Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Introductory Chapters By the late Professor York Powell - III. The Wicking Fleets
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The main peculiarities of the Norwegian wicking
ship of the "iron age" may be summed up somewhat
as follows, from the Gokstad ship, the latest and
most perfect. She was 67 feet long at keel, and 79¼
feet from stem to stern; of 17 feet beam, and about
4 feet depth amidships; clinker-built of eight strakes
of solid oak planks fastened with tree-nails and iron
bolts, and caulked with cord of cow hair plaited; her
planks are fastened to the ribs with bast ties, which
gives the frame-work great elasticity. She is undecked
(possibly there were lockers fore and aft),
with movable bottom boards whereunder could be
stowed ballast, stores, weapons, sails, spare spars and
oars, and the like; her mast was stepped in a huge
solid block, which is so cunningly supported that,
while the mast stands steady and firm, there is no
strain on the light elastic frame of the ship. Her
oars, sixteen a side, pass through rowlocks cut in the
main strake (the third) and neatly fitted with shutters
against bad weather; the oars are twenty feet long,
and beautifully shaped. Her rudder, stepped to the
starboard quarter, is a large short oar of cricket-bat
shape, fitted with a movable tiller, and fastened to the
ship by a curious but simple contrivance, giving the
blade play, and keeping it clear of the ship’s side.
The mast, which is a 40-feet stick, has a heavy long
yard with square sail, the stays and rigging are of
bast, the mast and yard when shipped lay on two
crutches clear of the deck; the awning was of tent-like
form, of white web with red stripes, fitted with
hemp cords by which it was seized to the ship’s sides
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