Torvaldslandic Ships

Serpents

The serpent ships owned by the Jarls of Torvaldsland are the single most important tools needed for the survival of their people. With these sleek and powerful ships the men of Torvaldsland sail throughout Gor, raiding, trading, and exploring then returning to the Northland to share the bounty with their people.

In Torvaldsland, fine timber is at a premium. Too, what fine lumber there is, is often marked and hoarded for the use of shipwrights If a man of Torvaldsland must choose between his hall and his ship, it is the ship which, invariably, wins his choice. Further-more, of course, were it not for goods won by his ship or ships, it would be unlikely that he would have the means to build a hall and house within it his men.
Marauders of Gor - page 90

Description

There had been much fear in Kassau when the ship of Ivar Forkbeard had entered the inlet. But it had come at midday. And on its mast, wound and painted and of painted wood, had hung the white shield. His men had rowed slowly, singing a dirge at the oars. Even the tarnhead at the ship's prow had been swung back on the great wooden hinges. Sometimes, in light galleys, it is so attached, to remove its weight from the prow's height, to ensure greater stability in high seas; it is always, however, at the prow in harbor, or when the ship enters an inlet or river to make its strike; in calm seas of course, there is little or no danger in permitting it to surmount the prow generally, that the tarnhead was hinged back, as the ship entered the inlet, was suitable indication like the white shield, that it came in peace.
The ship was a beautiful ship, sleek and well-lined. It was a twenty bencher, but this nomenclature may be confusing. There were twenty benches to a side, with two men to each bench. It carried thus, forty oars, with two men to each oar. Tersites of Port Kar, the controversial inventor and shipwright, had advocated more than one man to an oar but, generally, the southern galleys utilized one man per oar, three oars and the three men on a diagonal bench, facing aft, the oars staggered, the diagonality of the bench permitting the multiplicity of oars. The oars were generally some nineteen feet in length, and narrower than the southern oars, that they might cut and sweep with great speed, more rapidly than the wider bladed oar, and the lightness of the ship, this would produce great speed. As in the southern galleys the keel to beam ratio was designed, too, for swiftness, being generally in the neighborhood of one to eight.
Forkbeard's ship, or serpent, as that are sometimes called, was approximately eight feet Gorean. His ship, like most of the northern ships, did not have a rowing frame, and the rowers sat within the hull proper, facing, of course aft. The thole ports, I noted, had covers on the inside, on swivels, which permitted them to be closed when the ship was under sail. The sail was quite different from the southern ships, being generally squarish, though somewhat wider at the bottom. The mast, like that of the southern ships, could be lowered. It fitted into two blocks of wood, and was wedged in the top block by means of a heavy diagonal wooden plug, driven tight by hammers. The northern ship carries one sail, not several sails, all lanteens, of the southern ships, which must be removed and replaced. It was an all-purpose sail, hung straight from a spar of needle wood. It can be shortened or let out by reefing ropes. At its edges, corner spars can hold it spread from the ship. I doubted that such a ship could sail as close to the wind as a lateen rigged ship but the advantage of being able or shorten or let out sail in a matter of moments were not inconsiderable. The sail was striped red and white. The ship, like most of the northern ships, was clinker built, being constructed of overlapping planks, or strakes, the frame then fitted within them. Between the strakes tarred ropes and tar served as caulking. Outside the planks, too, was a coating of painted tar, to protect them from the sea, and the depredations of ship worms. The tar was painted red and black, in irregular lines. The ship at night, mast down, with such colorings, moving inland on a river, among the shadows, would be extremely difficult to detect. It was a raider's ship. Another feature of the northern ships is that they have, in effect, a prow on each end. This permits them to be beached, on rollers, more easily. They can be brought to land in either direction, a valuable property in the rocky, swift northern waters. Furthermore this permits the rowers, in reversing position on the benches, to reverse the direction of the ship. This adds considerably to the maneuverability of the craft. It is almost impossible to ram one of the swift ships of the north.
Marauders of Gor - pages 30 - 33

The ships of the men of Torvaldsland are swift. In a day, a full Gorean day of twenty Ahn, with a fair wind they can cover from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pasangs."
Marauders Of Gor - page 56

The Men sing as the oars are dipped

The men of Torvaldsland sang with great voices. The oars, two men to an oar lifted and dipped. The helmsman leaned on the tiller of the great steering oar.
Marauders of Gor - page 54

