Femkeipingen is now available in the visitor center at Lofotr Viking Museum as part of the temporary offer while the main exhibition is closed for renewal between October 5th and December 13th.
Together with the Gokstad ship, 3 smaller boats were found, dated to approx. 850 AD. Femkeipingen is the largest of these small boats with a length of 10 meters. The word femkeiping means that the boat has 5 pairs of keips (facilities for oars).
The smaller ships are 8 and 6.5 meters long. These have been light boats that have been used together with the Gokstad ship. Based on the saga’s concept of “afterboat” they were probably hanging in tow behind the ship. When the boats were found, they had been cut into pieces, and it took a long time before the archaeologists were able to put together all the parts for the largest and the smallest boat.
In January 2002, the project started to build a femkeiping for Borg. The boat is built in full size, and the materials are made of oak – as the original was. A great deal of craftsmanship is required to recreate this boat, with wide strakes that are down to 12 millimeters thick. Other reconstructions have shown that the boat is very fast to row, and this turns out to be consistent with our experience. The boat is also suitable for sailing with a simple square sail rig.
The project was led by local boat builder Frik Harald Bjerkli.