Evolution of The Ship Excursion - Part II
 By Don Dressel

This morning we arrived by train in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Oslo is one of the oldest Scandinavian capitol cities and one of the largest in Europe. There were many museums, parks, and public squares to see in this unique city. One of the places we saw as part of the leisure time we had in the city was the sculptures by Gustav Vigeland, a world famous sculpture park. The picture to the left show my wife standing in front of the monolith, a huge column of figures with is one of the center pieces of the park. There were many, many things to see and experience in Oslo, but our main theme of interest was ships, so if was off to the Viking museum the next day, as well as the Fram and Gjoa, the Kon-Tiki, and the Norwegian Nautical Museums. This was a lot to cover in one day, but we did manage to do so, as the above museums are all relatively close to each other. The first one was the Viking museums, with a docent-guided visit of the GODSTAD ship, c 890 and the OSEBERG ship, c 815 – 820 AD. This was the fifth day of the trip and we had already seen the VASA, so we now include all the above.

The Viking Museum was again dark, to help preserve the two Viking ships as well as a number of smaller vessels and many artifacts that were displayed so well in the museum. Many photographs were taken at the museum, a lot of them close-ups of the hull structure. In addition, a fine gift shop was again included at which I was able to obtain some very good plans of both the GODSTAD and OSEBERG ships. In addition, we were privileged to be able to go down into the lower storage area of the museum and see a model of the Viking ship that the museum was putting together – this was not part of the normal public tour or display of the museum (see below). It was really interesting to see as well as have explained. We also saw one of the carvers who was working with the artifacts of the museum. After the Viking Museum, we went to the Fram and Gjoa museum (1890 and 1902 respectively) which displayed the actual ships and artifacts involving the careers of the Northwest Passage exploration pioneers Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and naval architect Colin Archer. You were able to walk and explore both ships. Right across the street was the Kon-Tiki Museum that had this craft on display with the full story of the sailing she had done in the Pacific Ocean. As an added item, the Norsk Sjofartsmuseum was right next door and had some fine examples of Viking, sailing and modern ship models and artifacts as well as a Nordland boat of 1901, which was designed for net fishing. The model boat collection on exhibit was quite extensive from the Hjortspring boat, built roughly 2,400 years ago, to Viking ships, naval vessels, 19th century sailing ships and steam ships.

The following day, Saturday, May 19th, was spent in leisure in Oslo, our last day in this city. In the morning Liz and I went to explore the castle at the harbor mouth of Oslo. It was a real castle with the Norwegian military still standing watch! (Note the two military guards marching behind me in the photo, as they did their rounds of the castle and grounds.) The interior of the castle was also very interesting to me, as you had to walk through a very narrow stair to get into the castle. Once in, the interior was something else, as evidenced by the picture of Liz in the dining hall. We then went to the military museum, which was right next door, and saw many artifacts from WWII tanks to medieval items of military interest. Also on display were a number of fine models of sailing ships, one of which several photo’s were taken as shown. Of course, there was a model of the NORSKE LOVE as shown below. The next stop was COPENHAGEN.



Saturday evening we took a trip to the ferry terminal for an overnight ferry trip from Oslo to COPENHAGEN. This again was another first for me, occupying outside cabins at the upper level of the ship (they supplied free Champaign) while enjoying a nice meal and sleeping all night in a comfortable bed, to arrive the next morning at COPENHAGEN. After having breakfast on board the ferry (more like a ship than a ferry), we offloaded and boarded a couch for an introduction to the city, enjoying a half-day guided city sightseeing tour. COPENHAGEN was the most beautiful city we visited, I thought, with its many canals and, of course, the Mermaid statue. This is also the seat of the oldest monarchy in the world. There are so many things to see that we know we could not see them all, but we would be going to the Viking Ship Museum the following day, which will be discussed in part III of this brief report in next months SMA newsletter.


Below is a bow of the model “Oriogsskipet Hannibal” of 1645 encased at the Norwegian Military Museum in Oslo, Norway


-- To be Continued