456 NORSK NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 



tough roots of trees. Such mode of fasteniug was possibly adopted to 

 counteract the injurious effect of expansion and contraction in the wood 

 when alternately wet and dry. 



The planking has an aveiage thickness of about 1 inch. The scant- 

 ling, however, is not uniform throughout ; thus the tenth strake from 

 the keel is almost twice as thick, but somewhat narrower, and the four- 

 teenth from the keel, that in which holes are cut for the oars, about 1^ 

 inch thick. 



This ship, as indeed was the case with even the largest vessels of the 

 Viking period, had both oars and canvas to propel her, and there has 

 been only one mast. The mast was frequently lowered ; for instance, 

 when rowing against a head wind or when preparing for battle. The 

 peculiar arrangement of ponderous beams at the step of the mast serves 

 to facilitate raising and lowering ; it afibrds, too, an excellent support, 

 which, with the extreme lightness of the ship's scantlings could hardly 

 in any other manner have been given to the mast. This method of fix- 

 ing the mast is exactly similar to that adopted in the Tune ship ; nay, 

 the ornamental form given to the top beam, which has the ends mod- 

 eled so as to represent the tail of a fish, is the same in both. When 

 stowed away, the mast was perhaps laid on the stanchions, which are 

 provided with cross bars, placed fore and aft, and fastened at the bottom 

 of the vessel to beams having the ends, like the block at the step of the 

 mast, cut into the shape of a fish's tail. Moreover, when the mast was 

 down, the said cross-bars may also have had to support the yard, a 

 very heavy spar compared to the size of the vessel, which, as still usual 

 in many coasting craft from the northern districts of Norway, certainly 

 carried only one sail (a large square sail). In this manner her mast 

 and yard could bestowed away without incommoding the crew. Frag- 

 ments oiily remaining of the mast, its entire length cannot be accurately 

 determined. 



The oars, of which several have been preserved, are about 20 feet 

 long, the length varying slightly according as they had to be served 

 amidships or at the extreme ends of the vessel. They have been plied 

 through holes bored in the third strake from the top, and provi<led on 

 the inside with sliding covers, which, when the oars were unshipi)ed, 

 could be pushed over the holes to prevent the sea from entering. The 

 oars have been passed through the holes from inboard, and hence there 

 is a notch cut in the edge of the hole for the blade. No trace can be 

 discovered of thwarts or seats for the oarsmen. 



From the number of holes the vessel is shown to have carried IG oars 

 on either side. As many as 32 men would thus have been required to 

 ^erve the oars alone, and the ship must therefore have had a comple- 

 ment of not less than 40 hands, even with only one man to each oar and 

 the oarsmen not rowing by turns. 



There was no deck, only loose boards resting on shoulders cut in the 

 frames. These boards, p;)rticalarly in the midshixJ section, are placed 



