What Made the Viking Longship So Terrifyingly Effective

The Vikings had dreams of exploration and conquest, and the longship was ideal for that purpose. Soon, they were able to venture as far as the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

[coldshot]

My viking longship only cost some bronze nails and fine wood

[Bulskee]

When I was 7/8 years old I used to be obsessed with Vikings and longships. I’m 33 now and I forgot all about that until I saw the thumbnail. Got me reminiscing of good times 🙂

[funny-video-YouTube-channel]

The flat shape is perfect for beach invasions.
It's basically a transport ship for invading coastal areas without any port.

[garyjohnson]

What made the "boat" so terrifyingly effective, was the Vikings inside it!

[cjboffoli]

When I visited the Viking Ships Museum in Oslo I was astonished to see that some of these ships were made of rift sawn (quarter sawn) wood. You could actually see the ray and fleck patterns in the preserved wood. It's impressive that 1, 000 years ago the Vikings were so technically advanced that they figured out how to get stronger, more durable wood this way, something we still do today.

[ronl]

These guys could've rode on a rubber duck and made it a terrifying sight to behold.

[northerniltree]

I've always wanted to visit Norway, but I can't fijord it.

[catsndogs]

I find it ironic that those three nations are very chill today

[FGC]

Honestly the fact that there's a near perfectly preserved authentic viking longship out there is amazing. Who knows how many raids and voyages that ship has been on long ago.

[Ericbz]

What is it with people missing the most important thing about the longships? Their shaped so that they can sail backwards if needed.
By the time a viking raid on a settlement was done or a retreat was needed, they'd push the ships out back to sea and drop the sail.
Angle it right, plus use the oars to row, it doesn't matter if the ship is backwards - it moves just fine in reverse, providing a fast return to sea.

[bobbiechinn]

They're amazing! Some of my favorite historical fun are the Vikings.

[coleparker]

The thing about the Oseberg ship is, that it was not really an ocean going ship. It was more of fjord and funeral barge. In fact, when they built a replica of the ship, they found that the gunwales were too low in the water. Now the Gokstad ship was what the Typical Viking Ship was like. It higher gunwales and replicas of it show that it was a fine sailer.

[Eyes-of-Horus]

What made the Viking's long ships so terrifying? They were carrying Vikings. What else?

[FickYT]

I love that viking ship in Oslo....saw that back in 2015 or so when I visited the city for a short vacation....was pretty impressive looking...those folks were a force to be reckoned with

[Bluebird_Bum]

I wasn't ready for this amount of fellow Valheim players in this comment section.

[lmSpeciaI]

I feel like Valheim and the youtube algorithm are working together

[FRISHR]

Vikings were basically legal pirates in Scandinavia.

[arniingi]

They did not answer the real question why " the Viking Longship So Terrifyingly Effective " !
The main reason why they where so effective is because they were fast, and they were fast because
when the ship gained the right speed, air bubbles started to travel under the ship along with the grooves
between the wooden boards, more speed, more bubbles, which minimised the friction with the sea,
and of course the shape of the hull.
This is the main reason what gave Viking longship advantage over other ships of that era.

[MauroMarzorati]

So basically a 4-minute video of a 30-sec answer "the shallow draft"

[Noum]

Youtube is recommending this. Assassin's Creed Valhalla must be not far away