Viking ship in Roskilde viking ship museum, Denmark

The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark

The Viking ship museum in Roskilde (Vikingeskibsmuseet Roskilde) is located at the southern tip of the Roskilde Fjord, close to Copenhagen. In the large museum hall five Viking ships found 1962 at Skuldelev are displayed. The ships could be dated to have been built in 1030 - 1042 in Ireland, Norway and Denmark. In the museum models are shown of how those ships had looked when under sail.
However, for me the most attractive were the 1 : 1 replicas of all those ships, which had been built at the museum’s shipyard.

I took some photos of each ship:

	length, m	width, m	draught, m	sail area, m²	crew
Skuldelev 1, an ocean-going trader	16	4.8	0.6 - 1.3	90	6 - 8
Skuldelev 2, a large longship	30	3.8	0.9	120	70 - 80
Skuldelev 3, a coastal trader	14	3.3	0.9	45	5 - 6
Skuldelev 5, a small warship	17.3	2.5	0.5	45	30
Skuldelev 6, a fishing and cargo vessel	11.2	2.5	0.6	27	12 - 14

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In addition to the Skuldelev ships several other replicas have been built of medieval boats and more recent traditional Nordic boats.

There is more general information on the homepage of the Viking ship museum in Roskilde. A list of the replica boat collection is also given at the boat collection site. The replica boats have been used to determine the sailing properties of the ships. It was proved (probably for the first time) that the Viking ships were capable of tacking against the wind.

When we were there in August 2009, in the museum a film was shown about a 2008 trip of the Skuldelev 2 replica sailing round England. Very interesting!
If you go there, take your time to include a short sailing trip in one of Viking boat replicas. It is fun! I enclose some photos, one set of photos of some other group getting ready and rowing out of the harbour and a set of photos of our trip under sail.