[gothic-l] Re: Gothic and Gotlandic Sailing

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at y..., Tore Gannholm <tore.gannholm at s...> wrote:
> >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."



That is a mistake in the book. These are the western Heruls who lived
somewhere at the Rhine, not in Denmark.

cheers,
Dirk




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