How Fast Were Viking Ships? | America's Lost Vikings 

This is not a Viking ship, it is just a small “Viking boat”. In the Lofoten islands there is a replica of the Gokstad ship, it’s called Lofotr. It is 83 feet long and 20 metric tons. That is considered to be a medium sized Viking ship. Some years ago we pushed it up to 20 knots fore about 10 minutes, but then we thought it would be safer to put in an extra reef in the sail. It easily averages 10 knots over several hours. We where doing 14 knots several hours. The big ships, like Draken, that is twice the size of the Gokstad ship should easily keep up a good speed due to the hull length.

I'm a native from the Pacific islands.One seafarer to another I respect the Vikings!.

The original Norwegian Cruise Line

Thats a small viking ship. Doubt they used this size when the crossed the ocean. The Gokstad ship at display in Oslo show the size of the larger ones. Much larger than this rowboat.

13 knots of Wind Thats only 6 m/s Thats Nothing, the wiking ships could sail much faster then that.... Remember that the wind is the fuel for a sailship.... You can roughly estimate the speed in knots by measuring the length of the waterline in meters...

This must be a joke. It's like answering the question "how long is a rope"

The Longship Company’s ship, Sæ Hrafn, is about the same size as Polaris and has done six knots in a good wind, though four is probably more realistic. They give no reason to believe the Vikings sailed from the southern tip of Nova Scotia. Sailing from the southern tip of Newfoundland is more plausible. And where do they get the idea that Polaris is the only such ship in North America?

Couldn't imagine sailing for hours even days and then when you hit land you had to raid shit.

A real (full size) viking ship was capable of more than 20 knots.

"We've come to *GLOWWSTER* Massachusetts" LOL

I think its fair to estimate vikings to be at the higher end of the speed such a boat could travel. These would have been experienced sailors who reached far outside of normal viking seafaring. They were master sailors before they ever embarked on their extreme journey,, whatever a viking could be imagined to do,, these would be the vikings who would be able to do it.

Lost Vikings, that game was the best ❤️

Just realized I personally know the guy who built this ship. He’s been a huge help to me on my own small 4 oared Viking boat. His current project is quite a bit larger than the Polaris.

It was Norwegian/Icelandic vikings that discovered America, not Danes. Not a huge difference, but there might be different building techniques.

Sorry to dislike this video, but after watching half of it, it is clear that this is pseudo science. Testing conditions are random and most of video is about looking cool. Actual information is reduced to almost nothing.

If settlements were already made in the Quebec/ Nova-Scotia area, why would they explore south? To my understanding, there'd be too few people for there to be enough for an expedition party.

So that's all fine, but the longships were MADE to go downwind, and yes length along the waterline gives you a good idea of the hull speed, but those puppies were built to surf, to get on a wave and ride it like a surfboard... How fast can you go then, she wonders...

This would be an absolute dream for me

My history!

They never tested in bad weather in which means it's not flawed

Talk about reaching!..desperate to assert some kind of Viking claim...more typical of Yankee hubris and nonsense. This is more pseudo archaeology than anything else. Vinland has always been identified as the Newfoundland or Nova Scotia region as interpreted from the Sagas. I guess the the next stop for these two is Minnesota...gotta find Vikings somewhere in America..don't you know.

Im from gloucestershire uk and hearing you pronounce that made me cringe and laugh love the show guys amazing

Do you facter in the increase of hull speed with a longer ship and the drag caused by the cargo it carried and is the size of the boat known that the ancients used and what wind speed and direction did they have ? Sounds like you found some reasons to have an enjoyable sail ,i would do the same

They used long boat nor Thad small fish boat. We know that because Leif Erickson the Viking who got to Vinland when from Norway to island, Greenland and the to America. They hade to us long boats for such a long an dangerous travel over the ocean💪🇳🇴🗡️⚓️⛵️

Well, in those calm conditions, the boat was nowhere near it's top speed. Hull speed for a boat that size is close to 8 knots but I don't know LWL exactly so can't be more accurate. At full speed for 48 hours it could sail 380 NM. Unlikely to maintain full speed but just pointing out what a fools errand of unknown variables this is. If the viking boat was longer, it would be even faster.

