Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1964, Page 64

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
century, but boats of the Breiðafjörður type were everywhere regarded as the
toughest and most practical ones. Was this Breiðafjörður boat, so highly spoken
of in the 18th century, already fully developed in the time of Eirik the Red and
the Age of the Sturlungs? To the present author nothing contradicts such a
supposition.
In the 19th century tenoarings and twelve-oarings of the Breiðafjörður type
(figs. 4—8) were built from driftwood collected on the shores where Skallagrim
Kveldúlfsson and Eirik the Red had in their time got material for their own
boats. The carrying capacity of these boats was 8—10 tons. Cne of these 19th
century boats, Ófeigur, a tenoaring for eight rowers, is still in existence (figs.
9—10). It was used in equal measure as a fishing boat and a cargo boat. If
compared with t.he sunnmorsottringen (fig. 11), which is considered the stoutest
of Norwegian boats, capable of sailing some 45 nautical miles out to sea, Ófeigur’s
construction shows a great advantage in seaworthiness over that of the Norwegian
boat. This makes itself particularly clear in the jointing of the sides and in the
number of strakes and spants. We do not know when it first became usual in Iceland
to build boats with considerably narrower strakes and many times tighter
spants than were used in Norway, and with plank ends joining each other at wide
intervals along the side of the boat; but it is not unlikely that all this was
already in full practice when Eirik left for Greenland. All the main features
of the Breiðafjörður boat helped to make it particularly resistant to rough seas,
well able to bear its load yet relatively light for the oarsmen, and excellent
as a sailing boat, both in sidewind and when running before the wind. When shark
fishing increased early in the 19th century the Icelanders went fishing from such
boats 45 miles off-shore (fig. 12) in the middle of the winter and remained
at the fishing grounds 4—6 days at a time. It should be mentioned in comparison
with this that it tooic the ships of the Saga period four days to sail from Snæ-
fellsnes to Hvarf in Greenland, according to Landnáma (the Book of Settle-
ments).
Eirik the Red and his followers from Breiðafjörður were no doubt keen observers
of weather and sea. Nevertheless it is not certain that they could foresee the
weather on their voyage to Greenland. If, after two days’ sailing, the wind fell,
what could the fleet of the colonizers do but drift before the current till the
wind came up again? The answer to this question depends on the kind of craft
they had. If some of their boats were tenoarings and twelve-oarings (fishing boats
and cargo boats) there were two alternatives: to try to row back in the direction
of Iceland or force their way onwards, also by rowing. Doubtless Eirik had told
his followers everything that might be of use to them during the voyage. If he
told them that when they had behind them two thirds of the distance between
the two countries a southsetting current would make itself felt and become all
the stronger the closer they came to the coast of Greenland, it must be considered
likely that at least some of the men would choose to move on as best they could,
with oars, to the land of promise. Surely the natives of Breiðafjörður knew what
it meant to row towards the current, „aS róa undir straum“ as they call it. On
the other hand those who chose to turn back could only do so if the boats were of
such a kind that they could be rowed.
Supposing that the opposite of all this happened and violent storms and rough
sea met the voyagers, it may then be asked which did the better, the cargo boat
or the knörr, especially after the fleet had reached the icefilled coastal waters
of Greenland. Even in that predicament the cargo boat had an obvious advantage
over the knörr in that it could be rowed away from the ice or through it if
the ice was not altogether compact. The knörr, on the other hand, could not