Infopanel 9

VIKING SHIPS 

Today, Viking ships are commonly called longships or dragon ships. In Old Norse, "langskip" referred exclusively to warships, while “dragon ship” originally meant any vessel bearing a dragon’s head on its stem.
This is likely to have given rise to the name for the largest class of warships, which were called “dreki.” As flagships, these dragon ships belonged to the leader of a fleet or the king and were often over 30 metres long and equipped with more than 30 pairs of oars. 
The Danish wreck Skuldelev 2, built in Ireland, was a very impressive warship with a length of 30 metres and a width of only 4.5 metres. These large ships with over 30 rowers must have had a crew of at least 60 to 100 Vikings.
The ancient and famous ship in the Oslo Fjord, the Oseberg ship, is likely to have belonged to the next smallest type of warship. However, due to its slender and almost filigree construction and lavish decorations, it is often described as a royal yacht that was most suitable for coastal waters. Such warships, with a length of 23.5 metres, were equipped with 15 or 16 pairs of oars.
One of the warships excavated in Roskilde Fjord on Zealand, a Danish island,  was even smaller - the Skuldelev 5 wreck, which was only 17.3 metres long and 2.5 metres wide could carry a crew of about 30 warriors with 13 pairs of oars. 
There were also a number of different types of merchant and transport ships. 
The largest of these was the knorr or knarr, which was used for peaceful long-distance voyages, such as Atlantic crossings to Iceland and Greenland. The wrecks of such ocean-going ships found to date were between 16.5 and 22 metres long and 4.5 to 5.5 metres wide. These ships would have been capable of transporting entire families, including their goods and domestic animals.

Captions: 
Ocean-going vessel / Lenght 16.3 m / Width 4.6 m
Merchant ship / Length 15.5m / Width 5.5 m
Longship / Lenght 28m / Width 4.2 m
Warship / Length 18 m / Width 2.6m
Ferry, fishing boat, or similar / Length 12m / Width 2.5 m

SHIPBUILDING

The most important technological development of the Viking Age was the creation of a fast, seaworthy sailing ship. Although clinker-built, double-ended vessels had existed for more than 1,000 years, Viking shipbuilders transformed them into true ocean-going ships by adding a long, narrow keel.
Every plank-built ship was constructed on its keel, with its form defined by the stem, carved from a single piece of wood. The frames were added afterwards. Because the planks were split rather than sawn, the wooden fibres remained intact, giving the hull greater elasticity and durability. Despite the overlapping planks, fastened with square iron rivets, each seam still had to be sealed with wool threads and tar.
Sails were woven from local sheep’s wool, usually brown, though striped and colourful sails also existed. Rigging was made of strong, braided sealskin ropes.
Scandinavian sailors valued their ships highly. They gave them individual names, painted the hulls in bright colours, and sometimes added gilded sterns and colourful pennant decoration. Painted shields also lined the ships’ sides.
This emotional attachment appears clearly in Viking poetry, which uses vivid metaphors for ships: faxi byrjar (“wind horse”), valr svalheims (“falcon of the cool land”), and valr víka (“falcon of the bays”). More menacing names include vargr hafs (“wolf of the sea”) and elfar ulfr (“wolf of the rivers”). A more poetic term, öndurr svanvangs (“ski of the swan bank”), refers to a ship gliding over a wave.