Fig. 917.—Ship propelled by oars. Slab. Haggeley, Uppland, Sweden. Similar to the Egyptian bas-relief on the Temple of Medinet-Hakou (see p. 123).
As the largest ships were lofty, they required a deck (thiljur), but decks are very seldom mentioned.
Thorir sailed westward to England, to Knut the Great, with his valuable skins.
“Thorir Hund went on board of his ship; Finn with many men followed him thither, and went along the ship. He had taken up the deck, and under the planks near the mast they saw two barrels, so large that they wondered at them. In the barrels there was an inner bottom close to the outer one, between which was the drink; but the barrel itself was filled with grey skins, beaver and sable” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 149).
Oars.—In calm weather ships were generally propelled with oars, which were fastened with a strap attached to the tholes, or openings made as in the Gokstad ship and Nydam boat. The oars had to be strong, and each was generally manned by two, three, or four men, heavy or large ships being with difficulty propelled by oars.
Sometimes men were so strong that they could, on the smaller vessels, ply an oar alone, but this was an exception.
“King Hakon (Herdibreid) lay in the harbour with fourteen ships. He himself and his men were at some games upon the island, while his lendir men sat on a mound. They saw a boat rowing towards the south of the island; two men were in it, and they pulled the oars so hard that they bent themselves to the bottom of the boat” (Magnus Erlingsson’s Saga, c. 6 (Heimskringla)).
Only in one instance is the length of the oars given—those of the Ellidi—which are said to have been 26 feet long. The largest ship must have had oars still longer than those of the Ellidi, which was not a large vessel.
They were called by the figurative names of The long arms; The feet of the horse of the sea; The wave sweeper; The feet of the ship, &c.
Among the numerous fragments of oars of the Gokstad ship, four were found in tolerable preservation, and only one well-preserved, measuring nearly sixteen feet. The oar tholes were protected inside by round oaken shutters to prevent the water from running in. The large ones found show that no single man could row with one for a long time together; and the oars which propelled the large dragon-ship must have been very heavy.