Neither the viking ships nor the Native American canoes are Keel Boats, ie both have the same stability issues and are not inherently balanced. Shallow drafts are needed for river and coast sailing, and stability is gained only from the boyancy of the form of the boat, and any ballast that can be carried.

Any of the sailed boats, with a mast and a sail, whether viking or Native American like the ones below, would have been a handful in higher winds, much more than a paddled canoe. The inuits used covered paddled boats in the Arctic which would be pretty good protection against 'weather'. All in all, there's not really much difference between the viking Inuit and Native American boats, and although wood proved to be better for larger ships, the hide skin and birch bark boats could be repaired rapidly with spare kit, and even from material that was available all around the environment.

All in all, these boats were very high-tech - very developed designs making use of available materials to solve similar problems in different ways. When all of the little innovations over many generations are added together you end up with a work of art. Interesting from an Engineering POV.

Importantly, you can see the NA and Inuits were pre-metallic - the Viking ship below is really much later - and derived technology from Europe and the med that had been used for millenia - you can see metal studs in the hull for example made of high carbon Bog Iron.

Dave L




















Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2006 01:45PM by Dave L.