The Sea Stallion from Glendalough sets sail

by Preben Rather Sørensen and media services on 7 Jul 2007 The Sea Stallion from Glendalough left the harbour at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde on July 1st. For six weeks the ship will carry out numerous trials in The North Sea, the Atlantic and The Irish Sea prior to the arrival at the Irish capital, Dublin. Photos from the departure are available via the Viking Ship Museum.

The Sea Stallion from Glendalough is the World's largest reconstruction of a Viking Age warship.

The trials will give answers to many questions unsolved today; how long it took for a Viking Age fleet to do the distance from Denmark to Ireland, what was the maximum speed of the Viking Age warships and what was life on board most likely?

From Roskilde the route is planned to take the ship to the northernmost part of Jutland over The North Sea and north of Scotland. According to plans the ship will make a stop over at Kirkwall the main city at The Orkney Islands and continue to the Atlantic. Afterwards the route turns south into The Irish Sea and finally Dublin with an expected arrival August 14th 2007. The Sea Stallion will stay in Dublin for the winter at The National Museum in Dublin as part of a Viking exhibition and will return to Roskilde in the summer of 2008, this time south of England.

The trial is one of the hugest marine archaeological experiments ever carried out. For 10 years the Viking Ship Museum has worked hard to realize the scientific expedition, but actually it all began this very day 50 years ago. July 1st in 1957 those excavations started that enabled scientists to save the remains of five Viking ships. The excavation was terminated in 1962.

The five ships were deliberately scuttled by our ancestors nearly 1,000 years ago as part of the Roskilde defence. The five ships were placed in order to hinder enemy warships to carry out a quick attack from the sea. It took local knowledge to pass the defence.

The largest of those five Viking ships was a 30 metre long warship. Tree analysis documents that the original ship was built by Vikings in 1042. The Sea Stallion from Glendalough is a reconstruction of this ship and the destination for the six weeks trials is the hometown of the original ship, Dublin.

The experiment is subject to immense international interest. The Sea Stallion story has for weeks and months gone public in different places such as China, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, South Africa, Australia, the Faroe Islands, Italy, Austria, Poland and USA. And the interest just seem to grow day by day: BBC will join the project for all six weeks. And Denmark's Radio will join the first part and Irish RTE will then take over.

Most of the 65 man crew is volunteers and since the launch in 2004 they have carried out 14 test sailings to learn to manage the ship. The sailings have been necessary to gain adequate skills to carry out the trials north of Scotland and in The Irish Sea. The extreme currents north and west of Scotland makes the waters here the most dangerous in Europe and some of the most challenging in the world.

Most crew members are Danish but even crew members from Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Canada, USA and Australia are joining the project.

Report from the Sea Stallion from Glendalough:

Yes it was a rough sail. And according to reactions on shore, the crew on board the Sea Stallion experienced the worst sail ever during the thirty-five hours from Roskilde to Kristiansand. But it wasn't that bad.

On the fourth day of sailing the computers are finally plugged in and are able to send photos and stories from the fantastic sail through Kattegat and across Skagerrak home to the website.

Skipper Carsten Hvid: 'It was the best start I could imagine!' It was tough, wet and cold, but it's under conditions like these we really get the opportunity to test the ship and the crew. We have trained for two years and have always had brilliant weather. Now we finally get the chance to test the routines and procedures on board. And they are working'.

The so-called evacuation of the four crew members was a test of tecnic and communication between the Sea Stallion and the following ship 'Cable One'. And everything was working as planned. Even in high seas and darkness 'Cable One' could place a rubber dinghy into the unsteady water and pick up crew from the Sea Stallion without any drama. 'Cable One' has several qualities important for the Sea Stallion. The crew feel safe when they can see the following ship lying close by.

Right now the Sea Stallion is in Sprangereid just north of Lindesnes - the southern parts of Norway. The crew met the Danish queen Magrethe and the Norwegian royal family in town to open an reconstructed canal from the Viking Age.

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The Sea Stallion of Glendalough website: http://www.havhingsten.dk















For all six weeks the ship's webpage www.havhingsten.dk will bring you latest news, position, speed, course and weather data both in Danish and English.