Longship

The longship was the clinker-built, double-ended oared sailing vessel of the Scandinavian Viking Age, eighth to eleventh centuries, used for raiding, war, and exploration. A shallow draft let it run up beaches and far up rivers, while a single square sail and banks of oars gave speed and independence from the wind. Surviving examples such as the Gokstad and Oseberg ships, and the Skuldelev finds at Roskilde, reveal the construction in detail. The longship carried Norse expansion across the North Atlantic and into the Mediterranean.