The Day Vikings Appeared Off the Shores of Pelham
Vikings! More than one thousand years after the end of
the Viking Age in 1066 A.D., the term still evokes emotions and mental images of
raiders, traders and explorers who employed wooden long ships to navigate
the high seas and to storm the shores of those whom they terrorized and
pillaged.
Few know that Vikings once appeared
off the shores of Pelham (actually, off the shores of City Island when it was
part of the Town of Pelham). In this
case, however, the Vikings did not appear during the Viking Age. . . .
The
Viking
The year was 1893. The world fair (the World’s Columbian
Exposition) was underway in Chicago.
Only a few years before, in 1880, an intact Viking ship that came to be
known as the “Gokstad Ship” was discovered in, and excavated from, a Viking
burial mound near Sandefjord, Norway.
A group of intrepid sailors had a
replica of the Gokstad Ship built at the Rødsverven shipyard in Sandefjord and
christened the vessel “Viking.” The men hatched a plan to arrange a captain
and crew to sail the Viking from
Bergen, Norway, via Newfoundland and New York, up the Hudson River, through the
Erie Canal and into the Great Lakes to Chicago for display at the World’s
Columbian Exposition.
Viking Under Sail
Source: Lief the Lucky's Boat, The Sun [NY, NY], Mar. 16, 1893, p. 7, cols. 4-5.
Viking With Sail Lowered
Source: The Viking Begins Her Voyage,
The Sun [NY, NY], May 2, 1893, p. 7, cols. 4-5.
The Captain of the Viking was 36-year-old Magnus Andersen,
a sea captain and a journalist. He was a
fascinating seaman. At the age of fifteen
he went to sea. By 17 he joined a “school
ship” to learn his maritime trade. By 19
he became a first mate of a big ship.
Then, by 22, he became a captain.
Several years earlier he and another sailor had tried to cross the Atlantic
in a 19-foot open boat. They were within
270 miles of the coast of Newfoundland when, in a heavy storm, they lost their
compass and instruments. They were
picked up by an Italian bark and taken to Italy. Andersen became the proprietor of the Norwegian Sea Gazette. See
The Viking Begins Her Voyage, The Sun
[New York, NY], May 2, 1893, p. 7, cols. 4-5.
Magnus Andersen, Captain of The Viking.
Source: The Viking Begins Her Voyage,
The Sun [NY, NY], May 2, 1893, p. 7, cols. 4-5.
The first mate of the Viking was Johan Gustay Gundersen. He was the oldest man on the ship, born in
1850. The second mate was Christen
Christensen who, like Andersen, had been at sea since he was fifteen years
old. The remaining crew members were
Rasmus Elias Rasmussen, Oscar Soelberg, Fredrik Oscar Frantsen, Johan Eriksen,
Bent Nygaard, Severin Martinius Simonsen, Johannes Bruun Moller, Lars Lokke,
and Jens Bing. Id.
First Mate Johan Gustay Gundersen and Second Mate Christen Christensen.
Source: The Viking Begins Her Voyage,
The Sun [NY, NY], May 2, 1893, p. 7, cols. 4-5.
The Viking was about 78 feet long, 16 feet broad,
6 feet deep and drew 2 feet of water. The
ship could sail up to 12 knots in a free wind.
See Viking Ship Sighted, The Daily Argus [Mt. Vernon, NY], May
29, 1893, p. 2, col. 2. According to one
description of the ship:
“She is 77 feet long, 16 feet in the
beam, and 6 feet from gunwale to base of keel.
Her rudder is at the right side, as in all the old vessels. There used to be the ‘steerboard,’ whence the
modern starboard side. She will pull
sixteen oars to the side, each oar 18 feet long. Her mast will be 50 feet tall and the lugsail
yard 26 feet. The shields which ornament
the side at each oarlock are three feet in diameter and are painted black and
yellow alternately. She is of solid,
century defying oak throughout. If the
old fashion were strictly followed she would have no covering. But some concession has been made to the
softening effect of civilization upon the descendants of the Vikings, and there
will be an awning to shelter the rowers from the spray and the wash and the
rains which beat without any stay upon the bearded faces and broad, hairy
chests of Lief’s hardy crew.”
