1000 years ago five ships were filled with stones and sunk to block the navigable channel leading to the city of Roskilde in Denmark in a successful defence against a Norwegian attack, and there they lay in the mud until 1957 when their remains were rediscovered. Subsequently they were raised, conserved and are now displayed with a large number of artefacts and interpretation displays in an excellent museum on the shore of Roskilde Fjord. But for me it is not these rather fragmentary remains that are the attraction, it is the marvellous job of building reproductions of the ships that is the real interest. For they are not just dead displays in a building, nor are they just left in the rain to rot as sometimes seems to happen here in England. They were built using exactly the methods, materials and tools that were used in the originals, and they are sailed and rowed in the Fjord. While I was there two parties of children returned to the haven, one lot rowing and the other under sail; they had been out with camping gear in their open boats just like we in the DCA do.

The big project just now is the building of the reproduction of the Long Ship, the largest of those used as block ships, and in fact the most fragmentary. Fortunately, however, the whole of the keelson and enough planking at the stern survived to allow both the structure and shape of the ship to be recovered. Not only is this an accurate reproduction of the ship as she sailed a thousand years ago, but the actual materials, and the methods of preparing these materials, are being used. These involve splitting whole oak tree trunks to make planks of great length and lightness as well as strength, having no cross-grain as they are not sawn. The ship is nearing completion and the superb shape of this 95 ft long x 12.5 ft beam x 3 ft draught (29m x 3.8m x lm) can be seen. She is completely undecked, rows 60 oars, has a crew of 60 - 100 and is estimated to be capable of 5 knots under oars and perhaps up to 20 knots under sail. So she fulfils most of the characteristics of a cruising dinghy except perhaps size. But what a cruising dinghy!