By the eleventh century the Norsemen had taken to painting their vessels externally, besides making them larger and giving them decks. The stempost and sternpost were more ornately decorated, gilded copper being the material used for this purpose. Svend Forkbeard’s own ship, the _Great Dragon_, is said to have been in the form of this legendary beast, but what the historian most likely meant is that the stern decoration or the design on the sail may have shown a fantastic representation of the fearsome animal; the Vikings were too good seamen to have built the ship in any form likely to be inferior to the shape they had learned to appreciate so highly. The _Long Serpent_, which appeared in that century, is said to have been 117 feet in length, and decked, and to have carried six hundred men. This is the first war vessel in the Western seas known to have been decked throughout,[7] and in which cabin accommodation was provided for the principal fighting men. Beneath the deck the hull was divided into five cabins or compartments; the foremost was the _lokit_, in which, in a royal vessel, the king’s standard bearers were quartered; next, the _sax_ or storeroom; then the _kraproom_, where sails and tackle were kept; the _foreroom_, containing the arms chest, and forming the living room of the warriors; and astern of all was the _lofting_, or great cabin, devoted to the commander. For the comfort of the rank and file of the fighting men at night in port an awning was spread, supported by a ridge pole on pillars. At other times they would seem to have had to put up with sleeping on deck and making the best of it; they would certainly be no worse off than in the old days of the open ships, and being somewhat higher above the water would be less exposed to the spray. At the end of the twelfth century King Sverre Sigurdsson had some merchant ships cut across amidships and lengthened, and then used them as war ships. [Illustration: FLEET ATTACKING A FORTIFIED TOWN. _MS. Harl. 326._]