Displayed in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo are three Viking burial ships.  One of them is the Oseberg Burial Vessel excavated near Oslo.  Built around the beginning of 800 A.D. the ship was buried on a bed of blue clay and covered with a turf mound.  The Vikings knew some about preservation.  Like the still standing first Christian churches built at the same time, the wood had not deteriorated over the past 1200 years.  The trees for building the churches as well as the boats were selected years before the construction began.  They were stripped of their bark and the natural sap penetrated the trees to the core.  After 5-7 years these trees were then used for the construction project.  The wood was further treated with tar which also gave it a really dark looking appearance.

With a freeboard of only some 18 inches this ship probably was used only as a pleasure boat in coastal waters.  the mast footing was also not as solidly built as we see it in other vessels of this kind.  The crew of at least 30 men rowed the boat when sailing was not an option.  The Viking travelled throughout the known world of their days from the Black Sea to Canada.  An amazing distance across sometimes rough seas.