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The Leif Erikson Ship
was built in Korgen, Norway by local boat builders to replicate the type
of ship sailed and the route used by the Vikings in their settlement of
North America around 997 A.D. The 42 foot vessel was completed in April
of 1926.
Captain Gerhard Folgaro
and his crew of three left Bergen, Norway for North America on May 23rd
of that same year.
On the voyage to Duluth, the ship stopped at the
Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and landed at St.
Johns, Newfoundland on July 20, 1926. While crossing the Atlantic, the
crew encountered heavy seas of hurricane proportions and became
ice-locked near Greenland.
After landing in Newfoundland the crew and ship set sail for Boston,
Massachusetts and arrived in August of 1926. They had traveled a
distance of 6,700 miles, the greatest distance for a ship of its size in
modern history, logging 10,000 miles, arriving in Duluth, Minnesota on
June 23, 1927
The goal was accomplished, reenacting Leif Erikson's route taken in
997 A.D., proving that the
Vikings traveled the
Atlantic to North America. |
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Leif Erikson Restoration Project,
P.O. Box 411, Duluth Minnesota, 55801
Click here to send
Viking Ship
Email
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