A SHIP BUILT A THOUSAND YEARS AGO.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3220, 25 October 1881, Page 4

A SHIP BUILT A THOUSAND YEARS AGO.

A letter from the Hon. John jlj. Stevens, United States Minister to Sweden, duud at Stockholm, June 30, gives the following interesting description of a recently exhumed Norse vessel: —

We wore much interested in seeing the "well preserved remains of an old Norse vessel, built a thousand years ago, 15 months since exhumed from its burial place. Some leagues distant, soulh-west from this city, on CLx-i3tiania Fjord, thore ; s a small village called Q-ogstand, near which there is a tumulus long known in the local traditions under the name of King's Hill. In the broad fields and meadows stretching from the. water's edge of the fjord to the foot of the mountains, is situated this round hill, nearly ioO feet in diameter, which is covered with green turf. A proud and powerful Norse King, it was told from generation to ■.'enerafcion, had found here his last rosting(•luce, surrounded by hid horses and hip ;i' ;{-. iuid with precious treasures of coins tirid jev.<;ls placed near his body. For centuries ghosts were supposed here to keep watch and ward, and superstition and fear had kept ruthless hands and searching cupidity from making examination of the supposed grave. But at last the spirit of modern inquiry has disarmed fear, and dared to penetrate the secret of the Xin fc >V mound. The result has been the unearthing of a vessel of war of the ninth century, a complete viking craft, in which some unknown chieftain at the close of Ins career of exploits north and south on fjord, river, and sea, had been entombed with the legal honors of his people and time. The eons of the farmer on whose land tho tumulus is situated, in January, 1880, began an excavation, and digging clown from the top were not long in striking timber. They suspended their work, and reported their discovery to the learned men of an antiquarian association at Christiania. The latter sent an antiquarian expert to take up the task where the sons of the farmer had left it, and successfully pushed the investigation. The digging continued some weeks, finally revealing the complete hull of an old viking craft, 74 feet in length, 16 feet broad amidships, drawing 5 foet, with 20 ribs. The little round hill from which it was dug is nearly a mile from the waterline of the fjord, and tho character of the alluvial soii conclusively proves that in former centuries the waters reached its base. Tho vessel evidently had been drawn from the fjord on shore and placed on a layer of hazel branches and moss, and the Bides had been covered with clay, and the whole had been filled with earth and sand to form the funeral mound.

The vessel was placed with the stern toward the sea, in accord with the opinion of the time that when the Great Father of Gods and men should call the buried chieftain he might start from his burial torn b with his fully-appointed craft on the foaming ocean. Within and at the bottom of the vessel were found the remaine of several small finely-shaped oaken boats, placed over a considerable number of oare, some of these for the email boats, others, full 20 feet in length, for aiding the propuleion of the larger craft. The form and finish of these oars scarcely admit of improvement, much like those in use at the present day at the boat races, ending in a small, fine-cut blade, some with ornamental carvings. In a pile of oak chips was found an elegantly Bhaped hatchet, of the shape peculiar to the young iron age. A\] along the outer side of the vessel, nearly from stem to stern, extended a row of circular shields, placed

like scales of a fish, and these are partly painted in yellow and black. In the middle of the vessel a large oak block firmly secured to the bottom, with a square hole for the mast, and several contrivances, shows plainly that the mast could be laid down aft. In thw part of the vessel was constructed the funeral chamber, formed by strong planks and beams placed obliquely and covering a room about 15 feet square. Here a keen c |i ß3 .nTK>iTifm«»T.f. met the explorers. Some rufch'iess iiu.;>l nerved by avarice had preoeeded them. In somo anterior tim , when 11-3 costly weapons and jewels of buried heroes jjmade temptations too strong for the superstitious veneration of the surviving warriors, or at a later day when the greed for wealth was over-mastering with the sons of Northmen, the burial mound had been its jewelled contents taken away, and what was lefi was due to the hasto and fear under which the robbers had done their work —a few human some shreds of a kind of brocade, some fragments of bridles, saddles, in bronze, silver, and lead, and some metal buttons, on one of which is a remarkable representation of a cavalier with a lowered L On each side of the chamber were discovered the bones of a horse and of two dogs. In the forward part of the ship was found a •topper vessel supposed to be the kitJien cauldron of tue crew, hammered out of a single piece of copper, giving striking proof of the antique period of the handicraft. The whole of this remarkable specimen of the viking's ship and contents as found have 'jeen carefully excavated and removed to Christiania, and placed erect on its keel in a building specially prepared to receive it. We were struck with its fire nautical proportions, which plainly indicate how tittle change has been made in the form and of ocean craft in the centuries which have elapsed since this was launched on the wave.

As to the time which, has passed since this piece of anciont Norse naval architecture has lain buried beneath the hillock which tho chieftain's followers reared there is no doubt among the antiquarians that it dates from the period termed the younger ivon age, distant from our day 1000 years. '; he antiquarian museums at Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Christiania show the trainin" and the experience which Scandinavian experts have had on such subjects. A thousand years since this vessel was fashioned out of the solid oak ! We care-i-'ully examined its workmanship. On keel, stem, r'bs, and casings were to be seen marks o. tVi builder's tool as plainly as though of yeste-.'day, and the fibre of the oak is wonderfully preserved. The workmanship of iron bolts and rivets was that of skilful hands. The Norwegian antiquarians and officials deserve credit for securing so carefully this splendid remain of tho water craffc of the olden time.