The division between each rower’s bench was called room (rum), and this was subdivided into half-rooms, in which many of the combatants were stationed: hence the fighting strength of a ship, as well as its size, was known by the number of its rooms or benches.
On expeditions, when the men were landed to fight, we generally find that one-third of the crew remained on board to guard the ship. This is corroborated by the Frankish chronicles, which mention that the Northmen arrived before Paris with seven hundred large ships, besides smaller ones, and landed forty thousand men. The Long Serpent had thirty-four rooms; eight men were in each half room, or sixteen in each room, making five hundred and forty-four. Then thirty men were in the foreroom, thus making five hundred and seventy-four. We have also the warriors in the prows, forecastle, and other parts of the ship, making in all probably seven hundred men.
From the laws we find that people could refuse to sail on unseaworthy ships.
“The ship which has to be baled three times in two days is reckoned, according to the right Bjarkey-rett, to be unseaworthy, unless the crew like to run the risk” (Bjarkey Law, 170).
The following is the only detailed description of a storm at sea in the Sagas; it was encountered by Fridthjof on his way to the Orkneys. There are many references to ships being lost at sea, and their crews drowned.
“When Fridthjof got out of Sogn (fjord) a strong gale and a heavy storm came upon them, and the waves were very great. The ship sailed very fast, for it was swift and one of the best for the sea.
“They were driven (by the storm) northward into the sounds near to the islands called Solundir; the wind was then at its hardest. Fridthjof sang:
The sea begins to swell much,
The clouds are now struck,