Many small, eager hands shoot into the air again and again. The noise level is as high as a Danish school class in overdrive. Almost unable to keep pace, historian Louise Kæmpe Henriksen from the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is holding a talk about the Sea Stallion and the Viking Age for the children of the Kirkley and Pakefield Football Club in Lowestoft.
She often holds talks when she is not carrying out her duties as a hand aboard the Sea Stallion. It is part of a very comprehensive information obligation that the Viking Ship Museum has built into the project. Today it is children who are listening to the story about the Vikings’ ravages in England and about life on board the Sea Stallion, as well as its mission. In the spring she was on a longer tour of schools in Dublin and its environs.
Today Louise hits the bull’s-eye again. This is not one-way communication. The 20 assembled children from the football club ask questions non-stop after they have seen a film about the Sea Stallion. Once in a while they actually also answer Louise’s questions, which really have the purpose of dampening the excitement a little. For instance, they know a great deal about the battle of Hastings.
The arrangement in the football club is not just a part of the project’s information task – it arose because the Sea Stallion during its experimental voyage has enjoyed much friendliness and help, almost to the point of being pampered, no matter where the ship has moored. It’s simply “pay back time”. This Tuesday evening it looks as though the large tents for the 60 crew that have monopolised part of the Lowestoft citizens’ playing fields will remain there for some days more. So the kids are getting an unusual and instructive experience. At the same time, several teams from the Sea Stallion have painted some of the club’s changing rooms over the past couple of days. That’s the way the sailing experimental project can say thank you for letting us lie on your grass and use your toilets, hot water and bathing facilities. Not to mention the football club’s bar and attractive activity room with table tennis and darts, a game found everywhere in England.
“The Vikings came with sword and shield and ravaged and plundered England. We’ve come in peace,” emphasised Louise, after she had talked about the dramatic events of the past and asks if the children have any more questions.
“How can you tell from a ship that it’s a Viking ship?”
“What do you eat on board?”
“Do you catch fish and eat them?”
“How do you go to the toilet?”
“Are you coming back?”
When it’s all over, the children clap spontaneously and spurt out into the warm summer evening to play football before darkness falls. At the other end of the pitches a large grill party has started to develop. The football club has loaned the crew two large grills and 60 – 70 people are lying quite full in the grass and enjoying a drink. Warm, dry summer evenings are not something that the hard-tried crew has much experience of. So life is to be enjoyed right now.