Finding of the ViJcing Ship. 135 



but as no more was heard of him and as a new bishop was 

 elected in his place, he must have perished. - Vineland expedi- 

 tions appear, according to Norwegian history, to have been 

 brought to an end in 1121. According to Professor Horsford, 

 the last ship returned from America to Iceland in 1347. 



Besides the history to prove that our ancestors were here, we 

 also have the excavations in Massachusetts by Professor Hors- 

 ford, who, with Professor Anderson, has done so much to en- 

 lighten the world about the discovery of America. Professor 

 Horsford is dead, but I am glad to know that a daughter has 

 taken up the work, and on April 22 of this 3''ear found the log 

 house built by the party of Thorfinn Karlsevne in 1004. 



It has often been said that the Vikings could never have 

 crossed the northern Atlantic in an open ship such as they had in 

 those days. I Avould not really say that we started on this trip 

 to prove that they could, because when I first got the idea I had 

 not heard much doubt expressed about it. What we really 

 started for was to bring the ship over to the World's Fair, In 

 1880 an old Viking ship was discovered buried in the clay of the 

 Norwegian coast, and most of it as sound as it was the day it 

 was put down ; consequently we were the only nation that could 

 produce such a ship as was used in those days. We knew that 

 Americans admired courage, and that if we could bring a ship 

 such as this over to the World's Fair that it would be appre- 

 ciated as well as interesting. We started a subscription. The 

 government had already been asked for mone}^, but they decided 

 that it was too risky an undertaking. They said if it is to be 

 built for the Chicago World^s Fair and if you will send it over 

 by a steamer, we will vote the money, but if it is to be sailed 

 over, we think it is sport and very dangerous sport at that, and 

 money will not be appropriated for that purpose. So we went 

 to work and got subscriptions from nearly 15,000 people, rang- 

 ing all the way from ten cents to two hundred dollars, and I 

 believe two hundred and fifty dollars from one man. That was 

 the man I mentioned, who was the most enthusiastic of the 

 whole lot. Having obtained the money and the model, we 

 started to build the new ship about three or four miles from 

 where the old one was found. Even sailors doubted whether an 

 open ship like that could be brought over safely, and with all 

 my reasonings I was rather doubtful myself. The only argu- 

 ment I had was that if the Vikings could sail the ship over, 



