[gothic-l] Re: Gothic and Gotlandic Sailing

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "Bertil Haggman" <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> For some the issue of sailing of Goths, Eruls and Vandals
> is very sensitive. Very early migration would have involved
> sailing ships. The pre-viking raids of the Goths and the
> Eruli on the Black Sea involved skilful sailing also into
> the eastern Mediterranean. The Vandals operated war fleets
> of sailing ships in the western Mediterranean long before the
> Vikings.


How do you know they operated sailing ships? Surely their warships
were typical mediteranean galleys and typical mediterranean freight
ships (with sails) as troop transporters.




>
> The Vandals were notable as a seagoing nation. Many have
> expressed surprise that a nation with a long history
> of overland migration developed such an aptitude with
> sails.



Given that an imperial edict had to be issued to prevent local
Spanish shipwrights from showing the Vandals how to built ships,
their knowledge of seafaring was certainly zero when they reached the
Mediteranean.

Note, neither Vandals nor Goths or Eruli ever operated Viking ships.
The seafaring skills of the Goths and Eruli on the Black Sea have
been described as a 'shambles' initially. But of course, I know that
this argument (like all the rest) is lost on you and as genuine pre-
Vikings ship-building must have been in their genes;-)

Dirk


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck
Monitoring Service trial
http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/wWMplB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/