Movie: The new Oseberg replica (viking ship)

Quite interesting movie,

http://www.osebergvikingskip.no/eng/osebergskipet/video-oseberg-viking-ship.php

The replica built 20 years ago was probably too far from the original (from 830!), so here we go again, now with a more practical approach, including towing tests..

Here you see the original:

 

very cool! - I had to skim it now but will check better later.

 

That's awesome. I want one.

 

Nice vid. Thanks for sharing. Cliffs:

The video shows the plight to replicate this famous viking ship which was ceremoniously buried around 1200 years ago by the vikings. Other replicas were bad sailers and capsized and some people believe it was built just for ceremony. Others say they done a bad job at replicating it.

My thoughts. A bad sailing ceremonial hull would be no harder to build than a proper one and I would think a viking craftsman would rather build a proper version anyway. Perhaps there was a reason this ship was ceremonially buried instead of being sent further out into the ocean? Perhaps on needing a ceremonial ship they just pulled out a dud they had sitting around for years after it failed its sea trials? Just and idea...

 

That's what most people have believed until now, that the Oseberg ship was more of a ritual or ceremonial ship not designed for off shore sailing. In the video they explain why they now think that's not case, that the keel probably had more rocker than we see in the (rebuilt) original. After 1200 years it's really impossible to tell exactly how the original was shaped. Tank testing seems like a good idea. We know from similar boats (faerings) that small changes in the hull can make the boat behave quite differently under speed.

Also, there is no historical or archaeological experience pointing in that direction (of ceremonila ships) neither. The other large ship found in Norway, the Gokstad ship was indeed a good seagoing boat. A replica sailed to the Chicago World Fair in 1893 and crossed the North Atlantic..

 

You want it, then build it!

You want it, then build it! Look at the site of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. They have a flleet of more than 30 different boats there. Some of them are in the reach to be built as a personal boat.

http://vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/index.php?id=1301&tx_ttboats[tt_boats]=&cHash=&L=1

My favorable design is the "Estrid". A viking boat you can build in your back yard!

If this is still to big, you can purchase a model kit of the "Roar Ege", made by "Billing Boats" of Denmark. Its replica of a small trading ship with very, very elegant lines, found in the Roskilde Fjord.

Have fun, Michel

 

You can always just buy one

You can buy one but I must warn you, there not cheap:

http://www.langskip.com/

Jarl
http://dallur.com

 

It will be interesting to read the supporting reasons for the reconstruction changes. Compared to the similarly sized Gokstad, the Oseberg has only 12 strakes compared to 16 and so the midship depth is extremely shallow at 1.6m compared to almost 2m for the Gokstad. As the beam is fairly well set from all the recovered frames, the reconstruction does not have a lot of room to move.
If more rocker is added to the Oseberg, one would almost have to make it shallower still. ie pulling the ends up will flatten the middle.

One would have liked the modeling to include a comparison model of the present reconstruction in order to support excitement about the improvements.

I expect there will be a lot of healthy debate on this.

 

Yes, the Oseberg ship is lighter than the Gokstad. I see that it's often described as "coastal". It has also been described as hard to steer, maybe that will improve with more rocker?
Anyway, the builders of the new replica are quite good at marketing, selling wooden plugs at 1000NOK (120Euro) a piece