The Working Boat: Fishing and Transport with Skuldelev 6

Archaeological interpretation: this is a reading of a surviving boat, not a record of any crew.

Skuldelev 6 was a small working boat, about eleven metres long and built around the year 1030 in the Sognefjord area of western Norway. It had room for a handful of people and could be rowed or sailed. The museum describes it as first used for fishing in deep Norwegian fjords. At some point it was rebuilt: a plank was added along each side, and the original rowlocks were taken out. The museum reads this as a change toward carrying goods along the coast. Later the boat ended up in Roskilde Fjord in Denmark, where it was placed in an underwater barrier.

This entry stands for ordinary work on the water, the fishing and short-haul carrying that fed and supplied households. It says nothing about who the fishers or carriers were.

What is recorded: the boat survives in part, its build place and approximate date are given by the museum, and the added planks and removed rowlocks are visible changes to the hull. The museum says the changes presumably meant more use for transport along the Norwegian coast, so that change of use is an inference from the alterations. The first purpose, fishing, is likewise inferred from the boat’s shape.

What is not recorded: when it was altered, who owned it, what it carried, how or when it reached Denmark, and the circumstances in which it was placed in the barrier. No text mentions it. Modern replicas show how a boat of this kind might have handled, and they are not evidence of how it was actually used.