Knaar
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A knaar (plural: knaarer) is a kind of Viking and Norse mercantile ship. The knaar (sometimes called knarr, knorr, or knörr) is of the same clinker-built method used to construct the drakkar, longship, karve, and faering. The knaar was a merchant ship from the 9th century that sold or traded goods like walrus ivory, wool, timber, wheat, furs and pelts, armour, slaves, honey, and weapons such as the seax (or sax, a large knife) and the damascus sword, the favoured sword by Vikings and Norsemen. The knaar was also used to supply food, drink, and weapons and armour to warriors and traders along their journeys across the Mediterranean and other seas.
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[edit] The Knaar Blue-Prints
The hull frame of a knaar is shorter and wider, and is broader in the beam and has a deeper draught than the Norse longships used by raiding parties, and she has a heavier mass than a Viking longship. Knaarer routinely crossed the North Atlantic centuries ago carrying livestock and stores to Danish colonies in Iceland and Greenland. The knaar is a square rigged, single masted trading vessel that relies solely on its single square sail for propulsion at sea. It is usually half-decked and typically features the traditional built-up castle at the stern and a carved dragon stern and sternposts. The square sail rig and lack of keel gave the knaar a poor performance to windward, though, they were less reliant on oars as a means of propulsion and more on the use of sails.
[edit] History of the Knaar
The only knaar found to be well preserved was in a shallow channel in Roskilde Fjord in Denmark of 1962 along with two warships, a Baltic trader, and a ferryboat. Archaeologists believe that the ships where placed there to block the channel against Norwegian raiders. Today, all five ships are being restored at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. The most important aspect of the knaar, however, was their use in colonizing Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. It was the same kind of sailing vessel that the first European colonists used to sail to North America. Leif Eriksson, the son of Eirik Thorvaldsson Raudi (or Erik the Red as he was known) journeyed to Newfoundland (or Vinland as Leif named it) and in the 11th century (round 992-1009), an Icelander merchant named Thorfinn Karlsefni colonized a town there.
[edit] History of the Norse Journey from Vinland
In 1898, a Swedish farmer named Olof Ohman claimed to have found a Norse rune stone in Kensington, Minnesota while digging up a tree stump on his farm. The runes told of a journey some 8 Swedes and 22 Norwegians made from Vinland to explore North America in 1362. The stone read that 10 of the men were killed by "skraelings" (Native Americans) meaning "ugly people" and that the rune stone was carved to honour the men that died. The Kensington Runestone may be a fraud, so it remains uncertain of how the stone appeared in Minnesota.
[edit] Sizes of Viking ships
- Drakkar: this was the pride of the Viking fleet, known as the "Dragon Ship." This ship featured a length of 160 feet, a beam of 25 feet, as many as 72 oars, and it could even hold a 300-man crew.
- Longship: this was the most versatile of the Viking ship. She features a length of about 100 feet, a 20-foot beam, up to 49 oars, and round 200 crew. She could also carry up to 20 tons of supplies.
- Karve: a Viking ship unlike the war ships above, she features a length of 70 feet, a 17-foot beam, 16 oars, and a draft of about 3 feet.
- Knaar: a cargo vessel with a length of 54 feet, a beam of 15 feet, and a hull capable of carrying 15 tons.
- Faering: a small boat resembling a dinghy used to travel up and down rivers.
