CURRENT WORK:

[A note on tools- Werner's Hjortspring boat was built mainly using 10centimetre chisels, Tim Severin's Sinbad boat had the Indian workers preferring to use their soft iron chisels and in my "authentic" version of the Roos Carr I think I will mainly use bronze chisels. The adze and the axe have their place but the chisel is the more intimate tool.]

Roos Carr boat, from the Late Bronze Age or the Early Iron Age

NEW THOUGHTS 10TH AUGUST 2010: Having to clarify my ideas as the project develops I looked at the Roos Carr model again and wondered if the four crew shown were actually the number on the original. I had been working on the supposition that the original was of the size of the Hjortspring Boat and would have twenty plus crew which are the sort of numbers posited for the Ferrby and Dover Bronze Age Boats. However if four was the size of the original crew then the boat was in the 20 foot range which becomes achievable.  In fact the current "third-scale" project can be easily rejigged and justified by the evidence to be for a "full-size" version. A four person boat is handy on small waterways such as we have in Britain but can also be very seaworthy as are the native American canoes mentioned above..

I am carving the figurehead and tail of a reconstruction of a useable Bronze Age Boat. The only example of this type is a model or toy found near Hull in England, The Roos Carr boat.

http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/3/3melroo.htm

Thanks to Hull Museums and Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull, for invaluable information.

I am using green English Oak and I hope these pictures give the idea as to how far I have got. The boat will, I hope, be about 5 metres long made from oak planks sewn together with, possibly a hollowed out log for the bottom of the hull. Of course circumstances may force me to use plywood at first in order to get a boat on the water. The hull is inspired by the work of the Applegate boatworks efforts at replicating North-West Indian canoes.

http://www.applegateboatworks.com/coastal.html

The Guild of the Hjortspring Boat built a full-size replica but before that a group of enthusiasts led by Werner Bodensteiner decided to build a half-size replica for their own amusement (always the best motive) and to test out the handling characteristics which one can do with a scaled down version. Edwin Gifford and his wife have done this successfully with a number of boats: Otto, a Saxon cargo ship; Sae Wyfling,the Sutton Hoo Ship; most recently the Ferriby 1 Bronze Age boat.

Although half-size can be a tenth of the cost of a full-size replica it must be remembered (Werner was surprised by this, a forgiveable mistake in such a great undertaking), that half-size means only a quarter of the crew number can be carried, thus about 24 for the original Hjortspring meant about 5 for the model.

One could go to a third-size for a reconstruction and get some feel for the original boat but the crew would be reduced to a ninth meaning only 2 to 3 people to man our mini warship. However, thirded models are in the reach of the amateur researcher so are a tempting project....

"Bodensteiner is telling of the building of a replica of the Hjortspring-boat in a pleasant way. With a couple of enthusiastic people during three years a 1:2 scale boat was built."

A Bronze Age Kayak

The first grave's "boat" was represented by an elongated oval and possible organic material which may have been the skin hull. When we decided to try and reconstruct a version that would float we had to make something without basketwork or strong wooden gunwales to give it shape. The narrowness of the hull oval meant that a normal coracle build wouldn't do.

We built it by the simplest possible method of hoops of willow for ribs and stringers of willow and hazel gathered at each end. As well as lashing each crossing point of hoop and stringer we realised that a fully covering skin would be necessary to hold everything together as well as making it seaworthy. Lacking animal skin we used calico waterproofed with black roof paint. A longitudinal slice through the boat at the level of that in the grave would give nearly the same oval shape.

We had reinvented the kayak! And why not? It is a simple elegant solution to the challenge of hunting boat construction. Whether from an ages old Mesolithic tradition or reinvented to deal with the conditions of the Firth of Forth Bronze Age people could have been kayakers.Whether or no, our boat floated and moved well with a light crew member aboard.

Exposed to the wind and rain it decayed as most of the boats of the past must have done. But, boats can be everlasting, this one from about 4,000 years ago floated again on a small stream in Oxfordshire and could do so anywhere you have sticks to lash together and a bit of covering.

See Chris Park's site Acorn Education for more pictures. These ones are used with his permission and are his copyright: www.acorneducation.com/homepage.html