Viking TV show

"A Viking Voyage" by W.Hodding Carter, in a replica knarr (trading ship) from USA to Greenland and back. A very funny account, but one thing of interest was he wore what was thought to be traditional clothing (wool and leather), while most of the crew wore modern stuff - he was generally warmer, and certainly more comfortable than them.

And they didn't have protection from the weather.
 
We saw this up in Lochinver this year. Took some snaps
vikship.jpg


I have some more in a gallery here ClickytyClick
 
Still not convinced they slept and eat out in the open,human nature being what it is we like to be warm and dry and i bet they were no different,thanks for correcting me as to the different types of ship they used. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I did think they would have had some sort of bung to prevent waves coming through the "oar holes" in a rough sea?

Maybe a Viking shield on the outside, or just a round plug?
 
When we saw it there were removable covers for the oar holes. having seen the amount of water rhat came through I'm sure they might have fashioned a leather washer to seal them a bit better.

notice the little wedges they use to tighten them up.

IMGP0404.jpg
 
I suppose over the years the Vikings refined every thing in the boat so it worked perfectly,these modern day replicas need to be sailed day in day out for a few years to iron out all the weak points,just like the Vikings had to.There are no plans available from that period unfortuantly.
 
The project was attempting to test only certain aspects of Viking sailing. The programme unfortunately did not make it very clear which these were:

Boat sailing capability - very thoroughly tested
Rudder technicalities. They had used guesswork about the leather strap and the knotted rope, which proved insufficient. So presumably they can now have a better stab next time.
Shroud tensioners - tested and proved inadequate, or else they had not sussed how to use them. Again, they should now have improved knowledge.
Clothing - not tested, obviously.
Sleeping bags - not tested, for H & S reasons.
Navigation - not mentioned, so presumably not tested.
Pilotage --ditto .
Cooking - not mentioned, so presumably not tested. Did the Vikings have stoves on hot slates, or rely on dried and preserved cold food?
Toilet - rarely for this kind of programme, this was tested!

So it was obviously not intended as a thorough reconstruction of all aspects of Viking voyaging, just certain features. Given that remit, there was clearly no sense in trying to do a solo voyage without back-up.
 
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