Half -Light over Cold Seas 85 



also applied to them, and when they went on long ocean voyages 

 they were called haf-skip, or "deep-sea ships." 



Since the compass was unknown in those days, we may well won- 

 der how the Norse sailed regularly, and usually unerringly, back 

 and forth all over the North Atlantic, arriving at tiny oceanic 

 islands time and time again in all winds, both fair and foul, and de- 

 spite currents, drifts, and various other factors of which they prob- 

 ably knew little. 



If we look at a map of the North Atlantic in an ordinary atlas, 

 especially one drawn on Mercator's projection, we may well be 

 mystified and greatly amazed at the seamanship of the Norse. If, 

 however, we redraw this map from a purely aquacentric point of 

 view, and upon what is known as an "equal-area projection" cen- 

 tered about the North Pole, and then turn the whole thing round so 

 that it may be looked at from the angle of a Norseman going "west 

 viking," we shall see many things that were simply not apparent 

 before. For instance, starting from the Wick and proceeding north- 

 west, one comes first to the Orkneys, then the Faeroes, then Ice- 

 land, and finally to Greenland, all in a straight line. Provided one 

 doesn't veer to starboard after leaving the coast of Scotland, one is 

 certain to make land by sailing in any direction. Then, if it starts to 

 get too cold, one knows that one is going too far north. Similarly, 

 coming home, one simply keeps straight ahead by the stars and, 

 after leaving Iceland, veers to starboard for Norway or to port for 

 the British Isles. Looking at a map of the North Atlantic in this way 

 goes far towards explaining the voyages of discovery of the Norse, 

 for it will be seen that they simply kept on going in a straight line as 

 far as possible. 



The Norse estimated their speed and distances by the number of 

 twenty-four-hour sailing periods between known points, and it has 

 been calculated from recorded voyages that the kaup-skip, for all 

 their apparent clumsiness, made on an average about six to six and 

 a half knots. Using these kaup-skip and the simplest navigational 

 rule — namely, to keep going straight ahead — the Norse sailed 

 regularly back and forth over the North Atlantic, culminating in 

 Harald Hardrada's polar expedition in the eleventh century. Ice- 

 land was originally discovered, however, in the first half of the ninth 

 century by a Dane named Nadd-od while on his way from the 



