shallow water.

Vikings used longships to make raids and carry their warriors. The pace works out to one stroke every 5 to 7 seconds, depending on how one interprets the ancient texts.

When Hurstwic took our first voyage aboard the Longship Company's ship Sae Hrafn , our rowing pace was considerably faster, more than double what this linguistic study suggests. This discrepancy inspired Hurstwic to conduct some rowing experiments aboard the Sae Hrafn in , comparing several different rowing styles.

We started with the faster pace, which requires relatively short strokes. This stroke is used by the Longship Company as their standard, general-purpose stroke. We compared it to a slower stroke, suggested not only by the linguistic studies, but also by body mechanics considerations taken from our combat training. The long, slow strokes allowed us to fully utilize the powerful muscles in the lower part of the body that we use in our cutting, resulting in strokes that were familiar and comfortable.

We created a YouTube video right that shows our Viking ship rowing experiments and summarizes our results. During the normal rowing, using fast, short strokes, we aimed for 40 minute shifts at the oars, but some shifts were longer. It is quite believable that Viking-age sailors could row for two hours without a break using the slower, longer strokes.

Unlike modern versions of the game, the old version uses muscle groups and movements similar to those used in rowing a ship when using slower, longer strokes. One wonders if the game was a way to sort out who might be a capable rower and thus a good addition to the ship's company. Until recently, there has been no evidence to confirm that ships this large ever existed.

But wrecks found at the end of the 20 th century have confirmed the existence of these ships, which may have had 30 or more rowers on a side. A replica ship of this size has recently been constructed in Norway, and is now sailing.

Sea battles in the Viking age were fought on stationary ships and were more like land battles waged on floating islands. The battles had three parts. First, steersmen on each ship maneuvered for the most favorable position, relative to both friend and foe. Battles were fought in protected fjords, or in the lee of an island where marksmanship would not be spoiled by rocking decks.

Missiles such as arrows and spears were fired as the ships closed and drew together. Sails were furled, and it is possible that masts were unstepped.

Allied ships were tied together, creating floating islands. Clever ruses were used to draw enemy ships into vulnerable positions for an attack.

Opposing crews tried to board the outermost ships in the tied-together fleet, with the goal of clearing the deck of the enemy. Hand to hand fighting on the decks of the ships determined the outcome. When the outermost ship was cleared, it was cut loose and set adrift, to make it possible to board the next ship making up the "island". Small boats swarmed around the battle to kill any combatants that tried to save themselves by jumping overboard. A war ship was a valuable item, not only for the prestige and monetary value that went to her owner, but also for her utility in future battles.

As a result, the intent in naval combat was to gain control of the ship and any valuables she might be carrying while minimizing any damage to the ship. This goal was achieved not by attacking the ship, but rather by attaching the ship's crew. The attackers attempted to sweep the decks free of the enemy without damaging the ship or her gear, and thus gain control of the ship.

The sagas tell of battles involving large numbers of ships. Under these conditions, some ships were lashed together, while others were free to move to wherever they were most needed during the course of the battle.

An on-line video lecture on Viking naval battles presented by William R. Recently, the accuracy of the descriptions of sea battles in the sagas has been called into question. It has been suggested that these descriptions are a confluence of battle tactics from when the sagas were written 13 th century and when the events took place 10 th and 11 th century.

I remain skeptical of this revisionist suggestion. Some sources suggest large Viking warships were equipped with catapults or other engines to hurl missiles such as rocks during a battle, or against a target on land. As discussed in more detail in the article on miscellaneous Viking weapons , I am very skeptical of their existence. The shallow draft of Norse war ships had several advantages. The Norse could raid well inland by sailing far up rivers that were too shallow for typical sea-going vessels of the day.

In general, the Norse raided only those locations to which they could sail. Overland marches were avoided. The shallow draft of their ships allowed Vikings to set up impregnable bases deep within enemy territory. Viking ships could land anywhere there was a shelving beach; no harbor was necessary. The excrement washed up on the beach, thus the name. Archaeological evidence supports the view that ships were beached regularly. The Skuldelev ships have wear on their keels consistent with sand and gravel landings.

