Skuldelev 1

Material: pine, oak, and lime
Length: 15,84 metres
Breadth: 4.8 metres
Draught: 1 metre
Displacement: 20 tons
No. of oars: 2-4
Crew: 6-8 men
Sail area: 90 m2
Average speed: 5-7 knots
Top speed: ca. 13 knots
Dating: ca. 1030
Place of construction: Western Norway
Preserved: 60 %

Wreck 1 is a sturdy, ocean-going trading vessel possibly of the knarr type. The ship was built of stout pine planks at Sognefjord in western Norway and was later repeatedly repaired with oak near Oslo Fjord and from eastern Denmark. The ship had decks fore, aft and an open hold amidships.

The ship and its cargo may have been owned by a chieftain, who used it to sail on trading expeditions with his clan, or cooperatively by a group of merchants who sailed it on order to trade at markets. The crew would have consisted of 6-8 men. The ocean-going vessel could have sailed all over the North Sea and the Baltic as well as in the North Atlantic. With a favourable wind, it probably maintained an average speed of about 5-7 knots. Ottar, the reconstruction of Skuldelev 1 built by the Viking Ship Museum, is on display in the museum harbour.