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Archaeology & History

Huge viking vessel to be shown at museum

By T.K. Randall
December 30, 2012 · Comment icon 13 comments

Image Credit: Jason Vanderhill
An enormous long boat uncovered in 1996 at Roskilde is the largest Viking vessel ever discovered.
Dating back over 1,000 years and measuring 118ft long, the ancient Viking troop carrier would have been capable of transporting 100 warriors and is thought to have taken more than 30,000 hours to build. A stunning example of Viking shipbuilding, the vessel would have been a part of a fleet of up to 100 vessels that could deliver 10,000 battle-hardened warriors to anywhere they were needed.

"This ship was a troop carrier," said Gareth Williams of the British Museum. "There are records in the annals of fleets of hundreds of ships. So you could be talking about an army of up to 10,000 men suddenly landing on your coast, highly trained, fit, capable of moving very fast on water or land."

It is believed that this particular vessel was deliberately sunk along with several other ships in a defensive effort to narrow the fjord approaching the former capital of Denmark.[!gad]Dating back over 1,000 years and measuring 118ft long, the ancient Viking troop carrier would have been capable of transporting 100 warriors and is thought to have taken more than 30,000 hours to build. A stunning example of Viking shipbuilding, the vessel would have been a part of a fleet of up to 100 vessels that could deliver 10,000 battle-hardened warriors to anywhere they were needed.

"This ship was a troop carrier," said Gareth Williams of the British Museum. "There are records in the annals of fleets of hundreds of ships. So you could be talking about an army of up to 10,000 men suddenly landing on your coast, highly trained, fit, capable of moving very fast on water or land."

It is believed that this particular vessel was deliberately sunk along with several other ships in a defensive effort to narrow the fjord approaching the former capital of Denmark.
The largest Viking ship ever found, a 118 foot troop carrier, is to go on display at the British museum 1,000 years after it helped King Canute control the seas of northern Europe.


Source: Telegraph | Comments (13)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #4 Posted by justcalmebubba 11 years ago
cool but i'll probley never see it
Comment icon #5 Posted by Bavarian Raven 11 years ago
Apparently they would have made the ships bigger too, but the backbone-beam of the ship needed to be carved from a single oak and them oaks didnt get much bigger out there then that. Neat find!
Comment icon #6 Posted by marcos anthony toledo 11 years ago
Who knows they may of figured a way to build them bigger one must never say never.
Comment icon #7 Posted by Bavarian Raven 11 years ago
Who knows they may of figured a way to build them bigger one must never say never. They did build bigger ships later on. They just weren't the typical norse longships or knarrs. Those must be built from a single tree trunk (for their backbone, so to speak). Other types of ships they did build, later on, once the viking age had ended.
Comment icon #8 Posted by Hobbit Feet 11 years ago
This is north America, we should be celebrating Viking Day not Columbus Day.
Comment icon #9 Posted by CuriousGreek 11 years ago
Great article!!!
Comment icon #10 Posted by BaneSilvermoon 11 years ago
This is north America, we should be celebrating Viking Day not Columbus Day. The Vikings didn't have the support of Queen Isabella. Monarchs have written our history for us. Skipping over everything he's well known for, Columbus was an obviously egotistical madman simply from the way he went about getting support for his voyages. It would be interesting to see this ship in person some day.
Comment icon #11 Posted by Taun 11 years ago
I like Vikings. They had pointy horn hats. Nice article. Every time I see a movie with warriors who have horns or other such nonsense on their helmets I just shake my head... No sensible fighter would ever do that for several reasons... 1. Too much weight on the head for no extra purpose... 2. A sword, spear or other weapon that strikes the 'horn' could very easily snap the neck of the fool who was wearing it - at the very least throwing them off balance... Also after reading a lot of the comments on the original article, it seems many people don't realise that 'Viking' was not a person but wa... [More]
Comment icon #12 Posted by BaneSilvermoon 11 years ago
Also after reading a lot of the comments on the original article, it seems many people don't realise that 'Viking' was not a person but was an activity... Old school pirates :-p
Comment icon #13 Posted by Bavarian Raven 11 years ago
Old school pirates :-p and a better name for pirating too Maybe there was something to these saskatchewan river pirates (sarcasm - if you get the joke XD )


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