Source: The Viking Begins Her Voyage, The Sun [New York, NY], May 2, 1893, p.
7, cols. 4-5.
Although the original Gokstad Ship “
was an open boat, the bow and stern of which terminated in a point,” the Viking had a cover to shelter its
captain and crew from the sun, wind, and the spray. A dragon’s head ornamented the bow and a
dragon’s tail curled upon the high stern of the ship. Id. Additionally:
“They have also built a galley on
board to cook the food. The ancient
Vikings only took a big kettle with them, but that would not do in these
days. The men will sleep on reindeer
skins, just as the Vikings did, but, unlike the Vikings they will have on board
sea anchors, oil bags, compasses, charts, and navigation instruments.”
Source: Id.
The exploits of the ship, with her captain
and crew, captured the imaginations of Americans and others worldwide. The progress of the ship as it made its way
from Bergen to Chicago was reported by newspapers throughout the United States
in minute detail.
The
Viking Visits City Island
The City of New York planned a grand
reception for the Viking, her captain
and crew. As part of that reception, a
group of officials planned travel via steamship to meet the Viking while it was under tow by a
tugboat and to escort the ship to a berth at City Island in preparation for the
subsequent grand reception in New York City.
The Viking was scheduled to proceed down the Long Island Sound toward
City Island on the afternoon of Saturday, June 17, 1893. At the same time, a New York City “Reception
Committee” was scheduled to steam up the East River and into the Long Island
Sound beginning at about 11:00 a.m. to meet the Viking later in the afternoon off the shore of City Island.
The Reception Committee departed on
time. According to one account:
“Nearly all the members of the
Committee were aboard the steamboat Laura M. Starin at 11 o’clock, when she was
to leave the wharf at the foot of East Thirty-second street, and to the tune of
‘Nancy Lee,’ by Prof. Bredo Hansen’s Norwegian band, the sail up East River to
City Island was started in strictly nineteenth century style, with nineteenth
century refreshments in the boat’s hold to sustain the good nature of those on
board until the wharf is reached again late this evening.”
Source: New York’s Modern Welcome, The World, Evening Edition, Brooklyn
[NY], Jun. 17, 1893, p. 1, cols. 1-2.
At 12:45 p.m. that day, a signal tower
operator on City Island with a spyglass sighted the Viking about ten miles away to the east. The ship was being towed by the tugboat Fuller and was making its way “rapidly”
toward City Island. Within a half hour,
the steamship Laura M. Starin “with flags
flying” steamed up Long Island Sound to meet the Viking.
At 1:30 p.m., the Laura M. Starin met the Viking
just east of Execution Rock and the Execution Rock Lighthouse off the shores of
City Island. Soon an entire flotilla of
small craft streamed away from City Island and other points to greet the Viking. They were joined by
two more steamships, the Chancellar
and the Crystal Stream, which steamed
along and joined the flotilla “loaded down with people and flying the Norwegian
flag.”
At 1:35 p.m., the Viking and its tugboat partner, the Fuller, reached Hart Island, followed by the Laura M. Starin and the flotilla. The Viking
then raised its sail and a chorus of steam whistles filled the air in a cacophony
of marine salutes to the little ship. The U.S.S.
Miantonomoh, a 3,990-ton monitor built at Chester, Pennsylvania which
entered service in October, 1891 had cruised up the Sound that morning to
welcome the Viking. See New York’s Modern Welcome, , The World, Evening Edition, Brooklyn [NY], Jun. 17, 1893, p. 1,
cols. 1-2 (“The Miantonomoh started . . . to City Island early this morning to salute
the Viking ship and escort her to her [to the] berth at the foot of
Twenty-eighth street. A score or so of
yachts have also gone up the river to extend a greeting to the Viking.” The Miantonomoh
joined the salute and ran up “the flags of all nations.”).
