Viking Ship Construction: the Havhingsten fra Glendalough

In 2004 Alauns and Jorunn travelled to Denmark to witness the launch of the Havhingsten a 109' long Viking warship. It was the longest Viking Age ship re-construction up to that date. The original ship was built of Oak from the hills near Glendalough Ireland in a Norse shipyard in about 1020-1030 AD. It was filled with rock and scuttled in Roskilde Fjord to block an invasion fleet from Norway headed for the Danish capital.

Soren Thirslund, one of the Viking Ship Museum consultants from research on Viking Navigation, introduced Alauns and Jorunn to shipwrights for the Havhingsten re-construction who explained the history, construction and re-construction of the ship. They were given full access to the shipyard at Roskilde, the historic museum boat reconstructions and the Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingr Denmark. They visited the Viking outdoor museum at Ribe Denmark for small boat construction, the Bygdøy Norwegian Ship museum, historic boats at the Swedish National Historical museum in Stockholm and returned to Roskilde in time for the launch of the Havhingsten on Labor Day weekend 2004. They met the Havhingsten in Dublin in 2007 and again at the Roskilde Ship Museum in 2009. We fondly refer to the Havhingsten as 'Our Favorite Rowboat'.