Methods used to Guide the way- Jarls do not use maps

The men of Torvaldsland sometimes guide their vessels by noting the directions of the waves, breaking against the prow, these correlated with prevailing winds. Sometimes they use the shadows of the gunwales, falling across the thwarts, judging their angles. The sun, too, of course, is used, and, at night, the stars give them suitable compass, even in the open sea.
It is a matter of tradition not to rely on the needle compass, as is done in the south. The Gorean compass points to the Sardar, the home of the Priest-Kings. The men of Torvaldsland do not use it. They do not need it.
The sextant, however, correlated with sun and stars is not unknown to them. It is commonly relied upon, however, only in unfamiliar waters.
Even fog banks, and the feeding grounds of whales, and ice floes, in given seasons, in their own waters, give the men of Torvaldsland information as to their whereabouts, they utilizing such things as easily, as unconsciously, as a peasant might a mountain, or a hunter a river."
Marauders of Gor - page 56

The Serpent Casting Off - Note the sail description

I threw my gear into the ship, and, bow in hand, leaped into the serpent.
"Cast off," said Ivar Forkbeard.
The two mooring ropes were flung free of the mooring cleats. They were not cut. The bowmen took their places, with their fellows, on the benches.
The serpent backed from the pier and, in the harbor, turned.
The red-and-white striped sail, snapping, unfolding, was dropped from the spar.
Marauders of Gor - page 53

Aboard the Serpent

The men of Forkbeard, their oars inboard, the ship under sail, amused themselves as they would. Some slept on the benches or between them, some under the awning and some not, or on the exposed, elevated stem deck. Here and there some sat in twos or threes, talking. Two, like Forkbeard and myself, gave themselves to Kaissa. Two others, elsewhere, played Stones, a guessing game. The giant, he who might have been nearly eight feet in height, and had in the temple wrought such furious slaughter, sat now, almost somnolently, on a rowing bench, sharpening, with slow, deliberate movements, with a circular, flat whetstone, the blade of his great ax. Three other men of the Forkbeard attended to fishing, two with a net, sweeping it along the side of the serpent, for parsit fish, and the third, near the stem, with a hook and line, baited with vulo liver, for the white-bellied grunt, a large game fish which haunts the plankton banks to feed on parsit fish. Only two of the Forkbeard's men did not rest, he at the helm, bare-headed, looking to sea, and the fellow at the height of the mast, on lookout. The helmsman studies the sky and the waters ahead of the serpent; beneath clouds there is commonly wind; and he avoids, moving a point or more to port or starboard, areas where there is little wave activity, for they betoken spots in which the serpent might, for a time, find itself becalmed. The lookout stood upon a broad, flat wooden ring, bound in leather, covered with the fur of sea sleen, which fits over the mast. It has a diameter of about thirty inches. It sets near the top of the mast, enabling the man to see over the sail, as well as to other points. He, standing on this ring, fastens himself by the waist to the mast by looping and buckling a heavy belt about it, and through his master belt. Usually, too, he keeps one hand on or about the mast. The wooden ring is reached by climbing a knotted rope. The mast is not high, only about thirty-five feet Gorean, but it permits a scanning of the horizon to some ten pasangs.
Marauders of Gor - page 59

Scooping and Bailing

The men with the net drew it up. In it, twisting and flopping, silverish, striped with brown, squirmed more than a stone of parsit fish. They threw the net to the planking and, with knives, began to slice the heads and tails from the fish.
"Gorm," said the Forkbeard. "Free the first bond-maid on the coffle. The lazy girl has rested too long, and send her to me with a bailing scoop."...
Roughly Gorm unknotted the coffle rope from her neck. He then gestured that she, kneeling, should lift her fettered wrists to him; she did so; he, with a key from his belt, opened the fetters which held her; he thrust them in his belt; he then pulled her by the arm roughly to her feet and thrust her toward the Forkbeard. She stumbled across the loose deck planking and stood, hair before her face, before us. She thrust her hair back with her right hand, and stood well. A bailing scoop was thrust into her hands. It has four sides. It is made of wood. It is about six inches in width. There is a diagonally set board in its bottom, and the back and two sides are straight. It has a straight, but rounded handle, carved smaller at the two ends, one where it adjoins the scoop, the otherin back of the grip.
Gorm moved aside eight narrow planks from the loose decking. Below, some two inches deep, about a foot below the deck planking, about two inches over the keel beam, black and briny, shifted the bilge water. There was not much water in the bilge, and I was surprised. For a clinker-built ship, the serpent of Ivar Forkbeard was extraordinarily tight. The ship, actually, had not needed to be bailed at all. Indeed, it had not been bailed since Kassau. The average ship of Torvaldsland is, by custom, bailed once a day, even if the bilge water does not necessitate it. A ship which must, of necessity, be bailed three times in two days is regarded as unseaworthy. Many such ships, however, are sailed by the men of Torvaldsland, particularly late in the season, when the ship is less tight from months of the sea's buffeting. In the spring, of course, before the ships are brought from the sheds on rollers to the sea, they are completely recalked and tarred.
"Bail," said the Forkbeard.
The girl went to the opened planking and fell to her knees beside it, the wooden scoop in her hands.
"Return to me," said the Forkbeard, harshly.
Frightened the girl did so.
"Now turn about," said he, "and walk there as a bond-maid."
Her face went white.
Then she turned and walked to the opened planking as a bond-maid.
The other bond-maids gasped. The men watching her hooted with pleasure. I grinned. I wanted her. "Bond-maid!" scorned Aelgifu, from where she was fettered and chained to the mast. I gathered that these two, in Kassau, had been rival beauties.
Then, sobbing, the blondish girl, who had been forced to walk as a bond-maid, fell to her knees beside the opened planking. Once she vomited over the side. But, on the whole, she did well.
Once the Forkbeard went to her and taught her to check the scoop, with her left hand, for snails, that they not be thrown overboard.
Returning to me he held one of the snails, whose shell he crushed between his fingers, and sucked out the animal, chewing and swallowing it. He then threw the shell fragments overboard.
"They are edible," he said. "And we use them for fish bait."
We then returned to our game.
Marauders of Gor - pages 61 - 62

