Fig. 993.—⅕ real size.
Fragments of wood from Gokstad ship.
The Nydam vessel is a fourteen-seater and about 76 feet in length: of this about 46 feet are taken up by the rowers’ seats, the remaining 30 feet being the spaces fore and aft. The space between each oar thole is 3 feet 2 inches.
The length of the twenty-seater must have been about 110 feet; that of the twenty-five seater, about 130 feet; of the thirty-seater, about 155 feet; and of the thirty-four seater, the Long Serpent of Olaf Tryggvason, about 180 feet. Taking the rise from the keel to stem and to stern, this cannot, in a vessel of that size, have been less than 15 feet at each end, and thus we arrive at the same result, or 180 feet.
The largest ship of which we have any record is that of Knut the Great.
His dragon had sixty pairs of oars, and therefore, according to the same calculation, must have had a length of about 300 feet. The above measurements are given without making allowance for larger spaces between the benches than those of the Nydam and Gokstad ships, which were necessary in order to give more space for the plying of the longer oars.
The width of the ship is still more difficult to determine; but, taking for example the Serpent, where it is said that each half-room held eight men, or sixteen in the whole width of the vessel, its breadth between the gunwales could not have been less than 32 feet, probably more, if we judge by the proportions of the other vessels, the Nydam boat’s width being ⅕ of its length, and that of the Gokstad boat being nearly ⅕ of its length.
The depth of the ships is nowhere mentioned, but, as we find a deck-planking (thiljur) mentioned, it must have been at least, in cases of seagoing ships, 10 feet or more.
Looking at the Gokstad ship and its beautiful shape, we can form an idea how advanced the art of shipbuilding was in the North. The vessel had no deck, the bottom boards resting over the frames were loose, and were made fast to the frames by notches cut in them. The fragments which remain of the tent or tents show the material to have been red and white striped wool, and the numerous pieces of rope were made of bast.