Hjortspring Boat an Expanded Dugout

Some time ago, comments to my post about the Oceanic "five-part canoe" led to further posts about the Bronze Age boat found in Denmark known as the Hjortspring or Als boat. Basing my posts mainly on Bjorn Landstrom's illustration and description, I stated that Hjortspring was not much like the 5-part dugout of Oceania. Some months later, reader Edwin added a comment to the contrary to my original post about the Oceanic canoe.

Having subsequently read Basil Greenhill's Archaeology of the Boat (discussed here), I found a good detailed illustration of Hjortspring's bow (shown above) which validates Edwin's comments. The bottom is indeed dugout-based, and the ends (labeled "stem piece" here) are quite like the crotch-pieces of Oceanic canoes in function (if you discount the unusual horn-like structures outboard of the crotches, that may be related to an earlier skin-boat ancestor). Where they differ is in the planks. In the Oceanic canoe, the first set of strakes equals the height of the crotches, and occasionally a wash-strake is added to raise the sides. In Hjortspring, the first and second planks together equal the height of the crotch-piece. As is often the case in the five-part canoe, Hjortspring was sewn together.

More on Hjortspring

In response to valuable comments from Thomas Armstrong to my previous post, I went back to Landstrom's The Ship: Illustrated History and I find that I was misleading in my description. Landstrom did not suggest a direct connection between the Scandinavian skin boats and the umiak --rather, he suggested that Scandinavians had skin boats that were similar in some respects to umiaks, but he did not imply a technology transfer between the cultures. Sorry for the error, and thanks to Thomas for pointing it out.

I also found more detailed description of the Hjortspring boat's design and construction, some of which contradicts my interpretation of the painting that appeared in the previous post:

The Hjortspring boat with its peculiarities was the result of a very skilful builder's work. It is a round-bottomed boat made of five overlapping planks stitched together, midships 20 ins. broad and 5/8 ins. thick, which are joined to two end-pieces each hewn from a solid block. The bottom plank projects like the end of a runner outside the boat proper, and between this runner and the elongated "noses" of the end-pieces these remarkable vertical end-posts are fitted. When hewing the planks cleats were left into which thin ribs were attached with bass binding. Ten thwarts in the narrow boat gave room for twenty paddlers, and it is believed that the craft was used for warlike purposes.

With its overlapping planks, this boat is approaching subject matter that this blog typically eschews: it appears to be in the line of development to the lapstrake boat that's at the heart of the western boatbuilding tradition. The description of the end-pieces does seem to be similar to those of the Polynesian five-part canoe, which I had discounted in my previous post.

Ancient Scandinavian "Two-Horned" Boats

(click for larger image)

Reader Wade Terzia asked about Bronze Age European boats with "distinctive double-projections at the stem and stern" and known from petroglyphs. Interesting subject.

The Hjortspring boat, found on the Danish island of Als, was, according to marine historian and painter Bjorn Landstrom, "over 43 feet long and over 6 feet wide, built about 200 B.C." Very similar to the petroglyphs shown in the image below, Landstrom makes an interesting point:

The construction has caused much surprise, especially the shapes of the ends which do not appear at all natural for a boat of wood. It is the oldest find made in Scandinavia of a boat built of wood, and I believe that it was made with a hide boat as a model.

So the Hjortspring boat, shown above, was apparently derived from the skin boat, shown below, in which the end projections make perfect sense from a construction standpoint. Landstrom sees a close connection between this skin boat and umiaks, and suggests that the keel extension would allow users to drag the boat ashore with less wear to the skin covering. And the evolution to the sewn-plank boat incorporated the extensions out of habit, not for any good reason in terms of boat construction or usage. Apparently, these extensions were abandoned as soon as builders in the sewn-plank technology figured out that there was no reason to retain them.

Apologies for the poor quality of the Hjortspring image and the wretched stitching together of two scans. It is clickable, however, for a larger view. The image shows numerous planks stitched together, with a bottom member that might be a keel-like structure (but is not a dugout base) that extends beyond the stem and sternposts. The painting does not seem to show the ends to be "crotches" in the manner of the Polynesian five-part canoe: rather, the port and starboard sides of the end pieces of planking appear to be separate pieces that meet at the stem/sternposts.

A caveat: Landstrom's book was published in 1961, and there may be much more recent research that either confirms or contradicts his views. But I just love Landstrom's paintings. I received the book for my 13th birthday, and I still treasure it. If Jerry & Marie Ruebenstahl are out there somewhere, thanks again.