Viking long-ships were lean, speedy, lightweight ships that could easily cut through the most vicious waves that the ocean could throw at them. At the time, no other civilization had been able to achieve such an amazing naval feat, so this gave the Vikings a great advantage over medieval combat, political affairs, and even the trading industry. Since the ships were so fast, the ships were great for transportation of soldiers, or merchandise. “The Viking longboat was the key to the Vikings success in traveling.” (Legends and Chronicles, Paragraph 14). This made the long-ship a very valuable and important asset to the Vikings. Soon, it had become a part of Viking culture to bury some of the wealthiest Vikings inside their long-ship. Back then, one of the most recognizable features of a long-boat was the imposing prow. The Vikings would often embellish the prows of their long-ships with ornate snake or dragon heads. This …show more content…
They used their training and surroundings to lay a course to their destination, whether it was a trading post, a bountiful village waiting to be plundered, or a political matter. “The Vikings were experts in judging speed and wind direction, and in knowing when to expect high and low tides,” (Military Wikia, Navigation). If the skies were cloudy and they could not see the sun, they used an astrolabe to calculate the Sun’s summit. An astrolabe looks a bit like a very old stopwatch. If the Vikings weren’t traveling far from their homeland, cruising along the shore was always an easy option of navigation. “When venturing beyond the horizon, natural phenomena helped to indicate the way,” (Richard Hall, Exploring the World of the Vikings, 54). If only water lay in all directions, the Vikings could tell where they were by using natural ocean life such as whales or seabirds to signify how far they were from land. Other natural phenomenas included cloud and wave