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| Dramatic discoveries of ancient ships have stirred the imaginations of many - from explorers to archaeologists. And they have led to some amazing voyages, in crafts made using ancient techniques, and a new understanding of the ships and shipping of the past. |  The elegant prow of a Viking ship
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Ships are an obvious choice for experimentation and reconstruction, due to a wealth of sources to research - from early texts and manuscripts to rock carvings, paintings, and long-lost burials and shipwrecks.
The abundance of material preserved underwater or in waterlogged deposits, with exciting discoveries of partial and near complete ship remains, has encouraged us to look into the detail of boatbuilding traditions, as well as to find out what the ships of ancient times could and could not do.
The following sections refer to a few of the many reconstructions that have already been made of ancient ships, while many more projects are being attempted all the time.
The purpose of the experiment was to to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America, celebrated at the Great Exhibition in Chicago. While the performance of the vessel and the success of the voyage met with much acclaim, it must have stirred the debate as to who actually first discovered America.
' Many replicas have been built and sailed to study methods and styles of construction and performance.'
Many Viking boats have been discovered since then, including the five ships that were sunk in the 11th century as a blockade in Roskilde fjord in Denmark. A cofferdam was constructed around them and the ships were excavated and salvaged in 1962. They are now on display in the purpose-built Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde.
Three of the ships have been reconstructed and tested, and from 1984-1986 the replica of one of the cargo ships - known as Wreck 1 - circumnavigated the globe. Since then, many replicas have been built and sailed to study methods and styles of construction and performance of Viking and later vessels. Roskilde’s Viking Ship Museum and the Danish Institute of Maritime Archaeology run regular courses in such experimentation.
More recent, but less well known, Viking boat reconstructions include that of the Aifur, designed as a typical small cargo boat rather than as a replica of a specific ship find. The Aifur sailed to the east from Lake Malar in Sweden in 1994 and 1996 to test the viability of a traditional route to the Ukraine.
Although the little craft rowed well and sailed well, it encountered many problems - such as strong river currents and low water, which made portage difficult. So the project team concluded that in Viking times it would have been faster to travel this route with a horse and cart than to go by boat.
His voyage from Peru lasted 101 days, before he reached the Tuamotu Islands. He successfully disproved the generally held views that such rafts were not seaworthy and he postulated controversially that the Polynesian islands therefore could have been colonised from South America.
'... the craft was certainly seaworthy enough for St Brendan to have made such a voyage.'
More than 50 years later, American explorer Phil Buck also set out to prove the theory, this time in a reed boat named Viracocha, after the same Sun God as Kon Tiki. Buck’s voyage began in 1999 when he sailed from Chile to Easter Island. This successful voyage formed the first part of an eight-year project to circumnavigate the globe using a total of five reed boats in all.
Tim Severin recreated a 'curragh', or skin covered boat, for the Brendan voyage, and in 1976 and 1977 he followed in the wake of St Brendan, who is believed to have sailed from Ireland across the North Atlantic in this type of small boat in the sixth century AD.
Severin’s voyage was successful, demonstrating that the craft was certainly seaworthy enough for St Brendan to have made such a voyage. The result can only have intensified discussions about the earliest discovery of America.
'... it was possible that the sinking of the 'Mary Rose' had been caused by the sudden intake of water ...'
At the opposite end of the spectrum, accurate scale models may help us to understand a ship’s capabilities, as well as its construction details, without the cost and resources required for a full-size reconstruction. In this way, a scale model of the Mary Rose was produced for ‘sea’ trials, which tested the performance of the ship in a variety of conditions.
These trials showed that it was possible that the sinking of the Mary Rose had been caused by the sudden intake of water through the gunports, which had been left open as the ship made to turn and heeled over in the wind. However, given that the ship’s complement was for some 400 men, and that the Mary Rose is said to have had 700 men on board at the time of her loss, it likely that this factor also played an important role in the sinking. There is still much research and more experimentation to be carried out before the design and performance of the Mary Rose will be fully understood.
This global communication is producing a network of specialists who share common interests and expertise, and this in turn has led to greater opportunities for learning at teaching centres throughout Europe and further afield.
Published on Â鶹Éç History: 2005-01-26
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