However, the Brigg boat is very similar to the Valdermoor and may
serve the purposes of illustration equally well. This craft was
found by workmen excavating for a new gasometer upon the banks of the
river Ancholme, in North Lincolnshire. It had been resting apparently
on the clay bottom of the sloping beach of an old lagoon. It was
obviously made out of the trunk of a tree, and perfectly straight,
its dimensions being: 48 feet 6 inches long, about 6 feet wide, 2
feet 9 inches deep. The stern represents the butt end of a tree with
diameter of 5 feet 3 inches. The cubic contents of the boat would
be about 700 cubic feet. The prow is rounded off as if intended for
a ram, and a cavity in the head of the prow appears to have been
intended for a bowsprit, whereby the forestay could be made fast.
In fact, a piece of crooked oak suitable for this purpose was found
adjacent to the prow. Whilst the bottom of this dug-out is flat, the
sides are perpendicular and there is a kind of overhanging counter at
the stern.
The boat was formerly in the possession of Mr. V. Cary-Elwes,
F.S.A.,[27] to whom I have to express my thanks for his courtesy
in supplying me with some information regarding the boat here
reproduced. The ship was offered by this gentleman to the British
Museum, but was declined as being too big. It therefore remains in
a small provincial town difficult of access and for the most part
unknown. It would be impossible to remove the craft now, without
risk of total destruction, but is it not a little humiliating that
continental and provincial museums should see fit to harbour similar
relics as this Brigg boat, while our great national store-house
refuses a gift of such importance? I make no apology to the reader
for giving in detail the result of this Brigg discovery, for it
is one of the finest if not the most instructive of any craft of
this kind that has come to light in Northern Europe. An interesting
account has been written by the Rev. D. Cary-Elwes, son of the
above, and to this I am indebted for some of the following
facts.[28]
[Illustration: FIG. 25. THE VIKING BOAT DUG UP AT BRIGG.
LINCOLNSHIRE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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