Oseberg Viking longship on the move!

The Oseberg Ship, the best-preserved Viking longship in existence, has moved for the first time since it was installed in the Oslo’s Viking Ship Museum 99 years ago. It took 10 hours to travel 100 meters (328 feet), and that’s not counting more than a decade of research, funding battles, engineering innovations and construction that made it possible.

The remains of a ship were first discovered in 1903 at the Lille Oseberg farm in Slagen, Vestfold, by farmer Oskar Rom. He reported his find to University of Oslo archaeologist Gabriel Gustafson who went to see for himself, and immediately recognized the elaborate zoomorphic decoration on the wooden ship as dating to the Viking Age. He returned to excavate the site next spring, and uncovered hundreds of spectacular grave goods — a four-wheeled wagon, three intricately carved sleighs, tools, kitchen utensils, tents, textiles, carved animal heads — and the skeletal remains of two women. Researchers found that was built in 820, used at sea for 14 years, and then was retired for use as a burial ship in 834.

At the time, Norway had no heritage law, so the Oseberg Ship and all its contents belonged to the landowner. Thankfully, a private donor bought the whole kit and kaboodle and donated it to the University of Oslo. Other wealthy donors contributed thousands of kroner to preserve and restore the ship, as did the city of Kristiania. In a pioneering effort of preservation, the wood was slowly dried and the ship reconstructed with as much as the original wood as possible. It took 21 years, but it was a masterful feat of restoration, and still today 90% of the reconstructed ship is made of the original wood.

In 1926, the Oseberg Ship was moved from the University of Oslo to the newly built Viking Ship Museum. The museum was designed to accommodate 40,000 visitors per year, but less than 90 years later, it was hosting more than half a million visitors per year, and all their moisture and heat and footfall vibrations were actively damaging the fragile dried wood of the ship. A 2012 study found that all of the ships and wagon and sleighs in the museum needed a new home with new bracings, new climate control technology, new anti-vibration supports in order to survive. 

Many debates, funding arguments and architectural proposals ensued, and nothing changed. Only when the Gokstad ship developed two large cracks in 2019 did the Norwegian government allocate funds for the new museum. More delays followed, but construction finally began on the new addition to the museum last year. To keep the ships and contents from being damaged by the vibrations of construction right next door, in 2022 massive custom steel rigs were constructed by a company that specializes in equipment for the offshore industry in the North Sea. The trusses kept the ships stable during the construction work, and were designed to be used as moving rigs when the new facility was completed.

Even with a maximum speed of 25 centimeters per minute, the move was extremely exciting to follow. There was only millimeter clearance to the walls when the Oseberg Ship left the hall where it has stood for the last 99 years, and for several hours the ship hovered several meters above the floor before it was slowly lowered down.

“This is a historic day. It is a ship that has been part of so much and has an afterlife that gives me chills to think about. Everyone involved has done an incredible job, and this has been a fantastic day in my life,” says Museum Director Aud V. Tønnessen.

The project involving the move and securing of the ship is highly complex, and it has been essential for professionals from diverse industries to collaborate over an extended period.

Museum conservators and archaeologists have worked together with engineers from the North Sea, vibration specialists, crane operators, and numerous others on a project that is unprecedented.

Up next will be the Gokstad Ship. Preparations begin next week for the move later on this fall. The Tune Ship will be the last of three Viking ships in the museum moved. After that transfer is completed, the three Osberg sleighs, the most fragile objects in the collection, will be moved.

Here is an incredibly cool timelapse of the Oseberg Ship move.

* This article was originally published here