Selim I: Did you mean...?

In the end, the Viking ship was born through the successive joining of wood, iron, wool, tar, oil, and human labour. The trunk in the forest had become timber in the timber yard, a shell in the shipyard...

Before the overlap surfaces were closed on a Viking ship, a tarred three-ply wool cord was placed between them. Once compressed, this fibrous filler both closed the gap and made the entry of water more difficult...

The broad-bladed axe was the Viking shipbuilder’s most important tool, and had been designed to turn oak logs into thin boards. Using these axes instead of a saw preserved the grain structure of the wood...

In Viking shipbuilding, tar served not only to cover the fibre between the planks but also gave the outer hull additional protection. A mixture of wood, tar and linseed oil coated the outer surface...

In clinker Viking ships, branches and trunk junctions with natural curves were vital for making frames without cutting the fibres. This search for curved timber required extensive scanning within...

The Viking shipbuilders did not enter the forest at random. They first searched for large, straight-grown, knot-free oaks capable of yielding broad planks, because a clinker hull would not forgive poor...

Ash was preferred by Viking shipbuilders for oars and for parts exposed to heavy impact. Thanks to its toughness and high shock resistance, ash offered the ideal engineering solution for ship components that...

In the clinker system of a Viking ship, each new plank overlapped the one below. This overlap acted like a structural spine that strengthened the hull along its length and kept the ship light yet remarkably...

The oak trunk about to be cut down was read by the Viking shipbuilder not only for its straightness but also for the degree of twist in its fibres. By looking at the bark, the builder could understand whether...

In Viking ships, long and straight trunks were sought for the keel. The Skuldelev 2 report documented that finding a suitable keel piece created a critical production bottleneck since a suitable trunk...