Figureheads

The Dragon Harald Fairhair is nearing completion in the shipyard at Vibrandsøy in Haugesund and will soon be dragged out into the air. She will stand on the quay to be tarred and then will be launched in June. The woodcarvers who have designed the dragon's head have been back and are now putting the finishing touches to their work. The dragon's head design will be kept a secret until the ship is ready to set out on her maiden voyage at Easter 2013. There will be a special naming ceremony that will be held then and the dragon's head will be revealed for all to see. At the moment all you can see is the ‘tail’ design that will sit on the stern post. For an update go to http://den.vikingkings.com/

The Vikings themselves did not reveal the dragon's head on their ships when in their home port or waters. It was an emblem that they preferred their enemies to see!

Jørn Olav Løset recently posted this picture and text on our Facebook page

"The carved pin from Bergen with ship stems that has been mentioned here lately in the discussions about the weather vanes of the Viking ships. The 25 cm long pin of densely grown juniper (no. 'einer') is dated to origin from the 13th century. 48 ship prows in all are carved side by side, which may depict a contemporary leidang fleet, the royal naval force, possibly the fleet of King Hákon Hákonsson, who ruled Norway 1217 - 1263. Three of the ships have a weather vane on top of the stem, two ships have dragon heads, while the rest appears to have variants of pointed stems without any decoration. One ship also carries a pennant in the foreship, a royal banner or standard that was known as 'merki' in Old Norse. Several of the ships of king Hákon are mentioned by name in his saga and may very well be among the ships that are depicted on this pin. Interestingly, one of the longships in his fleet in 1226 was named 'Draken'!"

All this got me thinking about dragon heads and figureheads on ships. They were common on most wooden ships of long ago, but we do not use them now. This seems a shame as I think they give character and a personality to the ships that had them.

On returning from Norway I visited the Forge Studios and Art Cafe in our little village in Allendale and what had pride of place in a new exhibition........this dragon head !!

A dragons head by sculptor Pete Graham, inspired by the massive stone heads that stand guard outside the National Trust’s Wallington Hall near Morpeth in Northumberland.

Perhaps I should think of having a figure head on my narrowboat?

A quick google on my computer found virtually no examples of anyone who had decided to put a figurehead onto a narrowboat on the canals.

Last week we spent a few days on our narrowboat cruising up the Shropshire Union Canal to Chester and Ellesmere Port. As we cruised past a row of moored narrowboats I suddenly spotted one with a figure head......it was even a dragons head.....though it was on the front of the cabin roof rather than on the bow, but it still counted!

I had found a narrowboat with a figurehead!

The next day we arrived at the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, a wonderful place to visit. And that is where I found it........my figurehead.......in the museum shop.......for sale.......I thought I must have it.

It is not very big.

It is not on the front.

It is a tiller pin that holds the tiller to the rudder...so it is at the stern

.

It is now on my narrowboat....... so now my narrowboat has a figurehead.......sort of......!!

What do you think?

Rowing

OK. You can’t row a narrowboat along the English canals, so I’m talking about The Dargon Harald Fairahair; and it sounds as if that is going to be difficult to row too!!

The Dragon will weigh somewhere around 80 tons. Most of the time she will be sailing, and the minimum crew under sail will be about 12 people, though there will often be more than this aboard. Nearer to shore, along rivers and estuaries we may well have to row the Dragon. There will be 25 oars along each side, with 2 rowers to each oar. This means a rowing crew of 100 people. How will this work? We don’t know yet, but hopefully sea trials this summer will help us learn how well we can row this ship.

One oar has been made and we have tried it in a smaller ship. The oar is about 7.5 metres long and it takes two rowers just to lift it.

The oars will go through holes cut in the third strake (plank) down from the top, and the oar holes will have wooden covers to keep them closed when the ship is sailing.

A few years ago the Sea Stallion, another large replica Viking ship sailed from Denmark to Ireland and back. They had to row too on some occasions. How did they find the rowing? Very hard, very heavy and very slow.

I have volunteered to help with the rowing.....not as a rower......I plan to be the old large man with the drum who beats out the rowing time. I think I can just about manage that!

I could also offer our narrowboat for them to practice their rowing, after all, it only weighs about 17 tons. There would be another problem though. Even though the narrowboat is only 2 metres wide, if you have 7.5 metres of oar sticking out on each side you would be wider than most canals and the oar blades would be in the trees and bushes.

The Bear and the Dragon

.Meet 'Bear Necessities', our narrowboat. We found her for sale in Northamptonshire. She has an unusual layout, with a fixed double berth and bathroom in the centre, dinette and kitchen to the back and a lounge in the front. Built in the year 2000.
We have had numerous canal holidays either hiring boats or borrowing them from friends and had always talked about spending time on extended cruises in our own boat.
We spent a fantastic 10 days getting to know her and cruising up to the outskirts of Chester in late September as we moved her to her permanent base at Tattenhall Marina. This was a journey we had done by road in just 2 hours - it was great to slow down and do the same journey at just 3 miles per hour. Even the 82 locks were fun.

Here is 'Drakon Harald Hårfagre' as she looked in December 2011. The hull is almost complete after nearly 20 months of work. She is being built in Haugesund, Western Norway. You can find out about her at www.vikingkings.com      My job is to help research, source and commission all the 'Viking' equipment that she will need - oak sea chests for the 100 rowers to sit on, shields to hang on her sides etc. There is also a growing number of volunteers - 'The Fellowship of the Dragon' whose involvement I will manage.

So now my life revolves around the 'Bear' and the 'Dragon' and two very different ways of crossing water!