Millennium-old Viking ships shored up for move
STORY: These millennium-old Viking ships are getting a new home
They're being moved just next door
from Oslo's Viking Ship Museum
(David Hauer, Head engineer)
"This is the Gokstad ship. It is reconstructed where it stands today so it's never been moved. A couple of years ago we lifted it 1.65 millimetres to suspend it on some load cells so we have control over the forces in the ship and we are doing that now to be able to predict how we can move the ship out of this building, on rails in a huge steel rig to be able to land it safely in the new museum.”
The new building will help protect them
from temperature changes and humidity
But the ships are so fragile that even the
vibrations from construction could be a threat
“This wood is now incredibly fragile. If you had a little piece of wood you could just make crumbs out of it, it would just fall apart between your fingers. With these structures, when they are relatively structurally complex we are very scared that they going to just fall apart and this is our greatest fear.”
The new museum is due to open in 2026
