The Viking Technology that Conquered the World
"The key to their successful raids was their ships, the speedy drakkar, technically superior to those of their rivals. In addition, they were
able to orient themselves on the sea without a compass by using solar stones that allowed them to know where the sun was on overcast days. Thanks to their technology and their zeal for conquest, they reached the coasts of almost all of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the northeast of North America and would also colonise Iceland and Greenland."
“Their warships were
light and designed to be able to navigate up to one metre deep, so they could venture into rivers, marshes or approach the beach itself. There were riverside carpenters under the command of an expert who personally chose the trees that had to be cut down. The saw was never used,”
"Overlapping the boards that made up the ship’s hull, as it was being built,
made it very flexible. They were also symmetrical ships, equally long in the bow as in the stern, which facilitated turning at great speed.
These were ships made to transport people and to go very fast, which under favourable conditions could reach close to 30km/h (16 knots)"
"Thus, although they did not have a compass, “on the high seas
they could know their location thanks to the Iceland spar, a type of calcite, which works as a polarizer, revealing a slight shine where the sun is.”
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