The boathall

Borgundknarren is a replica of a sailing vessel built in Western Norway in the C10th.

The knarr or the hafship was used for long distance trade by the Vikings and during the early middle ages, and was the principal vessel for exploration. It is a heavy and capacious boat, with high sides and shelter necessary for deep sea sailing. It was ships like this Leiv Eiriksson used in his voyage across the North Atlantic to America.

Borgundknarren has its name from the old trading center of Borgund, now a part of the museum’s outdoor area.

• Length: 15,9m
• Width: 4,8m
• Sail: 90 m2
• Dated: 1025 DC

In 1880 the big Gokstad ship was found in a small Viking Age grave on the farm Gokstad near Sandefjord in eastern Norway. Three small boats were found together with the ship. They all testify great skills in boatbuilding. The finding was dated to around 900 AD.

This boat is a copy of one of the small Gokstads boats, and is a gift to the museum from the Liaaen family, owners of the shipyard A.M. Liaaen in Ålesund.

In 1920 a ship and a boat surfaced from a marsh in Kvalsund. The find was interpreted as a bog sacrifice from the 7th century rather than a burial.

The vessels had been dismantled, partially broken apart and laid out in a kind of pattern. Only a couple of oars, the rudder and a rib were reasonably intact. Some of the fragments had been damaged by fire before being buried. Many of the oars and several long sections of the hull planks had been driven into the peat. Very few artefacts were discovered: an arrow, parts of a wooden bowl, a speaking trumpet and a bundle of nettles.
Pointed piles made from deciduous trees with the bark still on had also been driven vertically into the ground. This could indicate a ritual carried out according to a set pattern that excluded iron and metal. New research and science date the find to the early Viking Age, AD 780–800.

The excavations were carried out by archaeologist Haakon Shetelig, and the boats were reconstructed as drawings by marine engineer and shipbuilder Fredrik Johannessen. In the museum’s boat hall you can see full-scale interpreta-tions of the vessels built by Sigurd D. Bjørkedal.

The ship is 18 meters long and 3.2 meters at its broadest. It is built of oak with ribs of pine. The ship could lead seal, but it is not found any trace of mast mounting. The Kvalsund boat was 9.56m long, 1.50 wide and 0.495m deep.

In the marsh on Marsteinneset on Fjørtoft, Rasmus Fjørtoft found two boats in 1940. They were all set down in the marsh.

The big boat was filled with stone, and there was no equip-ment or other objects in or on the boats. Probably they have been a sacrificial gift. Excavation was done by Per Fett and the boats reconstructed by Bernhard Færøyvik.

The largest boat is about 10 meters long. The hull is of oak, with six tables latch on each side. Ribs are attached to the planks with wooden nails. It was not found mast mount or other signs that indicate use of sails. The smallest boat, almost a rowboat, was much smaller and very destroyed. Sealing material in the largest boat is C14-dated to ca. 860 AD. Per Fett meant that the boats were built some time be-tween 500 and 900 AD. Some critics have claimed the boats were about as old as the Kvalsund ship, from the period around the year 700.

A reconstruction of the boat is built by a local boat builder named Sigurd Bjørkedal.

TRERØRING. TYPE MØRING BOAT
This møring-type trerøring could be rowed by three men, each with a pair of oars, just like the old sunnmøretype trerøring, but it was easier to sail than its predecessor.

This boat has a gunwale length of around 7.7 metres, and probably built in the 1890s. The boat was rigged with lugsails, as was usual on boats of this kind.

ÅTTRING. TYPE: SUNNMØRE BOAT (SNIDBETNING)
The åttring was the biggest of the sunnmøre boats. It could be 12-15 metres long, with five pairs of oars and a crew of 7-8 men. The åttring was sea-going vessel, and in winter it was used for cod-fishing, while in summer it headed to the fishing grounds at Storegga.

The boat has a fore-and-aft rigged asymmetric square sail, which is around three times as wide at the bottom as it is at the top. This kind of sail was good for sailing close to the wind, and was designed for the long reaches north-west to the fishing banks. The åttring continued to be used as a fishing boat until the early 20th century.
This is the only remaining original sunnmøre åttring.

It comes from Rødset near Ålesund, and was built during the first half of the 19th century.

SEKSRING. TYPE: MØRING BOAT
The seksring and the åttring were considered sea-fishing boats. This one has a gunwale length of a little over 11 metres. The seksring was rowed by four men, each with a pair of oars. One man sat at the tiller. This seksring was gaff-rigged, and had a mainsail, topsail, jib and flying jib. The boat was built in Volda, but was used along the Romsdal coast. Many people from Romsdal bought
boats in Sunnmøre.

STORMØRING. TYPE: ÅTTRING
The largest møring boats had two masts. This boat has a gaff-rigged mainsail, jib and flying jib on the mainmast, and a mizzen sail on the mizzenmast.

This boat was built at Godøya in 1895. As the fishermen of Sunnmøre started acquiring fishing vessels with decks and motor boats, many møring-type boats were sold north to Trøndelag and Nordland. This boat was sold in 1898 to someone in Nord-Trøndelag, where it was used for fishing right up until the motor boats took over. In 1906 the boat and its crew were rescued during a dramatic storm that took the lives of 35 people. The boat was brought back to Sunnmøre by the museum in 1937.

The two types of boats were used for seine fishing. The larger of the two was called a notbåt, while the smaller one was a spelbåt. The seine could be stored in the wide aft section of the notbåt. The fishermen would row their boats around the school of herring, and use the spelbåt to haul in the seine.

These two boats at Sunnmøre Museum came from the Årset seine team in Austefjorden, Volda. They remained in use up until the 1930s. The larger boat was probably built at Årsetøya in the 1850s, while the smaller boat was built somewhat later.

It was common for neighbours to join forces in seine teams. Årset seine team owned the boats and the 60-fathom seine net. The team consisted of seven “full shares” and four “half shares”. When there was herring in the fjord, people with a full share had to provide two, whereas those with a half share had to provide one man. The catch was distributed according to the number of shares you owned.

A dory is a flat-bottomed, clinker-built lightweight boat used for longline fishing. Longline fishing using a dory was an American fishing technique. Apparently Joakim Andersen from Ålesund brought the idea home with him in 1876.

Dories used to be stacked on the decks of sailing ships. They were launched at the fishing grounds, where they used to set and tow longlines. Dories stopped being used during WWI, as the new motor boats were easier to maneuver and could be used to both set and low longlines. Many dories were later used as lifeboats. The dory at Sunnmøre Museum was built at Volda, and was used onboard the fishing vessel “Nornen”, which had three dories stacked on deck. Larger fishing vessels would have four to six of them.

A klegg is a one man motor fishing boat, common in the interwar period (1920s to 1940s). Many farmers used these boats in the cod fisheries and for fishing in the local area. This gave them a side income, as well as fish for their own consumption. The klegg is the precursor to the plastic “sjark”, which is still used for one-day fishing trips along the Norwegian coast.

The boat comes from Herøy. At 22 feet long, “Klegg” was one of the smallest boats to make the journey over the Shetland Islands during WWII (1940-1945). In August 1941 six men and one woman travelled across the North Sea so that they could take part in the fight against the Nazi German occupation of Norway.