These carvings represent ships, some of them being quaint representations of sea-fights, the boats being somewhat similar in appearance to those used by the Vikings of the ninth and tenth centuries of our era. Rude as these rock-carvings are, they give us some idea of the kind of vessels employed in that very remote age: they represent long row-boats with very high carved prows or sternposts, and are steered not by a rudder behind, but by an oar at the side, and from this practice is derived our word "starboard" or "steerboard," being the right-hand side of the vessel.
The Vikings used also a square sail, which could be hoisted when required. This they had learnt indirectly from the Romans.
The traveller among the fjords of Norway may, to this day, see those heavy boats with high prows and square sails, which have an indescribable air of antiquity about their build, contrasting quaintly with more modern-built craft of coasting vessels and fishing-smacks.
Although this ancient type of boat is fast dying out, the traveller will yet find a number of them in Nordland, and these are still more like the Viking ships of old, having also high pointed sterns.
These old-fashioned boats are a link between us and the remotest past of Scandinavia, of the early period of the rock carvings, and of the romantic period of the Vikings.
The boats built in Hardanger differ in form from those of the Sogne Fjord and Nordland, as the traveller will note as he proceeds northwards, the Hardanger type being of light and elegant construction, and drawing less water than those to which we are accustomed.
Every peasant and cotter has his own boat or boats, and these may be seen everywhere along the fjord, either in use on the water, or pulled up on the strand, and, where there is found a convenient landing-place, log-built boathouses are erected.
Norwegians are fond of gay colours, as evidenced in the painting of their houses and boats. Many farmers build their own boats out of wood grown on their own farms, and some build to sell again. The cost of a four-oared boat is about twenty-five kroner (twenty-eight shillings), a six-oared fifty kroner, and an eight-oared boat seventy kroner.
Staple food of peasants
As fish plays an important part in the diet of the peasants, the boats are greatly in use. The fjords being great arms of the sea, most kinds of sea-fish are caught therein, sometimes in very large quantities, herring being often in such densely-packed masses that quite a number of fishermen use large wooden shovels to transfer them to their boats, returning repeatedly to the harvest until the mass has dispersed.