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Vital Factors in the Success of the Vikings

Vital Factors in the Success of the Vikings

By Bertil Almgren

Proceedings of the Sixth Viking Congress, 1969, edited by Peter Foote and Dag Stromback (Viking Society for Northern Research, 1971)

Introduction: Viking raids in Western Europe met with an easy success which is rather astonishing. In the discussion of this, one fact does not seem to have been taken into account. If they Viking ships – with an overall length of 70-80 ft – had been built like modern schooners, they would have had a draught when loaded of about 10 ft, but in fact they drew only between 2′ and 2’10”. They are more like sailing canoes than sailing ships. This gave them the following advantages:

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