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The Viking ship Havorn — Osprey
The Viking ship Havorn (Osprey) is constructed on the basis of drawings of the Gokstad ship from the year 900, which was found in a burial mound in Vestfold (a county to the west of the Oslo fjord). The Gokstad ship is the largest Viking ship found in Norway. Havorn is scaled down to 2/3 length of the Gokstad ship and its height and width adapted accordingly. A group of young people started work on the ship in 1981 and it was launched in 1985.
The extensive knowledge we possess today of boats and boat building in the Viking era is based on archaeological finds from all over Scandinavia and on boating traditions still kept alive in present day Trondelag and North Norway. This tradition can be traced in a continuous line back to the Viking ship era, and the technique of rigging and sailing in particular is closely linked to that tradition. Nonetheless, there are a number of questions we must try to answer by practical experience.
Havorn, like other Viking ships, is clinch-built with iron nails. After the keel is laid down, one plank at the time is fitted, and the hull takes shape. The ribs are fitted after the boat has been fitted with its planking. As on the original ship, the boards are fastened in a different manner below and above the waterline. Above the waterline the boards are fastened to the spunts and beams with wooden nails; below the waterline they are lashed together, presumably to make the hull more supple.
The deck consists of loose floorboards resting on transverse beams. The space between the beams is called rom (room), and is just under a meter wide, according to the normal space between the rowers. Havorn has nine rooms and hence nine pairs of oars.