U.S.S. Miantonomoh in 1907
Source: U.S. Navy Photo NH 606049
As the Viking approached City Island and passed the U.S.S. Miantonomoh, the monitor began firing a salute of welcome. As the first report boomed across City Island
and Long Island Sound, crowds on nearby steamers and on the decks of the
flotilla that surrounded the Viking
cheered and “waved their handkerchiefs frantically.” The crew of the Viking dipped the flag at the fore of the Viking in acknowledgement
of the salute which continued until a 21-gun salute was completed.
By about 1:45 p.m., the tugboat Fuller cast off its tow line and the
Viking lay off the shore of City Island.
The flotilla of small craft soon surrounded the Viking in a festive circle.
Along came the steamer Morrisania with crowds on its decks to take in the
spectacle. The crowds on the decks of that steamer also waved their handkerchiefs in their own festive salutes to the Viking.
(For more about the festivities, see
Viking Coming In, The World, Evening
Edition, Brooklyn [NY], Jun. 17, 1893, p. 1, col. 1.).
The officers and crew of the Viking
soon were received on board the Laura M. Starin to meet the Reception
Committee, to hear speeches by members of the Committee and to enjoy a hearty
luncheon. See Viking Ship Comes Next, The
World [New York, NY], Extra 2 O’Clock, Jun. 15, 1893, p. 4, col. 3 (“The
Viking’s officers and crew will then be received on board the Committee’s
boat. Speeches will be made by Prof.
H.H. Boyesen, Joseph H. Choate and others.”).
Later the same afternoon, the
captain and crew of the Viking opened
the ship to visitors. According to one
account, “[s]everal hundred people visited the Viking . . . and gave the
foreigners a good old fashioned reception.”
City Island, The Daily Argus
[Mt. Vernon, NY], Jun. 20, 1893, p. 1, col. 5.
The
Viking at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and Afterward
After its brief celebratory stay at
City Island, the Viking visited New
York City and, true to plan, thereafter sailed up the Hudson. It crossed the Erie Canal and ventured
through the Great Lakes until it reached its destination: Chicago and the World’s Columbian Expedition
of 1893. The Viking became one of the most popular attractions at the World’s
Columbian Exposition.
Viking on Display at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893
Source: Wikimedia Commons
When the Exposition ended on October
30, 1893, the ship traveled to New Orleans.
The following year she returned to Chicago and was presented to the
Field Columbian Museum where she was placed in dry dock next to the Museum. The ship began a slow deterioration.
In 1919, the Viking was restored and
moved to Lincoln Park under a wooden shelter where it stood for the next 75
years. By 1994, with plans to expand the
Lincoln Park Zoo, a decision was made to move the ship into a West Chicago
warehouse and, later, to Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois, secured under a
canopy. The dragon head and the dragon
tail of the ship were removed and placed in storage at the Museum of Science and
Industry in Chicago. According to one
source:
“In 2008, stabilization of the ship was
begun with funds awarded by American Express in partnership with the National
Trust for Historic Preservation. The
second step in the stabilization effort will be to clean, treat and seal all of
Viking’s thousands of rivets.”
Source: Viking (ship), Wikepedia The Free
Encyclopedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_(ship) (visited
Mar. 7, 2014).
The Viking remains on display and can be viewed most afternoons. See Friends of the Viking Ship, available at http://www.vikingship.us/index.htm (visited Mar. 7, 2014). It stands as a fascinating reminder of the day Vikings appeared off the shores of Pelham more than 120 years ago. . . .
The Viking remains on display and can be viewed most afternoons. See Friends of the Viking Ship, available at http://www.vikingship.us/index.htm (visited Mar. 7, 2014). It stands as a fascinating reminder of the day Vikings appeared off the shores of Pelham more than 120 years ago. . . .
