''Íslendingur'' (, "Icelander") is a

replica A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...

of the

Gokstad The Gokstad Mound (Norwegian: Gokstadhaugen) is a large burial mound at Gokstad Farm in Sandefjord (formerly Sandar municipality) in Vestfold County, Norway. It is also known as the King's Mound (''Kongshaugen'') and is where the 9th century Go ...

viking ship and was sailed across the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in 2000. It is on display at the

Viking World museum Viking World ( is, Víkingaheimar ) is a museum in Njarðvík, Reykjanesbær, Iceland. The museum opened on 8 May 2009,Njarðvík Njarðvík () is a town in southwestern Iceland, on the peninsula of Reykjanes. As of 2009, its population was 4,400. History In 1995 it merged with the town of Keflavík and the village of Hafnir to form the new municipality of Reykjanesbær. T ...

, Reykjanesbær, Iceland. The ship was built in 1996 by Gunnar Marel Eggertsson, a

shipwright Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

from the

Westman Islands Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyja ...

who skippered the Norwegian Gokstad ship copy ''

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...

'' on her voyage to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in 1991.Voyage of the ''Islendingur''
Press Release, Government of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, 27 April 2000. ''Íslendingur'' measures 22.5 metres in length, 5.3 metres in breadth, has a draught of 1.7 metres and measuress 80 gross tons. She was built of 18 tonnes of Norwegian and Swedish oak and required 5,000 nails. Her sail was made in Denmark. Her crew complement is 9; the Gokstad ship carried 70. Her average speed is 7

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

s, top speed 18 knots.Víkingaskipið Íslendingur
NAT Norðurferðir Skipið
Víkingaheimar (

Viking World museum Viking World ( is, Víkingaheimar ) is a museum in Njarðvík, Reykjanesbær, Iceland. The museum opened on 8 May 2009,p. 23
The ship was initially used to teach Icelandic children about the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

. In 1998, Marel decided to sail her across the Atlantic as part of the millennial celebration in 2000 of his ancestor Leif Eriksson's voyage to

Vinland Vinland, Vineland, or Winland ( non, Vínland ᚠᛁᚾᛚᛅᚾᛏ) was an area of coastal North America explored by Vikings. Leif Erikson landed there around 1000 AD, nearly five centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and John ...

. He founded Íslending hf. to raise money for the venture. The ship set sail from Reykjavík on

Icelandic National Day Icelandic National Day ( is, Þjóðhátíðardagurinn, the day of the nation's celebration) is an annual holiday in Iceland which commemorates the foundation of The Republic of Iceland on 17 June 1944. This date also marks the end of Iceland's c ...

, 17 June, with Marel skippering and a crew of eight including one woman, Ellen Ingvadottir, who kept the weblog of the voyage. Her first port of call was

Búðardalur Búðardalur () is a village situated on the Hvammsfjörður in the north-west of Iceland. The village also lies at the north-eastern end of the Snæfellsnes peninsula and is part of the municipality of Dalabyggð. Búðardalur had about 270 inh ...

in Hvammsfjörður, where she took part in celebrations at

Eiríksstaðir Eiríksstaðir () is the former homestead of Eiríkr Þorvaldsson, known as Erik the Red, in Haukadalur in the Dalasýsla region of Iceland. It was the birthplace of his son Leif Eiríksson, the first known European discoverer of the Americas. A s ...

, where

Erik the Red Erik Thorvaldsson (), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair a ...

lived and his son Leif was born. Despite a 10-hour ordeal with bad weather off

Cape Farewell Cape Farewell ( kl, Nunap Isua; da, Kap Farvel) is a headland on the southern shore of Egger Island, Nunap Isua Archipelago, Greenland. As the southernmost point of the country, it is one of the important landmarks of Greenland. Geography Loc ...

, she arrived on 15 July at Brattahlíð in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

for the celebration of the viking settlement attended by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. On 28 July she arrived at

L'Anse aux Meadows L'Anse aux Meadows ( lit. Meadows Cove) is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site is located on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Ca ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, the single viking settlement to have been discovered on the mainland

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

continentThe claim of a viking settlement at

Point Rosee Point Rosee (French: ''Pointe Rosée''), previously known as Stormy Point, is a headland near Codroy at the southwest end of the island of Newfoundland, on the Atlantic coast of Canada. In 2014, archaeologist Sarah Parcak, using near-infrared s ...

has been rejected after subsequent investigation: Sarah Parcak and Gregory Mumford
"Point Rosee, Codroy Valley, NL (ClBu-07) 2016 Test Excavations under Archaeological Investigation Permit #16.26"
Gerald Penny Associates, 8 November 2017: " he 2015 and 2016 excavationsfound no evidence whatsoever for either a Norse presence or human activity at Point Rosee prior to the historic period. ... None of the team members, including the Norse specialists, deemed this area as having any traces of human activity." and thought to be the site of the Vinland settlement, where she participated in the celebrations with other replica viking ships. From there the ship sailed, via several ports of call in Newfoundland, to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where she arrived on 5 October, approximately 3 months after the start of the voyage. ''Íslendingur'' was laid up in

Westbrook, Connecticut Westbrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 6,769 at the 2020 census. The town center is classified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP). Geography Westbrook lies in the shoreli ...

. A deal to use her in advertising fell through because of the 9/11 attacks. In 2002 she was purchased by an Icelandic consortium led by the region of

Southern Peninsula Southern Peninsula ( is, Suðurnes ) is an administrative unit and part of Reykjanesskagi (pronounced ), or Reykjanes Peninsula, a region in southwest Iceland. It was named after Reykjanes, the southwestern tip of Reykjanesskagi. The region ha ...

. She was displayed in the open air on the coast in Reykjanesbær until she could be moved into the newly constructed

Viking World museum Viking World ( is, Víkingaheimar ) is a museum in Njarðvík, Reykjanesbær, Iceland. The museum opened on 8 May 2009,p. 29
She is suspended one and a half metres above the ground so that visitors can walk underneath her hull and observe the workmanship.

References

Sources

"Vikings and Picts: Leif Ericsson Anniversary Celebrations" (2000) * Sonya Procenko

Newfoundland Flotilla 2000, June 16, 2000.

of

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

interview with Gunnar Eggertsson at L'Anse aux Meadows, aired October 9, 2000

External links

*
Viking Ships
Hurstwic.org, with pictures of ''Íslendingur'' as illustrations {{DEFAULTSORT:Islendingur 1996 ships Museum ships in Iceland Viking ship replicas Ships built in Iceland