Draken Harald Hårfagre crossed the North Atlantic Ocean!

Today, the 1st of June 2016, around 10.00 Draken is expected to sail into the port of St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Starting in her home port of Haugesund, Norway the 26th of April landing Shetland, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland on her way she has now officially crossed the North Atlantic Ocean.

The route is the old seaways the Vikings sailed a 1000 years ago, when the Norse people settled the arctic Islands. Along the way there has been many trials that has challenged the ship and her crew and this last leg has been an especially hard one, with icebergs, fog and unpredictable winds. The crew has been cold wet and hard working to get the 35 meter long open wooden ship to conquer the harsh waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

-Im proud of the crew and the achievements we have made along the way. It has not been easy, we have faced a lot of problems along this voyage but the crew have been in good spirit and worked hard all the way, says Capt. Björn Ahlander.

-It all started with a daydream, to build a large, seaworthy Viking ship, just like the ones spoken of in the Norse Sagas. Draken Harald Hårfagre is now a true story, having sailed the challenging voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a dream coming true, says Sigurd Aase, curator and owner of the Draken Harald Hårfagre project.

The project started in 2010 and have built the reconstruction of a Viking ship,  with her length of 35 meters (114 ft) and width of 8 meter (26.2 ft) and 24 meter (78.7 ft) mast she is the world’s largest Viking Ship and an interpretation of the large ships written about in the Norse sagas.  The Gokstad ship, the most preserved Viking ship ever found has served to be the source knowledge of actual built vessel and also the traditional boat building tradition in Norway with the Nordlandsbåt. With this 3 ingredients, the Sagas, archeology and boatbuilding traditions combined Draken was created.

Pictures from the sail between Greenland and Newfoundland, in the wake of Leif Eriksson.