*
* * *
*
Research
Notes Regarding the Viking and its
Visit to City Island in the Town of Pelham.
“VIKING COMING IN.
-----
Reception Committee Welcomes the
Norsemen at City Island.
-----
Crowds on Shore to Get a Glimpse of
the Strange Craft.
-----
Police Patrol Board Will Accompany the
Viking to Her Berth.
-----
CITY ISLAND, N.Y., June 17. – The
Viking ship was sighted by the signal tower operator here at 12.45.
She was about ten miles to the east
and was rapidly making for this place.
The tug Fuller, which was towing her, had both flags set, and there were
also flags on the Viking. Both vessels
presented a pretty appearance through the glass.
A half hour later the Laura M. Starin,
with flags flying, came up from the city with the Reception Committee on board
and drifted awhile astern of the Miantonomoh and inquired if the Viking had
been sighted.
The lookout on the man-o-war saw the
Viking coming down the Sound, and that fact was communicated to the
Starin. The latter then headed for the
Sound, and at 1.30 reached the Viking just east of Execution Rock.
A flotilla of small craft put out from
here to greet the vessel, and they were joined by the steamers Chancellar and
Crystal Stream loaded down with people and flying the Norwegian flag at the
fore.
Preparations were hurriedly made
aboard the Miantonomoh to salute the Viking when she would arrive, and the
officers crowded on the after deck and watched the progress of the little ship
through their glasses.
The Viking reached Hart’s Island Point
at 1.35 o’clock, being towed rapidly along, with the Laura M. Starin and small
craft following.
Her sail was set, and as she rounded
the pint a chorus of steam whistles began.
Each of the vessels saluted the ship, and the flags of all nations were
run out of the Miantonomoh.
When the little vessel was near the
man-o-war, a salute of welcome was fired.
At 1.45 o’clock the Viking was off
this place surrounded by boats of all descriptions. The tug which had her in tow cast off her
lines, and she glided smoothly down the Sound towards the Miantonomoh, abreast
of the Gov. Flower, Health Officer Jenkins’s boat.
The steamboat Morrisania was anchored
and the crowds on board waved their handkerchiefs.
When the Miantonomoh fired her first
gun the crowds on the different boats waved their handkerchiefs frantically and
cheered. The flag at the fore of the
Viking was dipped.
The Viking made a detour and came to a
halt abreast of the tug Fuller, while the other boats encircled her.
The Viking seemed to have a large
crowd aboard.
At 2 o’clock the Viking and welcoming
vessels were still off the island, making preparations for the trip to New
York. The Miantonomoh’s salute consisted
of twenty-one guns.”
Source: Viking Coming In, The World, Evening Edition, Brooklyn [NY], Jun. 17, 1893, p. 1,
col. 1.
“CITY ISLAND.
----- . . .
Several hundred people visited the
viking on Saturday last and gave the foreigners a good old fashioned
reception.”
Source: City Island, The Daily Argus [Mt. Vernon, NY], Jun. 20, 1893, p. 1, col. 5.
“NEW YORK’S MODERN WELCOME.
-----
Nothing Primitive About the Greeting
to the Norwegians.
It would possibly have been more
consistent if Gothamites had gone out in primitive style to meet the Norwegian
sailors, but whenever doing anything of a hospitable nature New York has the
reputation of being literally up to date.
The principle was carried out to-day, even to the extent of sending to
City Island fifty of the certainly modern members of the Naval Reserve, who
will act as escorts of Capt. Anderson and his Viking crew.
Nearly all the members of the
Committee were aboard the steamboat Laura M. Starin at 11 o’clock, when she was
to leave the wharf at the foot of East Thirty-second street, and to the tune of
‘Nancy Lee,’ by Prof. Bredo Hansen’s Norwegian band, the sail up East River to
City Island was started in strictly nineteenth century style, with nineteenth
century refreshments in the boat’s hold to sustain the good nature of those on
board until the wharf is reached again late this evening.
