DRAGONBOAT

The Viking Longship

Let’s draw a longship…

Did you know?

• Only the greatest warships were always made from Oak because it was a very strong timber and the Oak tree was sacred to the warrior god Odin.

• People who make ships and boats are called shipwrights. It was a very skilled job and involved choosing the right kind of tree for various tasks.

• Different parts of the ship came from different parts of the tree.

What do we know about the longship?

30 metres (or 107 fot*)

About 18 pairs of oarsmen

A figurehead (eg dragon) would only have been used by elite & attached upon approaching land.

* 1 fot =0.280 metres

Shields would not be carried like this whilst at sea!

From 10 km/h up to 25km/h

How were ships made?Equipment: axes & wedges. Saws were rare as the blades were difficult to forge. (The Domesday book of 1086AD mentions only 13 saws in the Kingdom of England!)

Parts of the tree that were not going to be used were trimmed off, but nothing was wasted. Bark, twigs etc could be used for: making rope; smoking fish, meat & cheese; making charcoal.

Logs were split into wedge shapes and then trimmed into planks.

Trenails, or wooden rivets (dowels) were used as iron was as expensive then as silver is today.

Different Ships for Different Purposes