Dreknor

The Dreknor is a Bateau in construction with Tourlaville, close to Cherbourg in France. Its name is the abbreviation of drekki (“dragon”) and of Nordmannia (“Scandinavia”) word become Normandy as from the 10th century. It is about the historical counterpart of the Bateau of Gokstad, largest Warship found in Norway: 23,50 m × 5,20 m, 120 m of aerofoil and 32 oars.

The Gokstad

See also: Boat of Gokstad

The Gokstad is classified in the category of the Langskips (“long ships”). It is different from the tradind ships, more raised by its bordering to overhang the adversary in the Abordage S, by its bridging to make it possible the Archer S to draw, and by many oar S. It was with the oar that was made the approach of the adversary. Shields out of wooden were laid out along borderings and constituted an effective shielding.

The mast was assembled on a large block of oak called kjerringa (“old woman”) in old idiom norrois. Measuring approximately 15 m, it was exactly lying above the skittle and was propped up on two couples. The transverse deck-beams having lost their function of benches of stroke, it was not convenient to have empty spaces between them: a portable bridge was posed over. The sides of the ship being much higher, it was not possible any more to make use of the Tolet S placed along the gunnel, one thus replaced them by holes of stroke.

The Gokstad belonged to a chief Viking and has been used to him as burial, which was worth to him to be found in a perfect state of conservation. It is in 1880 that the archeologists exhumed the ship of a Tumulus going back to 850. Only the stem and the poop missed, about half of iron the Rivet S could be employed again for its restoration. The ship is visible with the museum of Oslo.

The project

Even if the word “Drakkar” is not completely exact (it would be necessary to employ the names of Snekkar , Esnèque or Langskip ), Dreknor association, in load of construction, uses this popular term for a better comprehension.

Dreknor is currently the only historical counterpart of the Gokstad : skittle and stem made of five parts, foot of Mast cut in only one part, hull in Oak made up of 16 borderings on each side, rivetted units and overlapping slightly (construction called to covering joints). The bridge, the mast and the oars are built in pine, the shields in lime.

Wood used is in conformity with that of Gokstad, according to the detailed work of Das Gokstadschiff und the Seine boote of the researcher German historian Werner Dammann. This book was offered to association by one sailors of the Gaia , a Norwegian counterpart of 1991, and is the only written scientific reference, in collaboration with Arne Emil Christensen, conservative of the museum of Oslo. It was a source very complementary to the plans having been used to build the 1 counterpart in 1883.

It is expected that Dreknor furrows the French coasts after its launching, and goes up the the Seine until Paris, in particular with an aim of teaching of the History.

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