SHIPBUILDING AND SEAFARING.
The almost complete absence of any allusion to Irish ships[149]
during the eighth and ninth centuries shows that at this time the
Irish had no warships to drive back the powerful naval forces of the
Vikings. Meeting with no opposition on sea the invaders were able to
anchor their fleets in the large harbours, and afterwards to occupy
certain important positions along the coasts. In this connection it is
interesting to note that the Irish word _longphort_ (a ‘shipstead’;
later, ‘a camp’) is used for the first time in the _Annals of Ulster_
with reference to the Norse encampments at Dublin and Linn-Duachaill
(840); hence it has been concluded that the early Norse _long-phorts_
were not exactly fortified camps, but ‘ships drawn up and protected on
the landside, probably by a stockaded earthwork.’[150]
The Annalists tell how, when the Vikings were expelled from Dublin in
902, they fled across the sea to England, leaving large numbers of
their ships behind them. It was probably the capture of these vessels
that impressed upon the Irish the advantages of this new method of
warfare, for they now began to build ships and to prepare to meet
the Vikings in their own element.[151] In 913 a “new fleet,” manned
by Ulstermen, attacked the Norsemen off the coast of Man but was
defeated.[152] Another Ulster fleet commanded by Muirchertach mac
Neill, King of Aileach, sailed to the Hebrides in 939 and carried off
much spoil and booty.[153] Moreover, the Irish seem to have imitated
the Scandinavian practice of “drawing” or carrying their light vessels
over land to the lakes and rivers in the interior of the island.
Mention is made of Domhnall, son of Muirchertach, who “took the boats
from the river Bann on to Lough Neagh, and over the river Blackwater
upon Lough Erne, and afterwards upon Lough Uachtair.”[154]
The men of Munster also had their navy, which they organised according
to Norse methods[155] by compelling each district in the different
counties to contribute ten ships to it. Thus by the middle of the
tenth century they were able to put a formidable fleet to sea. When
Cellachan of Cashel (d. 954) was captured by the Vikings and brought to
Dublin, he sent messengers to the Munstermen bidding them to defend
their territory: “and afterwards,” he said, “go to the chieftains of
my fleet and bring them with you to Sruth na Maeile (Mull of Cantyre),
and if I am carried away from Ireland, let the men of Munster take
their ships and follow me.”[156] The chronicle goes on to give a vivid
description of the great naval battle which followed: the Vikings
under the leadership of Sihtric, a prince from Dublin, took up their
position in the Bay of Dundalk, where the “barques and swift ships of
the men of Munster” met them. The Irish ships were arranged according
to the territories they represented: those of Corcolaigdi and Ui
Echach (Co. Cork) were placed farthest south; next came the fleets of
Corcoduibne and Ciarraige (Co. Kerry), and lastly those of Clare. When
the Munstermen saw Cellachan, who had been bound and fettered to the
mast by Sihtric’s orders, they made gallant attempts to release him;
some of them leaped upon “the rowbenches and strong oars of the mighty
ships” of the Norsemen, while others threw tough ropes of hemp across
the prows to prevent them from escaping. Failbhe, King of Corcoduibne,
brought his ship alongside Sihtric’s, and with his sword succeeded
in cutting the ropes and fetters that were round the King, but was
himself slain immediately afterwards. The battle ended in victory for
the Irish: the Norsemen were forced to leave the harbour with all their
ships, but “they carried neither King nor chieftain with them.”[157]
The _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_ records still more victories
for the Munster fleet during the reign of Brian Borumha. In 984 he
assembled “a great marine fleet” on Lough Derg and took three hundred
boats up the Shannon to Lough Ree[158] and again in 1001 sailed with
his fleet to Athlone.[159] But the greatest triumph of all was in
1005, when Brian, then at the height of his power, “sent forth a naval
expedition composed of the foreigners of Dublin and Waterford and the
Ui Ceinnselaigh (_i.e._, the men of Wexford) and almost all the men
of Erin, such of them as were fit to go to sea; and they levied royal
tribute from the Saxons and the Britons and from the men of Lennox in
Scotland and the inhabitants of Argyle.”[160]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the names of a number of Frisian
sailors who fought with the English in a naval battle against the
Vikings (A. an. 897). In the same way the Irish ships must have been
manned to a large extent by Norse mercenaries or by the Gaill-Gaedhil,
for practically all the shipping terms introduced into Irish in the
tenth and eleventh centuries are of Norse origin.[161] This is evident
from the following list:--
Mid. Ir. _abor_, _abur_: O.N. _hábora_, ‘an oar hole.’
_Accaire_: O.N. _akkeri_, ‘an anchor.’
_Accarsoid_: O.N. _akkerissaeti_, ‘a harbour for
ships.’
_Achtuaim_: O.N. _aktaumr_, ‘a brace.’
_athbha_: phonetic form (af, av) of O.N.
_höfuth_, ‘head’ of a ship.
_Allsad_: O.N. _halsa_, ‘to slacken a sail.’
_As_: O.N. _ass_, ‘the pole to which the
lower end of a sail was
fastened during a fair wind.’
_bat_, _bad_: O.N. _bátr_, ‘a boat.’
_birling_: O.N. _byrthingr_, ‘a transport vessel,’
‘a merchant ship.’[162]
_carb_: O.N. _karfi_, ‘a ship.’
_cnairr_: O.N. _knörr_, ‘a merchant ship.’
_laideng_: O.N. _leithangr_, ‘naval forces.’
_lipting_: O.N. _lypting_, ‘a taffrail.’
_lunnta_, _lunn_ (in reania): O.N. _hlunnr_, ‘the handle of an oar.’
_scib_: O.N. _skip_, ‘a ship,’ whence also are
derived _sciobaire_, ‘a sailor’
and _scipad_ and _sgiobadh_, ‘to
make ready for sailing.’
_tile_: O.N. _thili_, ‘a plank,’ ‘the bottom
board in a boat.’
_Tlusdais_ (? teldass): O.N. _tjaldáss_, ‘the horizontal topmast
of a ship.’
_uicing_, a word used for O.N. _Víkingr_, ‘one who haunts
‘a fleet’: a bay or creek.’
_uiginnecht_, piracy: