When I was a kid 60 years ago, a neighbour used the modern equivalent of a T-axe called locally in Oz, a broad axe, much heavier but still a precision tool, to square bridge girders, 12 inch by up to 24 inch and up to 40 feet long. This also produced , as a byproduct, an almost endless supply of firewood. Later in life I worked with a man who cut timber keels for workboats, one of which was 24 X 48 inches and 58 feet long, The boat built on that keel is still in service.
What a fascinating project and informative video. I have a small Tweed Coble which was used for salmon fishing on the river. It is clinker built and has some lines that are very similar to Viking boats. I presume that the techniques used to build them would be influenced by early Viking boat builders as the Coble design ,with variations, is seen all the way up the North East Coast of ancient Northumbria. Good luck with the project.
I also can't wait to see the results of how the boat performs under sail. I know that there is no hard evidence of it having a sail. So its use may answer the question as to whether this was a sea going vessel or really just a river boat.
Chapeau! This is breathtakingly ambitious. But you are succeeding! Congratulations. Whish I could have a little part in it. Greetings from Germany and a fat like, Chris
Fascinating. I'll be following your progress. I've built three kayaks, two strip built, so similar, the third a skin on frame. I'm not a trained boat builder, but I am a skilled carpenter and furniture maker. I was very careful following the measurements, checked everything multiple times, yet none of these boats track straight. And I can't figure out where the problem is... (One goes right, another left, the third one I don't remember.) So if it's caused by just not having shipbuilding training (which I don't think is it), this must be a common issue. Or maybe the problem doesn't scale up, so at the size of the Sutton Hoo ship this isn't an issue. What it means for me is I always have to use a bit of 'rudder' to compensate which of course is friction, slowing me down. As soon as anybody made a straighter ship back in the day, they would be fastest and everybody would want that. I wonder if it's possible to determine any issues with the dug up ships, or evidence of corrections? The Inuit and Aleuts would always tweak a new kayak after a trial run. The other result is that my first kayak (A Great Auk design from Guillemot Kayaks) which has a more round bottom (somewhat canoe shaped,) which I think is also true for the Sutton Hoo ship. The others are more narrow. The rounder bottom is more forgiving (Sort of. One of my first long trips was before I added the rudder, 35 nM mostly with my right arm... ) Something else I know from a bit of experience. A scarfed board to make two shorter ones into a long one with my preferred 12:1 ratio seems to be exactly the same as an original board that length. The scarf just seems to disappear. And I'm curious about how the Sutton Hoo ship compares with, is similar to, or different from the Viking ships of the period and later. And could modern engineering come up with a better hull design? Or did the Anglo Saxon arrive pretty much there through experience?
We visited the LongShed last Autumn - this video doesn't really show the scale of the ship! It's a really big piece of work that looks remarkably fine and delicate. I can't wait to see it on the water.
There are a lot of people still building boats very much like this ship. The 'planks' are called 'strakes'. The strake against the keel is the 'garboard'. The strake at the gunwhal is called the "sheer" strake. The 'rivets' are called 'rovings', we use brass and copper to reduce corrosion. It's amazing this boat used wrought iron, it tends to corrode to easily.
A fascinating project, had my health been better I would have been first in the que of volunteers. Needless to say this is a project close to my heart and something I have dreamed of since a boy. I must say the set of drawings are quite something, a substantial project in their own right, the research and lifting from photographs scaling etc a sterling effort, I wonder just how many bodies worked on this down in Southampton. In no way do I mean this as a criticism , just an observation but the drawings do not reflect the rather queer swerve seen in the planks and rivets toward the hood ends in the old photos fairly centrally between keel and bulwarks. There must have been a reason for the original boat to have been built this way, not that I can see why, perhaps it served to stiffen the ships planking or the stem or stern ??? was it there to help accommodate steering boards?? of course the obvious answer might be they filled the gap generated in more linear planking, in carvel planking are they not given a weird name like stealer boards or some such title. all just guess work , speculation at it's worst. I hope to live long enough to see this project on the water at least, but if not I would like to wish her the best of luck and a hearty thank you to everyone involved in this universally dreamed project.
