A sailing trip with the Imme Gram[da] and the then newly found Skuldelev wrecks became the inspiration for the creation of Sebbe Als.
She was built by a group of local volunteers, a large number of whom were the local Scouts of Augustenborg, and she was launched in 1969.
The construction drawings were the first crude drawings from the Skuldelev archaeological dig. The archaeologists were keen to have an accurate replica, as the finished ship would provide invaluable information about Viking ships in general.
She was built with copies of the original tools, mainly adzes, manufactured by the local blacksmith after Viking age finds.
There was no local shipyard with sufficient room, so she was built in the-then Augustenborg Lumber Yard. When the lumber yard was closed, and a new yacht harbour built in its place, a naust (a traditional Norwegian boathouse) was built about half a nautical mile from the harbour. Each winter Sebbe Als is pulled into the naust for storage and maintenance. Most of the maintenance and repair work is done in 'work weekends' during the winter.
Sebbe is square-rigged, meaning that she has a big, roughly square sail hung under a yard. A square sail is the simplest way of creating a large sail area on a relatively low mast. During unfavourable winds, or manoeuvering in the harbour or other confined spaces, she has the propulsion in the form of oars.
Ownership
The Naust of Sebbe Als.
Sebbe Als is owned by "Vikingeskibslaget Sebbe Als" ("The Sebbe Als Viking Ship Guild"), which is a self-owned association with members all over Denmark as well as in neighbouring countries and in the United States.
The Guild also owns a smaller Viking ship - or, more correctly, a Fareoe boat - the Ottar Als, which is used for training, or simply for pleasure.
A small GRP boat with an outboard engine, Fie Als, is used as a safety- and tugboat on longer trips, or trips with an unskilled crew. Fie is generally not used as a pleasure craft.
Experiments
The wreck of Skuldelev no. 5 was so well preserved, that wear marks from the original rig could be found. Sebbes mast and rig were reconstructed from these marks, but it was still necessary to experiment to clarify many of the details. As a result, Sebbe now has a 45 m2 square sail with only the top yard, and the steering oar has an angle of approx. 25° instead of the vertical position originally planned.
Following the experiments, the shipbuilders of the Viking age have earned much respect. Sebbe Als is not very good at tacking; at the best of times she can go only 45 degrees to the wind, but the speed is impressive, as she is approximately twice as fast as the original calculations indicated. She can easily run at 12 knots (22km/h) on a half wind. A motivated crew can row her to about 6 knots (11km/h), and it is faster to row her straight against the wind than tacking.
Many of the experiences gained from the use of Sebbe Als have proved useful in the construction and handling of other replicas, including Havhingsten fra Glendalough ("Sea Stallion from Glendalough").
The type of ship is so unusual nowadays that the Danish Maritime Authority has set special rules for crew and equipment. As an example, despite the low tonnage of the ship, the ship's master must at least hold a licence as Yacht Master Third class, and the ship must have a crew of at least 11. The rules are revised every few years.
Use
Every year Sebbe Als undertakes a summer cruise, usually of 1 – 3 weeks duration, and has travelled along most of the Danish and north German coasts. Smaller sailing trips happen in accordance with the choice of the Guild's members, whenever a crew can be assembled.
The longest sailing trip voyage of Sebbe Als went from Hedeby (Haithabu - a trading city from the Viking age) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany to Kaupang (another Viking age trading city) in the Oslo Firth, Norway. The trip was made in order to put an old Viking saga to the test. A Viking skipper claimed to have made the trip in just five days and five nights (120 hours). In the summer of 1972 Sebbe Als and her crew did the trip in 114 hours, and proved the possible truth of the old saga.
The longest travel voyage of Sebbe Als went to the United States - she participated in the bicentennial celebrations in 1976, mainly sailing on the Hudson River at New York City as a guest of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the folk singer Pete Seeger and the Clearwater Organization. Sebbe did not cross the Atlantic under sail, but as deck cargo on a modern ship. The crew travelled by air.
She is often used in film or TV productions about the Viking age.
Longships were a type of specialised Scandinavian warships that have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by the Norsemen for commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age, many of the longship's characteristics were adopted by other cultures, like Anglo-Saxons, and continued to influence shipbuilding for centuries.
A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships carry square sails on each mast—the brig and full-rigged ship, said to be "ship-rigged" when there are three or more masts. Others carry only fore-and-aft sails on each mast, for instance some schooners. Still others employ a combination of square and fore-and-aft sails, including the barque, barquentine, and brigantine.
