This is cool. I wonder if I will remember to keep track of it.
POSTED: 10:15 a.m. EST, November 10, 2006COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Dozens of volunteer sailors will follow in the wake of the Vikings next summer, crossing the North Sea to Ireland in a 100-foot (30-meter) replica of a Norse warship, museum officials said Friday.
The slender long ship, named Havhingsten, or Stallion of the Sea, is one of the most ambitious Viking ship reconstructions to date, experts said. It has been modeled after a nearly 1,000-year-old vessel that was excavated in the Roskilde fjord, west of Copenhagen, the Danish capital.
On July 2, the vessel will set sail from Roskilde with a crew of 65 who hope to learn more about Viking seamanship on a seven-week, 1,000-mile (1,700-kilometer) journey to Dublin -- a city founded by Vikings.
"We will not sail dressed as Vikings, but we will try to understand how the ship and crew coped," said Martin Brandt Djupdraet, curator of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.
The volunteer crew from Britain, Ireland, the United States, Germany, Australia and Scandinavian countries has been testing the ship off Denmark since Queen Margrethe christened it in 2004.
The long ship will head north to Scotland and sail down through the Irish Sea. The ports of call on the way to Dublin have not been announced yet. It is due to sail back to Denmark in 2008.
The long ship was built by craftsmen using Viking-era tools, but its navigation equipment will be modern. It will be fitted with radar, a radio, a global positioning system and modern safety equipment. Crew members also will report daily online about the journey.
The original warship was built in 1042 in Glendalough, south of Dublin.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
it is interestinng to me that the on one hand want to know how the vikngs coped but on the other hand they them selves do not want to loose the comforts of today.... if they wanted to know really how the vikings coped then they have another boat follow them and they really do more othenticly.
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