Photo: Werner Karrasch, Viking Ship Museum

The Irish Examiner reports that at three o’clock next Thursday afternoon Dubliners will be treated to an extraordinary spectacle. The Viking ship Sea Stallion, which has been on display at the National Museum in Collins Barracks, will be lifted 50 metres into the air by a giant crane. Then the huge vessel will be swung out over the three-storey museum building and deposited in the nearby Croppy’s Acre. In the middle of the night it will be moved to the River Liffey, prior to its long sea journey back to Denmark.

Sea Stallion arrived in Dublin, to a tumultuous reception, on August 14 last. The seven-week voyage from Denmark was one of the most ambitious archaeological experiments ever conducted. Dr Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum, told RTE’s Mooney Show that a wealth of new discoveries had been made. The ship’s square sail, for example, had proved to be far more effective than expected; the sail rather than oars provided most of the power. The manner in which Viking ships were rowed has also been clarified. The ship’s rudder attachment proved to be seriously flawed, but this was not altogether a surprise; the rudder of the original vessel was not found, leaving researchers somewhat in the dark. The Stallion capsized more than once, but Dr Wallace thinks that Viking crews were so highly skilled than such events were rare long ago. In those days ships tended to hug the coast and food was probably cooked on shore. The 10th century equivalent of today’s giant aircraft carriers, these greyhounds of the sea were the product of highly organised and sophisticated communities. [Source]

Lars Normann writes:

The world’s largest Viking ship reconstruction, the “Sea Stallion from Glendalough”, was made famous all over the world last year (2007) by the intense media attention when it sailed from Roskilde, round the north of Scotland, and on to Dublin – where it spent the winter in the national museum and was seen by a record number of visitors.

On 29th June, the floating research project continues. After leaving Dublin, the course will be south, round Land’s End, and into the English Channel. The Sea Stallion will stick close to the south coast of England with its famous seaside towns and historic harbours from the days of the full riggers, and then cross the North Sea to Danish waters. The voyage will end in Roskilde on 9th August. [Source]

Hahvingsten.dk, the site dedicated to the Sea Stallion, has several extremely interesting videos to watch about the journey, not the least are Shortcut: The voyage in 7 minutes and Reconstruction of the longship. All the videos are available here.

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