A thought. My maternal grandmother’s uncle and his children were boat builders in the western part of the Dalarna region of Sweden. Their models, with double-ended bows, were suited for transporting people and goods on the long rivers. Unfortunately, the knowledge of how exactly these vessels were made is lost. A few descriptions exist; however, details like how the keel, the bow, and the first planks were joined are missing. It is described as the most challenging job in the build, and it could be rediscovered by taking a boat apart. I have not gotten that far yet. The planks are joined side by side and held together with staples. It’s not a clinker construction. I believe that this is a rather old construction. From the written descriptions, we know that the frames in the dialect spoken were called “vrång” in singular and “vränger” in plural. My theory is that the English word for something incorrect wrong might be a boatbuilding term from the Viking era, and what you call frame would have been called wrong at the time of the construction of the Sutton-Ho ship. If someone is interested in learning more about Lima-Boat, let me know.
I hope the reconstruction efforts are not being limited by an island mentality. For more than half a century Danish archeologists and shipwrights in Roskilde have developed a unique experience within reconstruction of this type of vessel. I sincerely hopy you have drawn heavily on their knowledge and methods. I wish you good luck and shall follow your progress closely.
If you get the chance to go on the water in one of the reconstructions you will be amazed that anyone ever went across oceans in one..... Roskilde is breathtaking in its simplicity... Just plane bare walls, but the ships 👌
My Satterly ancestors came from Soterle in Suffolk. They were originally Normans who were probably given the Anglo Saxon estate, Soterle, which is mentioned in William's Domesday Book of 1088. The Soterle/Soterly/Satterly-lee-ley et al was probably adopted as a surname about 1100 AD. Only three families have held the "manor" since 1100 AD, I visited the estate many years ago. My favorite author is Bernard Cornwell who has told the history of England through a series of multiple trilogies of historical fiction, and can be very highly recommended.
Don’t believe the vessel is anywhere near finished. Have been in contact with these guys and they are still desperately looking for timber sources. Gonna have some major problems I think. What British historians are slowly beginning to accept is that the UK’s forests and tree stocks were not truly virgin stands but had been intensely managed from early Neolithic times, through the Bronze Age and into the early medieval period for the purposes of building and ship construction. With the people planting trees to ensure available stocks of Oak etc, not just for the next few years but for generations into the future. The romantic idea of Celts and Anglo-Saxons living in simple round houses or rudimentary halls like African tribesman has been a persistent fable but is slowly giving way to the realisation that a time traveller heading back into pre- roman Britain or Anglo-Saxon England would discover a built landscape much like that of Tudor England with half timbered buildings of all shapes and sizes. The Norman conquest with it brutal suppression of the English and the restrictions on access to timber destroyed the tradition of maintaining tree stocks for the future and the last of the great trees planted by our ancestors were used up in the creation of the Royal Navy during the 1700’s. I think the Sutton Hoo Boat Project is helping historians realise just how much advance planning was required by our ancestors to ensure that timber stocks would be maintained for their descendants. There would literally have been men planting trees knowing that they would not be harvested for 200 years or more! One more thing guys, I see no adzes present? The adze is an ancient tool which has been known in the UK and throughout the world since the Stone Age. It is a much better tool for shaping wood in a multitude of ways than any axe. Do you really think our AngloSaxon ancestors, who were master wood workers would not know of or be using an adze? Come on!
I find this fascinating! Why do you have to have subtitles that cannot be turned off? I have ADHD and I find this an unpleasant distraction that somewhat spoils this other wise great video! Cheers Matthew
@@MatthewTinker-au-pont-blanc I’ll get someone to have a look. We are a small volunteer organisation and very dependant on the skills that are volunteered but I’m sure we can work it out. Thanks for letting us know.
@@TheSuttonHooShipsCompany As my son is profoundly Deaf, I thank you for not relying upon auto generated subtitles, which can be rather inaccurate and confusing for Deaf people.
