Pennsic Memorial Ship

Gallery: A brief photographic history, by Fred Blonder

Every year, we build a model Viking longship.  This ship is built to be burned at Coopers Lake as a memorial at an SCA event known as Pennsic.

The tradition was originally begun by Gary Snider to honour Thorbjorn Osis after his sudden death in 1999.  Michael Roberts and Fred Blonder took over building the boats several years ago, and Richard Schweitzer began carving the prow and stern heads around 2012.  He is now primarily responsible for buiding the boat. Fred Blonder continues to take primary responsibility for logistics and safe sailing.

Many, many other people contribute time to the project, more than can be listed here, including volunteers who are regularly recruited from the crowd by lamplight, and whose names we rarely catch.

The boat project provides an opportunity to investigate Viking ships at a conveniently reduced scale.

The burning itself is conducted by a small group, but a large audience is generally in attendance, sometimes numbering in the hundreds.  The names you hear called out are not vetted in any way, and represent a mix of real names, nicknames, and “SCA names,” which are character names people use in the Society for Creative Anachronism.  This tradition is deeply meaningful to many who participate.

Watch this space for information on the building of the next Pennsic Memorial ship.

RC Early Scandianavian Ship

We have a hair-brained scheme to build a remote controlled sailable Viking ship using similar methods to the Pennsic ships.  If it works, we’ll be able to demonstrate how a ship works in the water, without needing to bring the North Sea with us!

Like most projects, it probably won’t work perfectly on the first try, but we’ll keep you posted on our successes… and our… not-successes.

The Longship Company

These guys sail a small viking ship down in Maryland.  Go check out their site, they are generally welcoming and open to visitors and new members! Fred Blonder holds the rank of Captain in the Company.