The oak ship is 30 metres long and seated 80 oarsmen. Skuldelev 2 could hold booty of up to 25 tonnes. It had to have a very strong construction to carry all that weight. The characteristic round shields and striped sails of Skuldelev 2 are among the most common decorative features ever in fashion and graphics - indicators of the Vikings' sense of strong, simple signals.
Art and craft
The ship is one huge piece of handicraft: built with a deep sense of design and feel for wood's capacity to cope with ever changing water and wind conditions. Skuldelev 2 is a delight to the eye. One key practical feature was that when the Vikings were rowing, their shields could be fixed to the side of the ship to protect the crew from the wind and enemy arrows. This is a supreme example of art and craft combined.
War and development
The Viking expeditions were pure strategy. The Vikings came, saw and conquered and then left again. Quickly and efficiently! Today, almost 1000 years after the Viking period, war is still one of the areas on which states expend the most resources on design and invention, such as intelligent clothing with built-in sensors registering the fluid loss of soldiers or jackets with integrated click-on, click-off communication systems. The Gulf War in the 1990s was a vivid example of the key role of design and technology in modern military strategy.
Charlotte Jul is design writer and editor at KUNSTUFF, a Danish handicraft and design magazine.
Viking Warship. Photo Werner Karrasch - © Vikingeskibs-museet i Roskilde