Kraka Fyr

1998 and 2010

We drove around the forest looking up at the crowns of trees - as you would with oak. We had to get used to the fact that with pine tree, the crooked timber is at the root end.
Ture Malthe Møller, Boatbuilder, 2012

In 1998, the museum's boatbuilders reconstruct Skuldelev 6, the fishing boat from western Norway. The boat is built in the Sognefjord area at the same time and place as the cargo ship Skuldelev 1. It is originally used for fishing in the deep Norwegian fjords, but is then given higher sides and used for transport along the Norwegian coast.

This construction projekt is the first in which we work with planks of pine rather than oak. This requires new knowledge, as cleaving pine is different than cleaving oak.

Twelve years later, in 2010, the boatbuilders lay the keel for yet another reconstruction of the fishing boat. No forestem or afterstem was preserved from Skuldelev 6, and this time the design of these has changed. When building Kraka Fyr, the boatbuilders looked to the 'stepped' stems of Skuldelev 3. Archaeological finds of stems in western Norway, and the fishing boat's relationship to Skuldelev 1, indicate that the stems of Skuldelev 6 may have had a different design. Both the forestem and afterstem of Kraka Fyr and the new forestem and afterstem are designed with respect for the preserved parts, without changing the boat's shape. This shows that several solutions are possible when reconstructing the parts missing from an original ship.