As to the Scandinavians, they did not confine their activities to fighting. Their fleets voyaged as far away as the Levant in the south and Iceland in the north, and further still to Greenland. It is from the colony of Iceland that they are said to have sailed across to the New England States in North America. As to their sails at this period, there is a Scandinavian coin of the ninth century of our era[45] which shows that the usual lines of a Viking ship were continued, with high poop and bow. The mast is shown supported by three backstays and one forestay, whilst pavisses of shields hang round as in the Gogstad ship. The sail is particularly interesting, as it much resembles that of the Mediterranean boats found on the Althiburus mosaics, the surface giving the appearance of net-work. This is no doubt the joining of the stripes of coloured material plus the rows of reef-points. In addition to the different classes of ships enunciated in the previous chapter, there were also during Anglo-Saxon times vessels called “ceols.” These came from Saxony, and it is not without interest to remark that the same word “keel” is still given to those somewhat beamy ships, carrying one huge Viking-like square sail, that to-day are seen navigating the canal that connects South Yorkshire with the same river Humber up which the Saxons sailed. We come now to the year 1066, when William setting forth from St. Valery-sur-Somme on the evening of September 27, with a fair wind, disembarked before midday on the following morning. Before starting there was trouble with the reluctant crews, and even when lying at anchor off St. Valery several ships foundered. Happily details of William’s ships are preserved to us by the Bayeux tapestry, which is supposed to have been worked by his consort, Queen Matilda. From certain variations between this interesting, painstaking work and contemporary records we know that it is not absolutely correct. Nor, indeed, should we have expected otherwise from the work of imaginative ladies unlearned in maritime matters. But having made due allowance for that, the Bayeux tapestry taken in conjunction with the other evidence is most valuable. The photographs which are here reproduced have been taken from the copy of this tapestry in the South Kensington Museum. [Illustration: FIG. 32. HAROLD’S SHIPS. _From the Bayeux Tapestry._]