Crossing the Atlantic in a Viking Ship
The question of whether Viking ships could truly cross the Atlantic Ocean was debated for centuries. The Norse sagas described voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and a place called Vinland, but many historians doubted that open, shallow-draft vessels could survive the North Atlantic. That skepticism was put to rest in 1893.
The 1893 Voyage of the Viking
In 1893, an exact replica of the Gokstad ship was built at the Rodsverven shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway, by shipyard owner Christen Christensen and Ole Wegger, director of Framnaes Mekaniske Vaerksted. The replica, named Viking, matched the original’s dimensions: 78 feet (23.8 m) long with a 17-foot (5.2 m) beam. Construction cost $16,000 in 1893 dollars.
On May 1, 1893, Captain Magnus Andersen and a crew of twelve, consisting of eight sailors, two mates, and one steward, departed Bergen, Norway. Their destination was Chicago, where the World’s Columbian Exposition was underway. The voyage was intended to prove that Viking ships were capable of Atlantic crossings, challenging the prevailing view that Columbus was the first European to reach the Americas.
The Viking crossed the Atlantic from Norway to Newfoundland in just 28 days, covering 4,800 miles. The ship achieved speeds of 10 knots. Andersen’s observations during the crossing provided invaluable insights into Viking ship handling. He noted the extraordinary flexibility of the hull, with the gunwale twisting up to 15 centimeters in heavy seas, and recognized this as a deliberate engineering feature rather than a structural weakness.
From Newfoundland, the Viking continued to New York, then traveled up the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal, and across the Great Lakes to Chicago. On July 12, 1893, the ship arrived to a crowd of thousands lining the waterfront. Mayor Carter Harrison boarded for the final segment to Jackson Park. The Viking reportedly stole the show from the Columbian ships at the Exposition, and hundreds of thousands of visitors viewed it during the fair.
As one account noted: “After the voyage of Viking there was no longer any doubt that the Vikings had vessels capable of reaching North America.”
The Norse Crossings
The 1893 voyage confirmed what the sagas had described. Norse expansion across the North Atlantic followed a stepping-stone pattern over roughly two centuries:
- Faroe Islands (c. 825-870): Grimur Kamban is recorded as the first Norse settler, though Irish monks had preceded the Norse there.
- Iceland (874): Ingolfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norse settler, establishing Reykjavik. Within decades, 10,000-20,000 people had settled the island, mainly from Western Norway, the Scottish Isles, and Ireland.
- Greenland (985-986): Erik the Red, exiled from Iceland for murder, sailed west and established two settlements along Greenland’s southwest coast. He returned with 14 of 25 ships that had departed Iceland.
- Vinland (c. 1000): Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, sailed to North America. He named three regions: Helluland (possibly Baffin Island), Markland (likely Labrador), and Vinland, where he wintered. The name Vinland is itself debated among scholars: it may mean “Wine Land” (from Old Norse vín, referring to the wild grapes the sagas describe) or “Meadow Land” (from vin, an older Norse word for pasture). The archaeological site at L’Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland is the only confirmed Norse settlement in North America, providing physical evidence of Viking presence around 1000 AD, nearly 500 years before Columbus.
Later Replica Voyages
The success of the 1893 Viking inspired subsequent replica voyages that further demonstrated Norse shipbuilding capability:
In 1991, the Gaia, an exact Gokstad replica built in Bjorkedal, Norway, was sailed by Ragnar Thorseth to North America as part of the “Vinland Revisited” program commemorating Norse voyages to the New World.
In 2000, the Islendingur (“Icelander”), a 22-meter Gokstad replica built using traditional techniques, sailed from Iceland to L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, for the 1,000th anniversary of the Viking landing in North America.
The Draken Harald Harfagre, launched in 2012, is the largest Viking ship sailing in modern times at 35 meters long. While not a Gokstad replica specifically, its rudder bears carvings patterned after the Gokstad ship, and it has undertaken its own transatlantic voyages.
The Viking Today
The 1893 replica had a difficult post-Exposition history. After the fair, it was placed in Lincoln Park, Chicago, under a fenced wooden shelter and neglected for decades. In 1920, the Federation of Norwegian Women’s Societies restored it. In 1994, it was relocated to Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois. Since 2012, the Friends of the Viking Ship organization has managed its care, offering docent tours from April through October and continuing stabilization efforts including rivet treatment.