sinking, as it had served as a fireship in an attack on Hedeby at the most twenty-five
years after its construction in c. ad 985. The ship, which was built with exquisite
materials and craftsmanship, has a reconstructed length of c. 30. 9 m, and had sixty oars.
It is narrow, measuring only 2. 6 m in beam, and has a height of 1. 5 m amidships.
Because of its dimensions it is believed that it was intended for use in the western Baltic
and in coastal waters only. It was built from wood from the western Baltic region,
perhaps even from the vicinity of Hedeby itself.
An example of a sea-going longship is Skuldelev 2 (Figure 11. 2 ), excavated as part of
a sea-route barrier protecting the access to Roskilde on Zealand (Crumlin-Pedersen et al.
2002 ). The ship, reconstructed to a minimum length of 29. 2 m, was built in the Dublin
area in 1042. Its sea-going capacity is reflected in its larger beam of c. 3. 8 m and height
of 1. 8 m. It also had about sixty oars.
In 1997 , ship remains excavated in Roskilde proved that ships were indeed built
longer than this (Bill et al. 2000 ). The vessel, Roskilde 6 , had been pulled ashore and
partially scrapped, and the preserved remains include only the keel, the central bottom
section and part of the port aft. The keel alone measured 32 m in length, and the overall
length of the vessel has been preliminarily reconstructed to 36 m. It probably had as
many as seventy-four oars. With a beam of about 3. 5 m and a height of c. 1. 7 m, its
proportions place it between Skuldelev 2 and Hedeby 1. The keel had been joined from
three pieces with two 2 m long, complicated scarfs. This solution is, until now, unique
Figure 11. 2 The Viking Ship Museum’s reconstruction of the 60 -oared longship Skuldelev 2. Built in
Dublin in 1042 , the ship is constructed for use in the difficult waters of the Irish Sea. It probably came to
Denmark in the late 1060 s or early 1070 s. (Photo: Werner Karrasch, Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.)
–– chapter 11 : Viking ships and the sea––