I also find that subtitles can be somewhat distracting, and am glad the team will take on board this comment. Although I would prefer subtitles to not letting others also enjoy this great project. They will , I'm sure, endeavour to please as many as possible. What an idiot I feel, this is not a New project, how out of date am I. 🤦♂
@markalton2809 I apreciate the problem for deaf people, I discovered during Corid just how much I lip read ! I now have hearing aids which has changed a lot for me. I am still severely ADHD, subtitles br eak my concentration !
Hi, as a charity we are completely reliant on Volunteers. We ask people to complete an application form to tell us about their skills and regular availability before offering roles. Link to application form bttr.im/syxnq
I presume a copper nail wouldn't be strong enough for the forces involved in a ship of this size? That's only my best questimate. I may Google the tensile strength of copper v wrought iron🫣
Hi, this is an authentic reconstruction so we have to replicate the original materials. We know that iron and oak don't like each other but part of our experiment will be to see how the ship degrades over the next 10-20 years. The answer to this will help us understand why this ship might have been used as a burial chamber - was it at the end of its own life?
When I was a kid 60 years ago, a neighbour used the modern equivalent of a T-axe called locally in Oz, a broad axe, much heavier but still a precision tool, to square bridge girders, 12 inch by up to 24 inch and up to 40 feet long. This also produced , as a byproduct, an almost endless supply of firewood. Later in life I worked with a man who cut timber keels for workboats, one of which was 24 X 48 inches and 58 feet long, The boat built on that keel is still in service.
What a fascinating project and informative video. I have a small Tweed Coble which was used for salmon fishing on the river. It is clinker built and has some lines that are very similar to Viking boats. I presume that the techniques used to build them would be influenced by early Viking boat builders as the Coble design ,with variations, is seen all the way up the North East Coast of ancient Northumbria. Good luck with the project.
As a dweller upon the highest navigable reach of the River Trent, I look forward to you visit immensely.
Its a totally fascinating project!
The proposed river trips are great news. I can't wait to see the finished ship and watch it being put into the water.
I also can't wait to see the results of how the boat performs under sail. I know that there is no hard evidence of it having a sail. So its use may answer the question as to whether this was a sea going vessel or really just a river boat.
Chapeau! This is breathtakingly ambitious. But you are succeeding! Congratulations. Whish I could have a little part in it. Greetings from Germany and a fat like, Chris
Wonderful presenters.
Thanks for the update! I hope the launch goes well.
Fascinating. I'll be following your progress. I've built three kayaks, two strip built, so similar, the third a skin on frame. I'm not a trained boat builder, but I am a skilled carpenter and furniture maker. I was very careful following the measurements, checked everything multiple times, yet none of these boats track straight. And I can't figure out where the problem is... (One goes right, another left, the third one I don't remember.) So if it's caused by just not having shipbuilding training (which I don't think is it), this must be a common issue. Or maybe the problem doesn't scale up, so at the size of the Sutton Hoo ship this isn't an issue. What it means for me is I always have to use a bit of 'rudder' to compensate which of course is friction, slowing me down. As soon as anybody made a straighter ship back in the day, they would be fastest and everybody would want that.
I wonder if it's possible to determine any issues with the dug up ships, or evidence of corrections? The Inuit and Aleuts would always tweak a new kayak after a trial run. The other result is that my first kayak (A Great Auk design from Guillemot Kayaks) which has a more round bottom (somewhat canoe shaped,) which I think is also true for the Sutton Hoo ship. The others are more narrow. The rounder bottom is more forgiving (Sort of. One of my first long trips was before I added the rudder, 35 nM mostly with my right arm... )
Something else I know from a bit of experience. A scarfed board to make two shorter ones into a long one with my preferred 12:1 ratio seems to be exactly the same as an original board that length. The scarf just seems to disappear.
And I'm curious about how the Sutton Hoo ship compares with, is similar to, or different from the Viking ships of the period and later. And could modern engineering come up with a better hull design? Or did the Anglo Saxon arrive pretty much there through experience?
Very interesting indeed. Thank You.
Excellent work thank you 👏
We visited the LongShed last Autumn - this video doesn't really show the scale of the ship! It's a really big piece of work that looks remarkably fine and delicate. I can't wait to see it on the water.
There are a lot of people still building boats very much like this ship.