Shortly before the Laura M. Starin
left the wharf Capt. Anderson himself and twenty-four able-bodied Norse seamen,
from the Scandinavian Sailors’ Home, passed up East River in a tugboat to meet
the Viking ship, which Capt. Anderson had left at Newport to come to New York
for the purpose of engaging sailors to help row around the battery, and who are
to remain in the Viking ship until the strange craft reaches Chicago.
Capt. Anderson was a guest at the New
York Yacht Club, and while there expressed delight with his unique voyage
across the Atlantic. He said if the wind
is good the Viking will proceed under sail and oars after being towed through
Hell Gate, and that if there is no wind she will proceed under oars alone.
He said the strange vessel would
probably remain in port a week, when she will be started on the trip up the
Hudson, through the Erie Canal and down the lakes to Chicago.
The Miantonomoh started started [sic]
to City Island early this morning to salute the Viking ship and escort her to
her berth at the foot of Twenty-eighth stret.
A score or so of yachts have also gone up the river to extend a greeting
to the Viking.
Supt. Brynes gave orders this morning
that the police patrol boat should meet the Viking and escort her to her
berth.
The Brooklyn Reception Committee which
consists of delegations from all the Scandinavian societies in that city,
chartered the Crystal Stream, in the Chancellor and the Morrisania, and started
from the Atlantic dock shortly before noon.
They have Arranged for a banquet at Prospect Hall, Prospect avenue,
Brooklyn, to-morrow evening, at which the Vikings will be right royally
welcomed. Covers will be laid for three
hundred persons, and speeches will be made by Congressman Hendrix and Magner,
and Messrs. Bayley, Berkeley, Beck, Koppernd, Christia and Reymert. Dr. Volckmer will speak for the Vikings. P. Groth will respond to the toast
‘America.’”
Source: New York’s Modern Welcome, , The World, Evening Edition, Brooklyn
[NY], Jun. 17, 1893, p. 1, cols. 1-2.
“VIKING SHIP SIGHTED.
-----
She Was Twenty-seven Days Out When
Sighted and All Are Well.
ST. JOHN’S, N.F., May 29.-The viking
ship, built in Norway for exhibition at the World’s fair, passed this port
bound for Chicago.
She is a model of the viking ship
1,000 years old found recently in Norway, and is 78 feet long, 16 broad, 6 deep
and draws 2 feet of water. She sails 12
knots in a free wind and carries a crew of 10 men.
She is 27 days from Christiana, and
reports all well. She spoke a tug, but
did not call in here.
The viking ship was to have made its
landing at New London, Conn., but as the citizens of Newport, R.I., in conjunction
with the New York Yacht club, have determined to arrange a series of
festivities in honor of the viking, it was decided at a meeting of the
reception committee to inform Captain Andersen, through the New England pilots,
to sail for Newport instead of New London.
A tugboat will be sent to Newport by
the New York committee to tow the viking through Long Island sound to City
Island, where a government tugboat and a United States war vessel will be ready
to escort her to this city.”
Source: Viking Ship Sighted, The Daily Argus [Mt. Vernon, NY], May 29, 1893, p. 2, col. 2.
“VIKING SHIP COMES NEXT.
-----
The Arrangements for the Reception
Almost Completed.
While the arrangements for the
reception of the Viking ship and her captain and crew have not as yet been
fully completed, the city’s committee was able to-day to give out a greater
part of the programme.
The Viking ship will leave Newport
tomorrow evening in tow of a New York tug, which will bring the queer-looking
craft through the Sound, reaching City Island early Saturday morning.
The Viking will anchor there, and will
get ready for the official reception, which will take place about noon on
Saturday.
A steamboat chartered by the city’s
committee will leave the foot of Thirty-fourth street, North River, at 11
o’clock. The several Norwegian societies
have chartered boats, which will leave New York and Brooklyn about the same
time.
