The Northmen were excellent navigators. They were, moreover, it has been
claimed, the first to learn the art of sailing on the wind. They had
good sea-going vessels, some of which were of large size. We have an
account in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvesson of one that in some respects was
remarkable. It is said that "the winter after King Olaf Tryggvesson came
from Halogeland. He had a great ship built at Ledehammer,[52] which was
larger than any ship in the country, and of which the beam-knees are
still to be seen. The length of the keel that rested upon the grass was
seventy-four ells. Thorberg Skafting was the man's name who was the
master builder of the ship, but there were many others besides; some to
fell the wood, some to shape it, some to make nails, some to carry
timber, and all that was used was the best. The ship was both long and
broad and high sided, and strongly timbered.... The ship was a dragon,
built after the one that the king had captured in Halogaland, but it was
far longer and more carefully put together in all her parts. The Long
Serpent [her name] had thirty-four benches for rowers. The head and
arched tail were both gilt, and the bulwarks were as high as in
sea-going ships. This ship was the best and most costly ever built in
Norway."[53]
Laing computes the tonnage of this ship at about nine hundred and
forty-two tons, thus giving a length of about one hundred feet, which is
nearly the size of a forty-two gun ship. By steam tonnage it would give
a capacity of a little less than three hundred tons, and one hundred and
twenty horse power. We apprehend, however, that the estimate is
sufficiently large; yet we are not concerned to show any great capacity
for the Icelandic ships. All the vessels employed in the early times on
the American coasts were small. Cabot sailed in Baffins Bay with a
vessel of thirty tons; and the Anna Pink, the craft that accompanied
Lord Anson in his expedition around the world, was only sixteen
tons.[54] The vessels possessed by the Northmen were everyway adapted
for an ocean voyage.
In nautical knowledge, also, they were not behind the age. The
importance of cultivating the study of navigation was fully understood.
The Raudulf of Oesterdal, in Norway, taught his son to calculate the
course of the sun and moon, and how to measure time by the stars. In
1520 Olaus Magnus complained that the knowledge of the people in this
respect had been diminished. In that noble work called _Speculum Regale_
the Icelander is taught to make an especial study of commerce and
navigation, of the divisions of time and the movements of the heavenly
bodies, together with arithmetic, the rigging of vessels and
_morals_.[55] Without a high degree of knowledge they could never have
achieved their eastern voyages.