Other European ships of the time required much deeper waters and were incapable of landing in such places. Norse raiders routinely landed on harborless islands, safe from attack by their enemies who were unable to land. Any small party of attackers who tried to land in boats would be cut down by the Norse raiders, making the Norsemen invincible on their island. When the Norse "Great Army" invaded the Frankish kingdoms, they routinely set up such bases on islands in rivers such as the Seine.

Similarly, Norse raiders landed in England in places where the Anglo-Saxons, with their deeper draft ships, could not reach by sea. In addition, the shallow draft made for fast and easy disembarkation during a raid. When the ship was beached, a Viking could be certain that if he jumped out near the stem, the water would scarcely be over his knees.

The crew could leave the ship and join the raid quickly and confidently. Under more normal conditions, conventional methods of boarding the ship were used. A gangplank was found on board the Oseberg ship. This ship is a coastal trader and is The loading capacity is approximately 4.

A larger ocean-going trader found at Skuldelev was However, she could carry nearly three times the cargo of the coastal trader: With a capacity this large, it is likely that she carried not only luxury goods, but also everyday objects in bulk quantities for trade.

It's estimated that this ship's "effective" speed in regular ocean traffic was on the order of 3 to 6 knots. However, greater speed may have been possible under good conditions. The saga literature suggests that the crossing from Norway to Iceland a distance a bit less than nautical miles was normally accomplished in a fortnight or so, but extraordinary crossings were accomplished in less than a week.

Regardless, merchants typically made only a single one-way trip to Iceland each year, waiting through the winter before making the return voyage. Some voyages to Iceland took much longer. They were at sea for a month before they made landfall at Vestmannaeyjar, off of Iceland's south coast. Oars were probably only used for maneuvering in preparation for landing. A big open hole amidships comprised the cargo hold. Brushwood mats or straw under the cargo protected the ship from damage from the cargo.

A crew of about six manned the coastal trader: a helmsman, a lookout, a bailer, and others sufficient to handle the sail. Like the warships, the shallow draft of the cargo ships meant that they could easily be run up onto a beach for unloading, which was probably the usual way to land a ship.

As the tide ran out, the ship was gently deposited on the bed of the estuary, where the cargo could be easily unloaded. The sand and gravel on the bed of the estuary would have comfortably held the ship's keel, allowing her to have been unloaded with dry feet. To date, only the towns of Hedeby, Birka, and Kaupang show any evidence of harbors with jetties for docking a ship.

The ships themselves give evidence that piers were not routinely used. Many ships have outboard gear, such as cleats and oarlocks, that would have been easily damaged by a pier. Finds of fenders made from withy, which would have protected the outboard gear, suggest that ships may have docked at piers, but finds of broken-off pieces of this outboard gear in Viking-age shipyards suggest that damage occurred regardless, and had to be repaired.

In some towns, small boats may have been used to carry cargo from ships anchored in the harbor to land. The harbor at Hedeby shows evidence of wooden poles in the harbor to which ships could be tied. Wagons may have been driven into the shallow water alongside the ship for unloading. Some harbors show evidence of stones laid from the beach into the water to facilitate driving a wagon into the water. Voyages must have been very difficult for passengers and crew. The ships were completely open, and everyone was exposed to the elements.

People slept wherever they could, probably between the thwarts. Food was probably dried, salted, or smoked meat and fish. Drinks probably consisted of water in skin bags , and ale or sour milk in tubs. It appears that ships and lives were routinely lost during ocean crossings. Smaller cargo ships were used on rivers, notably on Viking trade routes in Russia.

These ships had larger crews perhaps ten men and more oars so as to be able to travel up river. These ships could be portaged if needed. The illustration to the right is from Olaus Magnus' Historia published in Ships were also portaged around rapids on some of these trade routes in Russia. Large crews were required, not only for the physical labor required to carry the ship overland, but also to guard against attacks from bandits who waited near the portage sites to grab valuable cargo.

Ships were built using the "clinker" technique right , in which the lower edge of each hull plank overlaps the upper edge of the one below. Planks strakes were riveted together using iron rivets.