The monitor Miantonomoh, commanded by
Admiral Benham, will join the fleet in the East River, and the flotilla will
later be joined by yachts from the New York, Corinthian and Seawanhaka Yacht
Clubs.
When the fleet arrives at City Island
the monitor will fire a salute. The
Viking’s officers and crew will then be received on board the Committee’s
boat. Speeches will be made by Prof.
H.H. Boyesen, Joseph H. Choate and others.
After luncheon, the flotilla will
escort the Viking to her anchorage off Thirty-fourth street or Ninety-sixth
street, as Capt. Anderson elects.
From Hell Gate to the Battery the
Norse ship will be rowed by her seamen.
The Viking’s crew will be banqueted
Sunday night by the Norwegian societies of Brooklyn. Mayor Gilroy will receive the Norsemen in the
Governor’s room in the City Hall at 11 o’clock Monday forenoon.
The Viking will remain in the North
River about a week, and will then go to Chicago by way of the Erie Canal.”
Source: Viking Ship Comes Next, The World [New York, NY], Extra 2 O’Clock, Jun. 15, 1893, p. 4,
col. 3.
“THE VIKING BEGINS HER VOYAGE.
-----
She Will Sail Across the Ocean and
Will Be Rowed Through the Lakes to Chicago.
The Viking ship which is to be exhibited
at the Chicago World’s Fair sailed from Bergen, Norway, yesterday with twelve
men on board. THE SUN has published a
full description of this craft. Her
measurements are: Length, 77 feet; beam,
16 feet, and from gunwale to base of keel, 6 feet. This boat was built upon the model of an old
Viking rover which was found about thirteen years ago in the ground deep under
the village of Gogstad, near Sandefjord.
The original was an open boat, the bow and stern of which terminated in
a point. The new boat has a cover to
shelter the sailors from the wind and the spray. A dragon’s head ornaments the bow and a
dragon’s tail curls upon the high stern.
She will cross the ocean under
sail. She carries thirty-two oars, and
when she reaches the lakes twenty sailors will join the crew, and the sail will
be taken down. One of those sailors, H.
Hansen, arrived from Norway on Sunday.
He will go to Chicago soon, and will await there the arrival of the
boat. He said yesterday:
‘The Viking ship has attracted much
attention in Norway. The people are very
proud of her. They say she is much more
interesting than the caravels of Columbus, because the Spanish boats were made
from pictures, while the Viking is built directly from the original. Many are afraid that she will not cross the
ocean in safety, but the sailors have no fear for her. The crew is the best that any vessel ever
had. Every one of the twelve men is
either a ship’s captain or a first mate.
‘They have no ballast on board except
the fresh water, and as soon as that gets low sea water will be taken on
board. They have also built a galley on
board to cook the food. The ancient
Vikings only took a big kettle with them, but that would not do in these
days. The men will sleep on reindeer
skins, just as the Vikings did, but, unlike the Vikings they will have on board
sea anchors, oil bags, compasses, charts, and navigation instruments.’
The Captain of the Viking is Magnus
Andersen, a sea captain and a journalist.
He is 36 years old. At the age of
15 years he went to sea; at 17 he entered a schoolship; at 19 he became a first
mate of a big ship, and at 22 he was a captain.
Several years ago he, with another sailor, attempted to cross the ocean
in a 19-foot open boat. They had got
within 270 miles of the coast of Newfoundland when, in a heavy storm, they lost
their compass and instruments. They were
picked up by an Italian bark and taken to Italy. Capt. Andersen is now the proprietor of the Norwegian Sea Gazette. He will write an account of the voyage.
The first mate is Johan Gustay
Gundersen. He was born in 1850, and is
the oldest man on board. He once lost a
ship which he commanded upon a coral reef in the Pacific Ocean, and for three
days was on the ocean in a row boat with his wife, two children, and his first
and second mates. They landed upon the
island of Belliton, a Dutch possession, and were there for two weeks before a
ship came and took them off.
