Vikings and Arctic Farmers: The Norse Atlantic Saga

• Main Author: McGhee, Robert
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 2006
• Subjects: Arctic; Iceberg*; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192807304.003.0006; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/51979691/isbn-9780912807304-book-part-6.pdf

Abstract On a Warm and Cloudless August Afternoon the Viking ship Gaia approached the coast of North America.The huge sail pumped gently with a steady following breeze as the ship rode, lightly as a resting gull, across the ridges and valleys of a long northeasterly swell. Sunlight glinted from icebergs and flared on the distant spouts of whales.The grey cliffs of Newfoundland rose to starboard, and the foaming wake curled away towards Greenland.This tiny, fragile shell of wood had steered through fields of deadly ice, ridden over shoals that would have torn the bottom from a deeper ship, and passed through storms while taking no more than spray over the rails. Its crew was as confident and comfortable as if they were aboard a modern sailing yacht.