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Norway shipyard to start work on new Viking ship

The Local Norway
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Norway shipyard to start work on new Viking ship
Boatbuilder Geir Rovik studying a model of the Klåstad. Photo: Erik Jakobsen/Oseberg foundation

The makeshift shipyard in Tønsberg harbour is to start work next week on a new Viking ship, a replica of the Klåstad ship, a cargo vessel found submerged in mud and clay in the early 1960s.

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"There have only been four viking ships found in Norway, three of them are now on display in Oslo,"  Arne Solhaug, one of the leading figures in the Oseberg Viking Ship foundation, told The Local. "we want to build this to have all four in the full size" 
 
Sohaug and master shipbuilder Geir Røvik, launched their replica of the Oseberg ship, an ornate war vessel found in a burial mound outside the city, in 2012, two years after work began. 
 
The Klåstad ship, the only Viking ship found in Norway outside a burial mound, is much simpler than the Oseberg ship and so could be finished within a year. 
 
"The Oseberg ship was a ship for a viking obviously, and a leader of some kind, but this is a working boat, and it will be smaller," Sohaug said. 
 
The boat was used to carry building stone from nearby quarries up the Oslofjord, and also possibly south to Denmark and even northern Germany. 
 
The boat will be built with pine and beech wood, as well as oak, and has no ornaments.  
 
Røvik and his team of professional and volunteer carpenters have become a tourist attraction in Tønsberg harbour. 
 
“After finishing the Oseberg we now have the necessary competence, both within our regular staff and the many volunteers," Røvik told NRK. "Building a replica of the Klåstad ship will allow us to maintain and develop this competence.” says Røvik, adding that the cost of building the new ship will
 
"We like to work where people can see what we are doing, and we have lots of schoolchildren down there every year," Sohaug said. 
 
After the Klåstad ship is finished, Sohaug said there was a possibility that the group will attempt a reconstruction of the giant Roskilde ship, which was found in 1997. 
 
 

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