The second mate of the Viking is
Christen Christensen, who has been at sea since he was fifteen years old. He superintended the building of the
boat. The crew are all able men,
hardened to wind and waves. Their names
are Rasmus Elias Rasmussen, Oscar Soelberg, Fredrik Oscar Frantsen, Johan
Eriksen, Bent Nygaard, Severin Martinius Simonsen, Johannes Bruun Moller, Lars
Lokke, and Jens Bing.”
Source: The Viking Begins Her Voyage, The Sun [New York, NY], May 2, 1893, p.
7, cols. 4-5.
“LIKE LIEF THE LUCKY’S BOAT.
-----
Norway Will Send Us a Viking Ship with
a Crew of Eighty Sons of Thor.
If the winds and the waves of the
Atlantic are as favorable as they were to Lief the Lucky, son of Eric, and to
Thorwald and to Thorfinn, and other bold Vikings of near a thousand years ago,
some fine day in this next month of April the pines and the hemlocks of the New
England coast will see upon the horizon a stout Viking sea rover, with her
great big sail set. At her masthead will
be the red square with the black raven flapping its wings, that flag beneath
which the fierce warriors of the Northland skimmed the seas and pounced upon
southern coasts, to dart away with boats laden to the gunwales and with the
smoke of pillaged villages rising as the mark of their scourge.
In 1880 near Sandefjord, at a village
called Gogstad, they introduced a viking ship, one of the smaller vessels of
the navies of those ancient days when Thor still ruled in Norway. The Norwegians decided to take this ancient
ship as a model and to build and send across the Atlantic such a vessel as had
accompanied the greater ship of Lief the Lucky when he coasted New England nine
centuries ago. On Feb. 4 this vessel,
the first of its kind to kiss the waves in half a thousand years and more, was
launched at Sandefjord. She is 77 feet
long, 16 feet in the beam, and 6 feet from gunwale to base of keel. Her rudder is at the right side, as in all
the old vessels. There used to be the
‘steerboard,’ whence the modern starboard side.
She will pull sixteen oars to the
side, each oar 18 feet long. Her mast
will be 50 feet tall and the lugsail yard 26 feet. The shields which ornament the side at each
oarlock are three feet in diameter and are painted black and yellow
alternately. She is of solid, century
defying oak throughout. If the old
fashion were strictly followed she would have no covering. But some concession has been made to the
softening effect of civilization upon the descendants of the Vikings, and there
will be an awning to shelter the rowers from the spray and the wash and the
rains which beat without any stay upon the bearded faces and broad, hairy
chests of Lief’s hardy crew.
The crew of modern Vikings for this
shop, which is to be called The Viking, was selected from a list of 280
volunteers, and will number in all about eighty as good sailors and as brave as
can be found in all Norway, the home of brave and good seamen. The launch went off without accident, but
while The Viking was being towed by a tug to Christiana she and her tug were
caught in the ice. For two days her crew
fought through the freezing cold, and at last saved her from wreck.
She will set forth in early April and
will make her first landing at Newport, R.I., where is that tower from under
which came the skeleton in armor of Longfellow’s ode. Then she will come down the Sound and the
East River and go up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal and the lakes, and so
to Chicago and the Fair. She will be
received herewith great ceremony. The
first Sunday after her arrival she will be escorted through the East River by
yachts from all the various clubs hereabouts, and there will be much firing of
guns and raising and lowering of flags.
In addition to the ancient standard of the Vikings, she will carry the
American flag at the bow and a Norwegian flag at the stern.”
Like Lief the Lucky’s Boat, The Sun [New York, NY], Mar. 16, 1893,
p. 7, cols. 4-5.
Friends of the Viking Ship, available
at http://www.vikingship.us/index.htm
(visited Mar. 7, 2014).
Viking (ship), Wikepedia The Free
Encyclopedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_(ship)
(visited Mar. 7, 2014).
Labels: 1893, City Island, Laura M. Starin, Long Island Sound, U.S.S. Miantonomoh, Viking
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