The 'planks' are called 'strakes'.
The strake against the keel is the 'garboard'.
The strake at the gunwhal is called the "sheer" strake.
The 'rivets' are called 'rovings', we use brass and copper to reduce corrosion. It's amazing this boat used wrought iron, it tends to corrode to easily.
A fascinating project, had my health been better I would have been first in the que of volunteers. Needless to say this is a project close to my heart and something I have dreamed of since a boy. I must say the set of drawings are quite something, a substantial project in their own right, the research and lifting from photographs scaling etc a sterling effort, I wonder just how many bodies worked on this down in Southampton. In no way do I mean this as a criticism , just an observation but the drawings do not reflect the rather queer swerve seen in the planks and rivets toward the hood ends in the old photos fairly centrally between keel and bulwarks. There must have been a reason for the original boat to have been built this way, not that I can see why, perhaps it served to stiffen the ships planking or the stem or stern ??? was it there to help accommodate steering boards?? of course the obvious answer might be they filled the gap generated in more linear planking, in carvel planking are they not given a weird name like stealer boards or some such title. all just guess work , speculation at it's worst. I hope to live long enough to see this project on the water at least, but if not I would like to wish her the best of luck and a hearty thank you to everyone involved in this universally dreamed project.
Raedweld? I used to have to put that in my Mini.
A thought. My maternal grandmother’s uncle and his children were boat builders in the western part of the Dalarna region of Sweden. Their models, with double-ended bows, were suited for transporting people and goods on the long rivers. Unfortunately, the knowledge of how exactly these vessels were made is lost. A few descriptions exist; however, details like how the keel, the bow, and the first planks were joined are missing. It is described as the most challenging job in the build, and it could be rediscovered by taking a boat apart. I have not gotten that far yet. The planks are joined side by side and held together with staples. It’s not a clinker construction. I believe that this is a rather old construction. From the written descriptions, we know that the frames in the dialect spoken were called “vrång” in singular and “vränger” in plural. My theory is that the English word for something incorrect wrong might be a boatbuilding term from the Viking era, and what you call frame would have been called wrong at the time of the construction of the Sutton-Ho ship. If someone is interested in learning more about Lima-Boat, let me know.
I hope the reconstruction efforts are not being limited by an island mentality. For more than half a century Danish archeologists and shipwrights in Roskilde have developed a unique experience within reconstruction of this type of vessel. I sincerely hopy you have drawn heavily on their knowledge and methods.
I wish you good luck and shall follow your progress closely.
@@PeterJessenDK thank you. We have some lovely contacts at Roskilde and will be back there it May 👍🏼
If you get the chance to go on the water in one of the reconstructions you will be amazed that anyone ever went across oceans in one..... Roskilde is breathtaking in its simplicity... Just plane bare walls, but the ships 👌
Why would you make the assumption of “island mentality “ from the onset?
Seems like someone has their own biases whilst judging others
The same island mentality that gave us the worlds greatest empire?
Thank you for asking this - I spent a fantastic day 10years ago there making planks from a metre round trunk and all this reminded me of it.
My Satterly ancestors came from Soterle in Suffolk. They were originally Normans who were probably given the Anglo Saxon estate, Soterle, which is mentioned in William's Domesday Book of 1088. The Soterle/Soterly/Satterly-lee-ley et al was probably adopted as a surname about 1100 AD. Only three families have held the "manor" since 1100 AD, I visited the estate many years ago. My favorite author is Bernard Cornwell who has told the history of England through a series of multiple trilogies of historical fiction, and can be very highly recommended.
So its 31 december 2024 did they launch in 2024 like they said or not and if not then when?
