Large Cargo Ships in Danish Waters 1000-1250: evidence of specialised merchant seafaring prior to the Hanseatic period Ships and Boats of the North series no. 7 ANTON ENGLERT 378 pp., numerous illustrations, maps, tables Viking Ship Museum Roskilde, via O

Abstract

A new volume in the Ships and Boats series has been published, to high standards as usual. This is a revised edition of Anton Englert's doctoral thesis. The author starts by outlining the aims and limits of the study, which he restricts to Danish sources, both archaeological and written, with the aim of finding clues for a professional merchant class in Denmark before the well-organized Hanseatic merchants dominated trade. In addition to the written sources, ship finds are discussed. The wrecks from Eltang, Lynæs, Karschau and Haderslev are treated in detail, as case studies, while a total of 23 other ship finds receive more summary treatment. Much of the discussion is based on tables. The main conclusion is that ships built in Nordic clinker technique for professional merchants were the tools of the trade before Hanseatic cogs took over around 1250, and that their existence proves that there was such a group of people. The book is thorough, well written, and the author presents his case well. The main text is in English, with Danish and German summaries. Extra information is presented in four appendixes, on iron objects found near the Lynæs 2 wreck, on linden bast cordage from Karschau, caulking materials from Lynæs 1, Karschau and Haderslev; and, on the dendrochronological study of cargo ships from Danish waters. There is an extensive list of literature. In the introduction, the geographical and chronological borders of the work are presented: Danish waters and the period 1000–1250. For a doctoral thesis, it is understandable that the subject has to be kept within reasonable limits, but the present reviewer feels that a few pages should have been devoted to what went on outside Danish waters, and before the year 1000. The group of ship timbers from Bergen in Norway known as ‘The Big Ship’ is mentioned as the largest vessel found so far. The custom rolls from ports in eastern England contain lots of information on the kind of trade the ‘Big Ship’ could have been involved in—they might have been mentioned. In the Baltic, trade before 1000 is not discussed at all. The more than 80,000 Arab coins found on the island of Gotland must be evidence of well-organized long-distance trade. Maybe a different kind of trade, but why not mention the silver hoards as proof of earlier trade? Gotland continued to be rich also later in the Middle Ages. However, this is a minor criticism of a thoroughly scholarly text on an interesting topic.