Using a bondmaid aboard a serpent

When food is low it is not unknown for the men of Torvaldsland to use a bond-maid, if one is available on the ship, for bait in such a manner. The least pleasing girl is always used. This practice, of course, encourages bond-maids to vie vigorously to please their masters. An Ahn on the oar is usually more than sufficient to make the coldest and proudest of females an obedient, eager-to-please bond-maid.

Warship vs Raider

"Raise no shield to our own mast," said the Forkbeard.
His men looked at him, puzzled.
"Thorgard is quite proud of his great longship," he said, "the serpent called Black Sleen."
I had heard of the ship.
"It has a much higher freeboard area than this vessel," I told Ivar Forkbeard. "It is a warship, not a raider. In any engagement you would be at a disadvantage."
The Forkbeard nodded.
"It is said, too," said I, "to be the swiftest ship in the north."
"That we will find out," said the Forkbeard.
"Two pasangs away!" called the lookout.
"It has forty benches," said Ivar Forkbeard. "Eighty oars, one hundred and sixty rowers." The benches on only one side, I recalled, are counted. "But her lines are heavy, and she is a weighty ship."
"Do you intend to engage her?" I asked.
"I would be a fool to do so," said the Forkbeard. "I have with me the loot of the temple of Kassau, and eighteen bond-maids, and lovely Aelgifu. I would have much to lose, and little to gain."
"That is true," I said.
"When I engage Thorgard of Scagnar," said Ivar Forkbeard, "I shall do so to my advantage, not his.
Marauders of Gor - page 71

The Serpents do have names

"The name of the ship of Thorgard of Scagnar," I said, "is Black Sleen. What is the name of your ship, if I may know?"
"The name of my ship," said Ivar, "is the Hilda."
"Is it not unusual for a ship of the north to bear the name of a woman?" I asked.
"No," he said.
"Why is she called the Hilda?" I asked.
"That is the name of the daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar," said Ivar Forkbeard.I looked up at him, astonished.
"The Hilda is my ship," said Ivar Forkbeard, "and the daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar will be my bond-maid."
Marauders of Gor - page 75

A Longboat is attached to the Serpent

There was silence on the ship of Ivar Forkbeard. Ivar, and four men, had taken the longboat, which is tied, keel up, on the decking of the after quarter, and made their way to the skerry. With them, her hair combed, warmed with a broth of dried bosk meat, heated in a copper kettle, over a fire on a rimmed iron plate, legged, set on another plate on the stern quarter, her hands tied behind her with simple binding fiber, had gone Aelgifu.
Marauders of Gor - page 75

Anchors

Suddenly an arrow struck the side of the ship.
"Free the serpent!" called the Forkbeard. "Benches!" The two anchor hooks, fore and aft, were raised. They resemble heavy grappling hooks. Their weight, apiece, is not great, being little more than twenty-five Gorean stone, or about one hundred Earth pounds. They are attached to the ship not by chain but by tarred rope. The men of the Forkbeard scurried to their benches. I heard the hole-port caps turned back, and the oars thrust through the wood.
I could see, from the shore, black and dark, more than a dozen small boats, containing perhaps ten or fifteen men each, moving towards us.
Two more arrows struck the ship. Others slipped past in the darkness,their passage marked by the swift whisper of the feathers and shaft.
"To sea!" called the Forkbeard. "Stroke!"
The serpent turned its prow to sea, and the oars moved down, entered the water, and pulled against it.
"Stroke!" called the Forkbeard.
The serpent slipped away.
The Forkbeard stood angrily at the rail, looking back at the small flotilla of boats, dark in the night.
He turned to his men. "Let this be a lesson to you," he called to them, "never trust the men of Kassau!"
At the oars the men struck up a rowing song.
Marauders of Gor - page 78