Hi, sadly no! we were held up by the pandemic for two years and then a lack of suitable timber. Now aiming for 2026
Don’t believe the vessel is anywhere near finished. Have been in contact with these guys and they are still desperately looking for timber sources. Gonna have some major problems I think. What British historians are slowly beginning to accept is that the UK’s forests and tree stocks were not truly virgin stands but had been intensely managed from early Neolithic times, through the Bronze Age and into the early medieval period for the purposes of building and ship construction. With the people planting trees to ensure available stocks of Oak etc, not just for the next few years but for generations into the future. The romantic idea of Celts and Anglo-Saxons living in simple round houses or rudimentary halls like African tribesman has been a persistent fable but is slowly giving way to the realisation that a time traveller heading back into pre- roman Britain or Anglo-Saxon England would discover a built landscape much like that of Tudor England with half timbered buildings of all shapes and sizes. The Norman conquest with it brutal suppression of the English and the restrictions on access to timber destroyed the tradition of maintaining tree stocks for the future and the last of the great trees planted by our ancestors were used up in the creation of the Royal Navy during the 1700’s. I think the Sutton Hoo Boat Project is helping historians realise just how much advance planning was required by our ancestors to ensure that timber stocks would be maintained for their descendants. There would literally have been men planting trees knowing that they would not be harvested for 200 years or more! One more thing guys, I see no adzes present? The adze is an ancient tool which has been known in the UK and throughout the world since the Stone Age. It is a much better tool for shaping wood in a multitude of ways than any axe. Do you really think our AngloSaxon ancestors, who were master wood workers would not know of or be using an adze? Come on!
I find this fascinating! Why do you have to have subtitles that cannot be turned off? I have ADHD and I find this an unpleasant distraction that somewhat spoils this other wise great video! Cheers Matthew
@@MatthewTinker-au-pont-blanc I’ll get someone to have a look. We are a small volunteer organisation and very dependant on the skills that are volunteered but I’m sure we can work it out. Thanks for letting us know.
@@TheSuttonHooShipsCompany As my son is profoundly Deaf, I thank you for not relying upon auto generated subtitles, which can be rather inaccurate and confusing for Deaf people.
I also find that subtitles can be somewhat distracting, and am glad the team will take on board this comment.
Although I would prefer subtitles to not letting others also enjoy this great project.
They will , I'm sure, endeavour to please as many as possible.
What an idiot I feel, this is not a New project, how out of date am I. 🤦♂
@markalton2809 I apreciate the problem for deaf people, I discovered during Corid just how much I lip read ! I now have hearing aids which has changed a lot for me. I am still severely ADHD, subtitles br eak my concentration !
Id love to be part of that. Do you accept voluntary workers? Some skills
Hi, as a charity we are completely reliant on Volunteers. We ask people to complete an application form to tell us about their skills and regular availability before offering roles. Link to application form bttr.im/syxnq
Nice idea, but there's no way the UK authorities will let this vessel go to sea. Have you checked with the MCA?
Free men don't ask for permission or abide tyrant's decrees.
Yes way.
Not the first replica on the water
I'm thinking you are going to need to build a ship every few years so the skills that are learned aren't lost.
Hi, this is the plan. We are looking at the Snape boat as our next project
Strange how these people turned to wrought iron rovings (rivets) when copper and brass are easier to work and last longer.
I presume a copper nail wouldn't be strong enough for the forces involved in a ship of this size? That's only my best questimate. I may Google the tensile strength of copper v wrought iron🫣
Iron was used to make the original plus bronze or brass rivets are an awful lot more expensive
Hi, this is an authentic reconstruction so we have to replicate the original materials. We know that iron and oak don't like each other but part of our experiment will be to see how the ship degrades over the next 10-20 years. The answer to this will help us understand why this ship might have been used as a burial chamber - was it at the end of its own life?
Similar boat being sailed in the following video;
ua-cam.com/video/7yHV03hYM2A/v-deo.htmlsi=ISs70nC1EVTJUQ2q
Some beer has been consumed in the making of this ship!
Those sub titles….😩
Grave robbers masquerading as historians
Hush child!
Please allow the viewer to turn the bloody subtitles off! Really distracting!
Simply just put a piece of paper over the bottom 1/3 of your screen! Problem solved!
john,, not everyone has good hearing, which is a good thing in my view, we don't have to listen to a-holes.
You need to work on the form of these videos. If I wanted a conversation with an retired man I’d go to the bowling green
Would you prefer a teenage shipbuilder..
Retired or not these elder people have years of experience of building wooden vessels and using similar tools, have you !!!!