How were Viking ships made?
The dragon-headed longboat remains one of the most distinctive surviving relics of the Viking era, which lasted from circa A.D. 800 to circa A.D. 1100. Constructed from wood by skilled ship-wrights, they represented the furthest advancement in ship-building at the time of their construction.Raw MaterialsThe website for Regia Anglorum, a re-enactment society, names oak as the building material of choice for the mightiest longboats, both because “the tree was sacred to their warrior god Oðin” and because of the timber’s strength. Other woods used in the construction of the longboats include ash, elm, pine and larch.ToolsAccording to Regia Anglorum, Viking shipwrights primarily used axes and adzes for their ship-building. Other tools such as hammers and saws were “only occasionally” involved.MethodsDesigning with both deep-water sailing and shallow-water navigation in mind, Vikings crafted their ships with pointed ends and wide midsections, and they used planks that overlapped each other,