The Serpent Arrives Home

There was a great cheer from the men of Ivar Forkbeard. The serpent turned slowly between the high cliffs, and entered the inlet. Here and there, clinging to the rock, were lichens, and small bushes, and even stunted trees. The water below us was deep and cold.
I felt a breeze from inland, coming to meet the sea.
The oars lifted and fell.
The sail fell slack, and rustled, stirred in the gentle wind from inland.
Men of Torvaldsland reefed it high to the spar.
The rowing song was strong and happy in the lusty throats of the crew of the Forkbeard.
The serpent took its way between the cliffs, looming high on each side.
Ivar Forkbeard, at the prow, lifted a great, curved bronze horn and blew a blast. I heard it echo among the cliffs.
Amid ships, crowded together, standing, facing the star-board side of the vessel, were the bond-maids and Aelgifu. She wore still her black velvet. They were in throat coffle; their wrists were fettered before their bodies. They looked upon the new country, harsh, forbidding, which was to be their home.
I heard, perhaps from a pasang away, up the inlet, between the cliffs, the winding of a horn.
Soon, I gathered, we would be at Forkbeard's landfall.
"Put her," said Forkbeard, indicating the slender, blond girl, "at the prow."
She was quickly removed from the coffle and unfettered. Gorm put a rope on her neck and pulled her to the prow, She was held by another crewman, he fastened her at the prow. Her back was bent over it. Her wrists and ankles drawn back, were tied at its sides. She was roped to it, too, at the belly and throat.
Again Ivar Forkbeard winded the great bronze horn. In several seconds an answering blast echoed between the cliffs. The oars lifted and dipped. The men sang.
"Hang gold about the ship!" he cried.
Candlesticks and cups were hung on strings from the prow. Plates, with iron nails, were pounded against the mast. Golden hangings were draped like banners at the gunwales. Then the ship turned a bend between the cliffs, and, to my astonishment I saw a dock, of rough logs, covered with adzed boards, and a wide, sloping area of land, of several acres, green, though strewn with boulders, with short grass. There was a log palisade some hundred yards from the dock. High on the cliff, I saw a lookout, a man with a horn. Doubtless it had been he whom we had heard. From his vantage, high on the cliff, on his belly, unseen, he would have been able to see far down the inlet. He stood now and waved the bronze horn in his hand. Forkbeard waved back to him.
Marauders of Gor - page 80 - 81

Merchant Ships

The men of Torvaldsland have their own version of the Southern Round ship. This vessel is called a knarr. It doesn't have a large crew like the Serpent. A knarr only has a crew of between five and ten men on average. Compare this to the crews of the Serpent which numbers between twenty and fifty. One reason for the larger crew on a Serpent is the nature of the Serpent as a warship. The crewmen of a Serpent are primarily raiders whereas the crewmen of a knarr are merchants first and foremost. Serpents can be used for trading voyages as well as raiding and often are. A knarr is not exactly the ship of choice for a raiding crew though as it is a very slow ship, averaging roughly half the speed of a Serpent.

A knarr relies primarily on a sail for propulsion due to its weight and small crew. The square sail of a knarr is only between 150 and 250 square feet. Oars are used by the crew of the knarr to move the ship for short distances or when the ship is stranded with no wind. There are only five to seven oars carried on a knarr so using the oars for long trips is just not practical for a ship carrying 4.5 to 60 tons of cargo. All knarr's fall into the Light class of Round Ships because of their size. None of them have sufficient size or cargo space to even make Medium class. A knarr has between 35 and 200 cubic feet of space for cargo. This is not an actual 'hold' as such as it is open to the elements. Like in some Serpents, the planks of the deck are removable for a small amount of additional cargo space.

The method of construction of a knarr is, for the most part, identical to that of building a Serpent. Like the Serpents of Torvaldsland the knarr is clinker-built. Constructed of strakes and tarred rope with the frame put in after the shell, a knarr is possibly the most seaworthy of Northern ships. Unlike the Serpents, which have a keel-to-beam ratio of 8:1, the knarr has a ratio of roughly 3:1 or 4.5:1. A knarr is high-sided and broad of beam to give it a better chance of weathering storms when fully loaded.

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