This boat is a full-scale replica of the Gokstad ship, which was excavated in Sandefjord in 1880. The replica was named the Viking, and was funded by private donors, with the objective of sailing unsupported across the Atlantic to Chicago.
World’s Columbian Exposition
In 1893, Chicago hosted a world exposition to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of America in 1492. At the exposition, the Americans showed reconstructions of Columbus’s three ships, the Niña, Pinta and Santa María. Norway’s official contribution was a replica of a stave church, but at the same time the Viking was sent across the Atlantic as an unofficial contribution.
World Expositions
World Expositions are international exhibitions in which many countries participate and display goods and services, or historical and cultural demonstrations. The “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations”, held in London in the then-new Crystal Palace in 1851, is regarded as the first World Exposition.
Departure for Chicago
The Viking generated a great deal of expectation and excitement. That became clear the day it came sailing into the Oslofjord, on 9 April 1893. The quayside thronged with a celebratory crowd, and the harbour basin buzzed with small boats, full of people who wanted to follow the ship out into the fjord.
Chosen by Hanna Emilie, History student (27)
Photo: Unknown/Oslo Museum