SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

ALL AT SEA NOVEMBER 2020 DOUGAL on tour Solent based dinghy sailor David Henshall is a well known writer and speaker on topics covering the rich heritage of all aspects of leisure boating. 33 SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

An East Anglian project to build a Saxon longship is already revealing intriguing information about our ancestors and is proving their sophisticated understanding of ship design. In the end the nations of northern Europe would come together to defeat the Barbary Pirate menace, and when an Anglo-Dutch fleet shelled Algiers thousands of slaves would finally be released. Image: Everett Collection/Shutterstock

At 90+ft long, each of the dots is a ‘bog iron’ rivet!

The LongShed would not be complete with a picture of King Raedwald to oversee construction. The image is of the helmet, found in the longboat remains at Sutton Hoo. It was in hundreds of pieces but has been painstakingly restored

There are many old hulls construction techniques that the Saxons resting in mud berths all used, but with each revelation the around our coasts, but there questions just multiplied. How did the can be few as intriguing, or Saxons fit out their boats, how were they as old, as the ancient logboat used and how did they make voyages that found during building work on the upper were demanding even by the standards reaches of the Hamble River in 1888. of today?

For a long time, it was thought to These, though, were not the longships date to Roman times, but more recent made famous on the ocean crossing voyages investigations have shown that the of the Vikings, but nevertheless the Saxons construction is Saxon, probably from the still had to have the ability to cross the North 7th century. This reappraisal of the boat Sea in significant numbers, establishing is important, for although the Saxons are themselves strongly around the coasts of such a part of who we are (the ‘Anglo- East Anglia and along the South Coast. Saxons’) there is very little in the way of detailed knowledge about who they were, REBUILD PROJECT how they lived and how they reached here Sutton Hoo gave some hints as to the lives from their native lands in North Germany. they led, but the real breakthrough would

Their arrival, though, brought a new come when the momentous decision structure to the still fragmented land was taken to rebuild the longship, using mass that would become the UK which, wherever possible the materials and following the departure of the Romans, techniques of the day. This was no easy had become all but depopulated. task, for the longship was 90ft long, with LONGSHIP DISCOVERY with the finished hull weighing many tons. Thankfully, some of those gaps in our The first task was to record every detail understanding are now being addressed of the original boat, with teams from courtesy of an exciting project that is both Southampton and York Universities taking place up on the quay in Woodbridge, closely involved in turning the remains of Suffolk. This location is important, for just a 1,400-year-old hull into plans that would a mile or so across the River Deben is the be at the heart of the new build process. A site known as Sutton Hoo where, in 1939, purpose-built workshop, the now famed as a number of hilltop burial mounds were LongShed, was constructed on the quayside being excavated, one was found to contain at Woodbridge and a team of helpers, the remains of a full sized Saxon longship. both professional and volunteers, was

It was clearly part of the burial of an assembled to turn the plans into a reality. important person, probably the Saxon beautifully curved ends that arched up, King Raedwald who had died in 624 AD, WOOD MATTERS for there were a number of beautiful First would be the issue of sourcing the ‘grave goods’ placed within the hull, but materials needed, as throughout the whole the bigger surprise was how the hull project the overriding intention was to keep could have been manhandled to such an referencing back to the traditional methods elevated spot. of working wood. One of the surprises is

Painstaking archaeological research that the majority of the hull will be laid up has subsequently revealed much about in unseasoned, green oak, with the hope the shape of the boat and some of the that ‘windfall’ trees could be utilised. The

Along with a smaller model, work progresses in the LongShed in front of a full sized wall plan

When the tools to hand are primitive, you can always get nature to lend a helping hand by coming up with wood already on its way towards the right shape!

A touch of the holly used to refer to the wood used to make a policeman’s truncheon, because the wood from a holly tree is very resistant to splitting, Back in Saxon time, a piece of holly trunk such as this would have been used as a mallet demands of a 90ft hull will require some tree felling, but it is an essential part of the project that more trees will be planted than will have been used in the build.

Another very important aspect of this part of the project was a focus on the reduction in waste from this ‘precious’ material. As traditional woodworking techniques are being used, it is also important to try to match some of the more complex component shapes required with pieces of wood that are already close to the finished product. Of course, all working results in some waste in the form of wood shavings and sawdust, yet there are environmentally positive uses even for this.

BUILD PROCESS Sailors used to seeing smaller boats and dinghies being built in wood will immediately recognise the process, where a rigid jig is set up on the workshop floor, then the hog and frames set up, quickly revealing the outline shape of the hull. The longship will be slightly different, as it will start with the massive keel being laid down, then the frames being positioned on to that.

This means that the hull will be constructed the ‘right way up’, with the planks being fastened together with some 3,000 ‘bog iron’ rivets. However, the construction of the hull is just the start, for it marks some of the limits of the current knowledge of how the boat was fitted out.

One surprise would be that the boat was potentially powered by oars alone, as there is nothing in the way of evidence that the original was equipped with a mast and the attachment points for rigging. Instead, up to 40 oarsmen would have worked to keep the hull moving through the water.

For a boat that is already revealing surprises on a regular basis, maybe the biggest is the low profile of the hull. Considering that this was a boat for heading offshore there is not a lot of freeboard midships. A look at the midships sect ions shows a lovely hull form though, one that suggests that the Saxons were far more sophisticated in their understandings of ship design.

It would be fantastic at this point to be talking of the hull taking shape, but sadly the project timelines have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, as now only six people are allowed to be in the workshop at any one time. Hopefully this is a temporary setback and soon it will be rising up from the workshop floor.

All at Sea will be closely following not only the construction, but the fitting out, launching and then the sea trials that All images: Andrew Wiseman show just how our forebears reached these