The small boat from Gokstad

You can follow the boatyard's building of the Gokstad boat here.

Presentation video of the small boat from Gokstad

Hanus Jensen presents the Gokstad boat and the preliminary work of building the Viking Ship Museum’s eighth reconstruction of this beautiful boat. The building work has been moved indoors to the boatyard and the boatbuilders are working on the last strake. Leader of the boatyard, Søren Nielsen, explains about the further work with thwarts and frames.

Taking part: Hanus Jensen, Peter Rasmussen, Søren Nielsen and Erik Jochumsen

(Film is in Danish only)

The building work in pictures

We have purchased a large oak tree for the construction of this small boat. The oak log must provide the keel, stem and strakes. The reason the tree must have such a large diameter for such a relatively small boat is that this little boat is built with very wide strakes.
Cleaved pieces in eighths.
The oak log is cleaved in halves, quarters, eighths and sixteenths. At the back of the picture a cleaved section that has not yet been fashioned into a plank can be seen.
Hanus shapes two stems from one of the cleaved sections. They are what we call stepped stem-post. Each step takes one strake. There are three strakes on this boat.
The stem-posts must be hollowed out so that the stævnørerne (stem wings or wings of the stem) are not thicker than the strakes that will be attached to the stem. Hanus is cutting profiles that continue the underside of the strakes, which thus end elegantly out on the stems.
One of the stems is completed and the other is well on the way.
Erik sets up the sternpost so the assembly for the keel can be drawn up.
Peter and Hanus set up the keel and the stem to mark up the assemblies (scarfs) so that everything can be assembled.
When the keel and the stem are assembled, they must be raised precisely plumb and level. If this part of the work is not performed properly, a warped, asymmetrical boat will be the result. This will produce a boat that cannot be sailed or rowed satisfactorily.
The keel and stem are in the correct position. The Sea Stallion can be seen in the background. Small boats like this Gokstad boat may have been towed or may have been aboard the larger ships during longer voyages.
Afterwards the garboards have been cleaved out and hewn down to size.
Then they are hollowed out with a scraper in the same way that we can see they did in the Viking Age.
In order to fit the strakes properly, they are heated over flames and embers. We think that this method was also used in the Viking Age. This process dissolves the adhesives in the wood so that it is possible to twist the strakes so that they are horizontal in the middle of the boat, but almost vertical towards the stems. When the wood cools down again, it stabilises in its new shape.
The plank is fashioned and secured with plank clamps and fork-shaped clamps.
Now the garboard is on. The rivet for the keel and the stem with iron rivets, which were also used in the original boat.
The assembly or scarfs between the foremost and sternmost plank is also joined with rivets. They function by an iron nail being driven in from outside. A rove is then put over the nail’s stem. The stem is cut off just over the rove and the stem is clinkered (see picture) and thus expands and locks the rivet. This technique was used on both small and large boats during the Viking Age and for several hundred years before the Viking Age. The method is the same for wooden boats built today. Here the rivets are produced from galvanised iron or copper.
The Gokstad boat has been moved inside to the boatyard. Søren is planing the foremost second plank.
Erik is measuring the slope of the plank that will be fitted here.
In order to check the correct slope of the plank at different places in the boat, we use a wooden board with a small plumb. In this way, it is possible to ensure that the slope of the plank will be correct and that we are building the boat symmetrically on the port and starboard sides. The vertical pegs on the plank edges are called struts. They maintain the shape of the boat while we are building until we insert the frames.
Here you can see how the planks go onto the "steps” of the stems. This is a typical ‘Viking Age solution’.
Peter has crafted the boat's small rudder. It is also made from a cleaved section from the same tree. It is a side-rudder, just like on other ships and boats from the Viking Age.
The hole in the centre is to attach the rudder to the boat, and the slot at the top is for the tiller.
Now all the planks have been fitted in the second strake. The top edge is cleaved so that the boat will have smooth, straight lines.
Erik has made a good cutting.
It is important to be extremely careful when cutting the upper edge. Small holes or dips in the line become much clearer when seen from the stems.
The boat is ready to be launched. We have chosen to paint the outside with tar mixed with carbon-black (soot from the burning of organic material) and yellow ochre mixed with linseed oil. Both colours have been found on the large Gokstad ship.
The Gokstad boat was given the name Freydis Joanna. Freydis was the name of a half sister to Leif Den Lykkelige and daughter of Erik the Red. Freydis was a strong and fearless woman who was an important woman in the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. Joanna was the middle name of the woman who donated money for the building of the boat.
The boat was launched after it was named.
The first trip was with the initiator from the Danish-Canadian museum in Dickson, Edmonton, Canada, Carl Sorensen and the Viking Ship Museum’s boatbuilder apprentice, Erik Jochumsen. They met the museum’s Gokstad boat on the fjord and drank a well-deserved dram.
Freydis Johanna was trial rowed
and trial sailed. First, it was tested with three men on board
and then with two men on board. We set the sails loosely with screw clamp before we decided where the holes in the hull should be bored.
The little Gokstad boat is a fun boat to sail. The sail fits perfectly and the boat has good balance.
It looks great!