44 ALL AFLOAT 



wind was more or less aft. The sail, in fact, 

 was centuries behind the hull, which, with the 

 firm grip of its keel, would have been quite 

 fit for a beat to windward, if the proper canvas 

 had been carried. The thirty oars were often 

 used, and to very good purpose, as the easy 

 run of the lines suited either method of pro- 

 pulsion. The general look of these Viking 

 craft is not unlike that of a big keeled war 

 canoe, for both ends rise with a sharp sheer 

 and run to a point. A classical scholar would 

 be irresistibly reminded of the Homeric vessels, 

 not as they were in reality, but as they appear 

 in the eager, sea-born suggestions of the Iliad 

 and the Odyssey long, sharp, swift, well- 

 timbered, hollow, with many thwarts, and 

 ends curved high like horns. 



Three Viking vessels discovered in a Danish 

 peat-bog probably belong to the fifth century, 

 thus being fifteen hundred years of age. Yet 

 their counterparts can still be seen along the 

 Norwegian coast. Such wonderful persistence, 

 even of such an excellently serviceable type, is 

 quite unparalleled ; and it proves, if proof were 

 needed, that the Norsemen who are said to 

 have discovered Newfoundland and Nova Scotia 

 were the finest seamen of their own and many 

 a later time. The way they planned and built 



