[gothic-l] Gothic and Gotlandic Sailing

[Tore Gannholm]

>Paul,
>
>Thank you for recommending John Haywood's book.
>It is a central one on the subject and very good.
>Of course there would be objections from people
>who think history is only about archaelogical
>evidence, as they put it. But there is much more
>to history than that.
>
>Gothically
>
>Bertil
>

It is naive to think that sails were not used in the Baltic.
What we can discus is to which extent sails were used. When rowing 
was faster they used rowing. But if there was good wind they of 
course used some kind of sail.

I have made relevant parts of the book  "Dark Age Naval Power" 
available on http://w1.855.telia.com/~u85528681/Gothic_l/

About sails one can read the following:
"Most Of the ships in this fleet were probably sailing ships as, 
Tacitus tells us, the Germans used cloaks to make improvised sails to 
improve the performance, and appearance, of some of their captured 
Roman vessels.41 This is the earliest evidence which exists for the 
use of the sail among the Germans and is discussed in greater detail 
below "

"The Roman fleet had the advantage of the current but the Germans had 
the wind behind them. The last point is another indicator of the 
importance of sailing ships in the German fleet. "

"It is impossible to say exactly when the Germans first learned of 
the sail but it was certainly in widespread use among their Celtic 
neighbours by c. 100 BC.  Roman naval expeditions in 12 BC, AD 5 and 
AD 12 had explored the coasts of Germany and Denmark so it is 
impossible that the Germans of the North Sea coast were still 
ignorant of the sail in the first century AD.  It is thought that the 
common Germanic word segel is derived from the Celtic word seklo ). 
As the word must have entered the Germanic vocabulary long before the 
first century AD, this would seem to indicate that the Germans had 
learned of the sail from their Celtic neighbours well before their 
first contacts with the Romans. "

"The type and sophistication of a seafaring people's shipbuilding 
traditions seems to be completely irrelevant to the question of the 
adoption of the sail: almost anything that can float, from a log raft 
to a reed boat or a dug-out canoe, can be, and has been, successfully 
saildriven."

"The Franks and Saxons were also being joined by raiders from
Scandinavia, for in c. 287 Maximian defeated a force of Heruls, then
settled in Denmark, who had attacked the lower Rhine along with the
Chaibones, probably the Saxon tribe of the Aviones."

"He suggests that the structure was detachable and was set up only in 
rough seas. This hypothesis has received scant attention from 
maritime archaeologists, which is surprising because, if Åkerlund is 
right, the limitations of the weak keel structure, as regards the 
potential seaworthiness of Nydam-type ships and their ability to 
carry mast and sail, have been exaggerated. Indeed, in the light of 
the ship-carving from KarIby,92 it now appears certain that 
Nydam-type ships did at some point in their development become 
sailing ships. Unfortunately, the lack of a dating context for the 
carving means that at present the time at which that occurred cannot 
be determined. "

Tore
-- 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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