[Jean Thibodeau]

But would still be about the fastest ships around with shallow draft making deep penetration inland for raids very much easier than with the taller but slower Cogs.

Cargo capacity would be much lower than with the Cog and the Cogs higher sides and elevated fighting platforms.

On the other hand the longship could refuse battle by just sailing away but in a severe disadvantage if attacking.

( Note: Just speculations on my part ).

[Paul Hansen]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Michael Ekelmann]

The post about the continued use of longships for raids after the end of the "Viking Age" reminded me of something from the American War of Independence. I grew up on the Jersey shore and family history talks about the Whaleboat Men and the Whaleboat Wars. Whaleboats are pretty much like small longships, being oversized longboats used for in shore whaling. The Whaleboat Men used them to launch raids from New Jersey into British controlled Manhattan and to attack British and Loyalist merchantmen in Long Island Sound. The period is called by some the Whaleboat Wars. But the boats had the same characteristics of shallow draft, speed, ease of beaching as longships, Thus the similar use, separated by centuries. A strandhogg by any other name......

http://www.doublegv.com/ggv/battles/whaleboat.html

[Kel Rekuta]

I'm really surprised no one has mentioned John B. Hattendorf & Richard Unger's work.
War at sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

http://books.google.com/books?id=YVbAwbQrJtAC...mp;f=false

or

Medieval naval warfare, 1000-1500 By Susan Rose

http://books.google.com/books?id=25QfYhqFrAwC...mp;f=false

Both are fine books that deal with these topics.

[Jean Thibodeau]

THE SHIP, An Illustrated History, by Björn Landström © 1961 DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, Inc. Garden City, New York.
Library of Congress Catalog Number 61-14718 is a classic with detailled drawn colour illustrations.

I have no idea if it's still in print as I got it in the 1960's.

Here is a source: http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.0385098235.html

(Oh, try to link using the " myArmoury " bookstore as this site will get some money from the sale if you go using our book store)

[Elling Polden]

How to deal with freeboard;


From Heimskringla/ the Saga of Sigurd, Inge, and Eystein, the Sons of Harald

17. JOURNEY OF ERLING SKAKKE AND EARL RAGNVALD.

Kyrpingaorm and Ragnhild, a daughter of Sveinke Steinarson, had a
son called Erling. Kyrpingaorm was a son of Svein Sveinson, who
was a son of Erling of Gerd. Otto's mother was Ragna, a daughter
of Earl Orm Eilifson and Sigrid, a daughter of Earl Fin Arnason.
The mother of Earl Orm was Ragnhild, a daughter of Earl Hakon the
Great. Erling was a man of understanding, and a great friend of
King Inge, by whose assistance and counsel Erling obtained in
marriage Christina, a daughter of King Sigurd the Crusader and
Queen Malmfrid. Erling possessed a farm at Studla in South
Hordaland. Erling left the country; and with him went Eindride
Unge and several lendermen, who had chosen men with them. They
intended to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and went across the
West sea to Orkney. There Earl Ragnvald and Bishop William
joined them; and they had in all fifteen ships from Orkney, with
which they first sailed to the South Hebrides, from thence west
to Valland, and then the same way King Sigurd the Crusader had
sailed to Norvasund; and they plundered all around in the heathen
part of Spain. Soon after they had sailed through the Norvasund,
Eindride Unge and his followers, with six ships, separated from
them; and then each was for himself. Earl Ragnvald and Erling
Skakke fell in with a large ship of burden at sea called a
dromund, and gave battle to it with nine ships. At last they
laid their cutters close under the dromund; but the heathens
threw both weapons and stones, and pots full of pitch and boiling
oil. Erling laid his ship so close under the dromund, that the
missiles of the heathens fell without his ship. Then Erling and
his men cut a hole in the dromund, some working below and some
above the water-mark; and so they boarded the vessel through it.
So says Thorbjorn Skakkaskald, in his poem on Erling: --

"The axes of the Northmen bold
A door into the huge ships' hold
Hewed through her high and curved side,
As snug beneath her bulge they ride.
Their spears bring down the astonished foe,
Who cannot see from whence the blow.
The eagle's prey, they, man by man,
Fall by the Northmen's daring plan."

Audunraude, Erling's forecastle-man, was the first man who got
into the dromund. Then they carried her, killing an immense
number of people; making an extraordinarily valuable booty, and
gaining a famous victory. Earl Ragnvald and Erling Skakke came
to Palestine in the course of their expedition, and all the way
to the river Jordan. From thence they went first to
Constantinople, where they left their ships, travelled northwards
by land, and arrived in safety in Norway, where their journey was
highly praised. Erling Skakke appeared now a much greater man
than before, both on account of his journey and of his marriage;
besides he was a prudent sensible man, rich, of great family,
eloquent, and devoted to King Inge by the strictest friendship
more than to the other royal brothers.


Found at http://omacl.org/Heimskringla/

[Paul Hansen]

[Lafayette C Curtis]

It's interesting to see that the ship is called "dromund" even in the Scandinavian languages! The linguistic drift in the borrowing from the Byzantine/Medieval Greek dromon had gone a long way indeed....

http://www.heimskringla.no/wiki/Saga_Inga_Har...%B0ra_hans

http://lind.no/nor/index.asp?lang=&emne=a...aldssonene

http://lind.no/nor/index.asp?lang=&emne=a...aldssonene