Purchase Viking to Victorian: Exploring the Use of Iron in Ship Building.
Hardcover, four-color on art gloss paper. $49.95

Purchase Viking to Victorian: Exploring the Use of Iron in Ship Building. $49.95

Reviews for Viking to Victorian

"...a unique, often startling odyssey through the stages of ship construction..."

Learn how old iron lasts in salt water.
British iron from Bloomfield Ironworks in HANSTEEN (below) is compared to iron from Consett Iron Works, and iron from Walker Iron Works used in the STAR OF INDIA
(shown on book cover; originally EUTERPE, built at Ramsey, Isle of Man, in 1863).

George J. Billy, Ph.D.
Chief Librarian, Bland Memorial Library
United States Merchant Marine Academy
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"This is a most extraordinary book and a very dedicated author."

"Engvig not only holds a graduate degree from the University of Oslo but was raised in a maritime environment and learned to sail at an early age. He suggested that the 25-30' open longboat ... was used 1,000 years ago by seamen 'westbound' to England, Scotland, ... and even Greenland - and he proved it by crossing the North Sea in such a boat with a small crew. They landed safely in Scotland after a sixty-six-hour voyage - wet, hungry, and tired, having used only the sun for navigation. The boat had been built 140 years earlier and had been neither restored nor equipped with replacement fastenings - the original rivets withstood the North Sea, which was rough at times."

Arne Espelund
Maritime Life and Traditions
Winter 2006, Issue 33, pgs 78-79.
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Purchase Viking to Victorian: Exploring the Use of Iron in Ship Building. $49.95

"In this engrossing work, Captain Engvig recounts his personal voyage of exploration, pursuing the use of wrought iron in shipbuilding from its introduction as a fastening in Viking ships through to the iron ships, ... (and) takes us with him in his discoveries..."

Peter Stanford
Yorktown Heights. New York
SEA HISTORY 117, WINTER 2006-07.
Read the full review as text or PDF.

"The magic carpet which transforms the reader from the closing years of the first millennium practically to the end of the second millennium is woven out of iron. ... a thousand-year stretch of the imagination ... "

David A. Walker
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
International Journal of Maritime History, December 2007, (Volume XIX, No. 2).
Read the full review as text or PDF.

FOREWARD

INTRODUCTION FROM VIKING SHIP TO IRON SHIP
NORSEMEN AND THE NORTHERN SEA
ENCOUNTER WITH IRON
THE IRON AGE IN SHIPBUILDING
TWO IRON VESSELS AND A LAPSTREAK LONGBOAT

THE VIKING WAY
GOING INTO THE OCEAN
THE BOAT'S ORIGIN
TESTING THEORIES
WESTWARD
PRELIMINARY TESTS
AROUND THE NORTH SEA
WOOD AND IRON
"THE NICE VIKING"
OCEAN NAVIGATION
   The Challenge
   Changing Winds
   We, the Navigators
   Better or Worse?
IRON RIVETS
THE OSEBERG QUEEN
CONCLUSION

THE VIKING HERITAGE
SHIPS, NAVIGATION AND MIGRATION
SHIPYARDS IN AMERICA
WESTWARD BOUND
THE LONGBOAT
THE PERFECT EXPEDITION VESSEL

THE VICTORIAN HERITAGE
IRON DOES NOT FLOAT!
THE IRON SHIP
IRON SHIP AFLOAT
BRITISH IRON
BEING PART OF HISTORY

HAMMER IRON AND QUALITY MARKS IN PRESERVED 19th CENTURY SHIPS

STAMP MARKS AND LABORATORY TESTS ON THE HULL OF S/S HANSTEEN
INTRODUCTION
CONSTRUCTION AND HISTORIC RUNDOWN
HISTORIC REVIEW
HULL REPAIRS 1980 - 1986
IRON RESEARCH DURING RESTORATION
BLOOMFIELD IRONWORKS
A.   THE STAMPS
      The BBH BLOOMFIELD Plate Stamps
      The BBH.BEST Stamp on the Angle Iron
B.   LABORATORY TESTS ON SUBMITTED SAMPLES

STAMP MARKS FOUND ON BOARD IRON BARK STAR OF INDIA
INTRODUCTION
HISTORIC REVIEW
THE SEARCH FOR IRON MARKS
STAMPS ON FRAMES
STAMPS IN BEAMS FOR TWEENDECK
BEAMS FOR MAINDECK
PLATES AND ANGLES ON BULKHEADS
WHAT ARE THESE MARKS?
CONSETT
LW&WALKER
BRUNSWICK BEST
CONCLUSION

FINAL REMARKS

REFERENCES

INDEX