A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig, to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put.
Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia from the Viking Age throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. Some might have had a dragon's head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern for design, although this is only inferred from historical sources. Viking ships were used both for military purposes and for long-distance trade, exploration and colonization.
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal and first used as armed cargo carriers by Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the mid-17th century. Galleons generally carried three or more masts with a lateen fore-and-aft rig on the rear masts, were carvel built with a prominent squared off raised stern, and used square-rigged sail plans on their fore-mast and main-masts.
A jibe (US) or gybe (Britain) is a sailing maneuver whereby a sailing vessel reaching downwind turns its stern through the wind, which then exerts its force from the opposite side of the vessel. Because the mainsail boom can swing across the cockpit quickly, jibes are potentially dangerous to person and rigging compared to tacking. Therefore, accidental jibes are to be avoided while the proper technique must be applied so as to control the maneuver. For square-rigged ships, this maneuver is called wearing ship.
A cutter is a name for various types of watercraft. It can apply to the rig of a sailing vessel, to a governmental enforcement agency vessel, to a type of ship's boat which can be used under sail or oars, or, historically, to a type of fast-sailing vessel introduced in the 18th century, some of which were used as small warships.
Running rigging is the rigging of a sailing vessel that is used for raising, lowering, shaping and controlling the sails on a sailing vessel—as opposed to the standing rigging, which supports the mast and bowsprit. Running rigging varies between vessels that are rigged fore and aft and those that are square-rigged.
A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber or steel or from more modern materials such as aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards, the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used on square rigged sails. In addition, for some decades after square sails were generally dispensed with, some yards were retained for deploying wireless (radio) aerials and signal flags.
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water. Some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. The word nautical derives from the Latin nauticus, from Greek nautikos, from nautēs: "sailor", from naus: "ship".
A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with a sail plan of three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. Such a vessel is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged, with each mast stepped in three segments: lower, top, and topgallant.
Preussen (PROY-sin) was a German steel-hulled, five-masted, ship-rigged sailing ship built in 1902 for the F. Laeisz shipping company and named after the German state and kingdom of Prussia. She was the world's only ship of this class with five masts, carrying six square sails on each mast.
The Skuldelev ships are five original Viking ships recovered from the waterway of Peberrenden at Skuldelev, c. 20 km (12 mi) north of Roskilde in Denmark. In 1962, the remains of the submerged ships were excavated in the course of four months. The recovered pieces constitute five types of Viking ships and have all been dated to the 11th century. They are thought to have been an early form of blockship, i.e. ships that were scuttled to block potential invasions from the sea. The numbering of the ships is slightly confusing as when the remains were unearthed, they were thought to comprise six ships, but after "Skuldelev 2" and "Skuldelev 4" were later discovered to be parts of one ship, it was decided not to renumber the other vessels.
Havhingsten fra Glendalough is a reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, one of the Skuldelev ships and the second-largest Viking longship ever to be found. The original vessel was built in the vicinity of Dublin around 1042, using oak from Glendalough in County Wicklow, Ireland, hence the ship's name. The reconstruction was built in Denmark at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde between 2000 and 2004 and is used for historical research purposes.
Viking ship replicas are one of the more common types of ship replica. Viking, the first Viking ship replica, was built by the Rødsverven shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway. In 1893 it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago in the United States for the World's Columbian Exposition. Formerly located in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois, the Viking is currently undergoing conservation in Geneva, Illinois, United States.
Potosi was a five-masted steel barque built in 1865 by Joh. C. Tecklenborg ship yard in Geestemünde, Germany, for the sailing ship company F. Laeisz as a trading vessel. Its primary purpose was as a "nitrate clipper" collecting guano in South America for use in chemical companies in Germany. As its shipping route was between Germany, Bolivia until 1870 but, during the "pacific War" was transferred to Chile, it was designed to be capable of withstanding the rough weather encountered around Cape Horn.
A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may be made from a combination of woven materials—including canvas or polyester cloth, laminated membranes or bonded filaments, usually in a three- or four-sided shape.
Odin's Raven is a 2/3 scale replica of the Gokstad ship, which was sailed from Trondheim to Peel, Isle of Man, by a joint Manx and Norwegian crew. The project formed part of the 1979 Manx Millennium Celebrations, and was conceived and planned by local businessman Robin Bigland.
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water. Some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. The word nautical derives from the Latin nauticus, from Greek nautikos, from nautēs: "sailor", from naus: "ship".
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