Glowster?

Nice

There’s a ship in Florida

I do not know if this is true or no. But I read some years ago that a steering oar . Used on a Viking ship would only work up to speeds of about 7 knots . And it was impossible to fit a modern rudder on them due to their design.

Poor mike

Where did they keep their plunder on such a small ship

Impossible to know what wind they had, which makes this flawed, but cool idea.

The fastest ancient sailboats were probably the multihull pirogues from Polynesia, like today catamran and trimaran.

I am the soul of RAGNAR LOTHBROK . I remember well my time in 860 AD when we wanted to conquer the world . but even we were limited in our power , for our epoch lasted only 250 years , then we perished or settled somewhere . people , it was a beautiful time that will never come again . our souls now live in vahalla with the gods who take good care of us . when we look at you here on earth , we wish never to come back to this world . you do not have beautiful times , and it hurts us to see what has become of humanity . no honour , no backbone . i wish you a beautiful life in spite of everything . your RACKNAR LOTHBROCK of valhalla

Pewdiepie in the thumbnail

No! Please tell me you lot don't pronounce "Gloucester" like that? In medieval times it was Gleawecastre meaning bright and/or glowing fort. With the "cester" being s suffix used for Roman garrison towns (Hence Manchester ect.) and today it's pronounced Gloss-ter & it rhymes with foster.

A typical "doc". I give that ship about 10 knots in a blow downwind - maybe a tad more. In a breeze, I'd say about 6-8knots on a reach, with considerable drift and lackluster upwind performance. All they had was a pronounced keel timber, but no actual foil. Tacking ion light air was probably assisted by rowing. They were fast compared to other ships of the day where they operated the most, but no better than the Meditterainian ships of the Italians or Arabs, which had more efficient sails that could pull a ship upwind. The Norse were not the only master shipwrights. I don't think anything in that era could have outrun a Chinese junk down wind. The ship/boat in this video is extremely strong and stiff. I wouldn't hesitate to sail her on a passage. She would only be limited by space for provisions. The larger the scale of this type of construction, the more flexible the hull. Big Norse ships would "slither" over large swells, leaking a lot of water as their plankings moved and pinched. Very likely there were men on duty 24/7 as bailers when needed. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who sailed the Drakken Harald Harfargre, that can either refute or corraborate this by mentioning the bilge pump activity on that crossing. Not sure how modern methods are relatable to 8th century ones.

Hardly deserves the label..,..Ship. It'd struggle to cross the English Channel let alone make it to America.

Crossed the North sea and Atlantic in a 38 foot boat.......What am I doing with my life???

But the Vikings were undoubtedly more professional sailors than these American amateurs. Going much faster! So Vinland was probably somewhere in Florida ...

This is ridiculous. Wind direction is everything.

They actually named the land Vinland because it made it sound more inviting. It was the same thing they did by naming Greenland.

4 knots give me a break viking ships would easily get close to 15 knots.

A full competent crew rowing could have exceeded 4.1 mph. Then again, why on earth did you need to take three speeds when your GPS would already give you an average. No wonder the captain was on the verge of giggling at the fabricated drama.

vin land = vine country

WITH SQUARE SAILS THEY WOULD AHVE A PROBLEM IN COMING BACK TO ERUOPE AGAIN AND SAILA GAINST WIND AND CURRETNS. AND TELL THE TAIL- GROW UP PEOPLE..-

Small boat..

I mean, which sagas are they drawing from? A lot of the sagas were written down later by Christians as a document of an oral history. So naturally, there is bias.

Longer ships are faster.

Wauw, look at that small boat. She ain't much more than a viking dinghy. The seagoing viking-longboats were far bigger than that.... here in Denmark the biggest ever found was more than 37meters - with a crew of perhaps 100 warriers. How many would fit into that boat ? Max 15, I guess How is this relevant. Yes it is, as you know ..... length = speed

danish vikings pfft NORWEGIAN Vikings is where it should be... and according to history I think it was the Norwegian vikings NOT the danish ones that discovered north america

Sea sickness@ calling George , Geeeeeoooooorrrrggggeeee , puke contest to feed the fishes.

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K btw frist

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