The Viking Age. Volume 2 (of 2) / The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

The Tune vessel probably had ten to twelve pairs of oars, to judge from the number of ribs and rowing benches; but as the gunwale is destroyed, the oar tholes are missing. The vessel was iron, clinch built, with the wood work almost entirely of oak; only the ribs and the wooden nails were of fir. The planks were fastened to the frame by such clamps as those described in the Nydam boat and Gokstad ship.

The ponderous beam shows that the mast, which was set in an opening made in a large oak block, could be lowered at will, a fact sometimes mentioned in the Sagas.

The Tune Ship.

Fig. 994.

Tune ship (viewed from above), with heavy oak-log or block, with square hole for making fast the mast, more than 2 feet in diameter—a stump of the mast still remained in its place; discovered in a mound, the lower part of which consisted of heavy blue clay, the upper of sand and earth. The length of keel is about 45 feet (from stem to stern it must, however, have been over 70 feet), the width amidships about 13 feet, and depth about 4½ feet. Stem and stern are alike, and pointed. The sponts were attached to the planks by bast ropes. They were not fastened to the keel plank, which has only been attached by the few nails which held it together with the bottom planks. The planks, of which there have been ten to twelve on each side, are from 18 to 30 inches in width. Tune parish, where the remains of the boat and the stone with old Northern runes have been found, is especially rich in mementoes from the past. All over the parish many mounds and bautarstones of large size are seen.

Fig. 995.

Though several centuries had probably elapsed between the construction of the Nydam and that of the Tune and Gokstad boats, we find the same principle of construction and of joining the planks by rivets used in each case.

The clinch nails here represented were discovered not far from Upsala, in the decayed remains of a small ship buried in the Ultuna mound. They were from 1½ to 2 inches in length, and still remained in their places, holding the planks together. The exact size of the vessel could not be ascertained, as the mound had been disturbed before the systematic researches by competent authorities had been undertaken. There were besides a double-edged sword with hilt of gilt bronze, with fragments of its wooden scabbard, a bundle of 19 arrow-points, 3 dice, 36 checkers, parts of two horses, skeleton on the prow of the ship, and a gridiron, etc., etc.