The Original Gokstad Longship

The Gokstad longship has often been portrayed as the iconic sailing ship from the medieval period in northern Europe - because it was then the most elegant and the most functional vessel from a long-enduring ship-building tradition. A replica of this ship will soon be built by the Australian Viking Ships Museum Association.

The original Gokstad ship was built around 850 CE (Current Era). It was part of a nautical tradition dating from prehistoric times - which included the 27 metre Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo ship, dated approximately 625 CE, and the ships in the invasion fleet of William the Conqueror as depicted on the Bayeux tapestry.

A few years after Gokstad was first commissioned it was hauled ashore to provide a tomb for an unidentified Norwegian king.

This powerfully-built man in his fifties was laid out in state in the ship, along with his most treasured possessions. The vessel was then buried in a clay trench just outside Oslo in Norway. This damp clay sealed off all but the ship’s stem- and stern-posts from the air, and its main timbers were therefore preserved from decomposition until the ship’s discovery and excavation in 1880.

Length overall:

23.33 metres

Breadth:

5.25 metres

Depth:

(keel to gunwale amidships) 1.95 metres

Weight:

(unloaded) about 7 tons; (loaded) about 17 tons

Draught:

(fully loaded) about 1 metre

Construction material:

mainly oak, but also using pine and other timbers for oars, mast, etc

Rivets:

iron nails hammered over washers to secure clinker construction

Caulking:

wool dipped in tar

Sail:

woven wool in red and white stripes

Crew:

16 pairs of rowers, and a "second shift" of the same number, all able to be accommodated on board in inclement weather under a tent structure

Function:

a multi-purpose ship that could be used for trading or raiding, that could cross the Atlantic or the Baltic, but which could equally be drawn up by its crew on any available beach, or even "ported" between rivers in places like Russia

Maximum speed:

probably 10-12 knots, but we don’t know how well the seamen of those days could maximise the use of their indigenous technology.