  the gokstad ship is a viking ship found in a burial mound at gokstad farm in sandar, sandefjord, vestfold, norway. dendrochronological dating suggests that the ship was built around 890 ad. ==discovery== the place where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named gokstadhaugen or kongshaugen (from the old norse words kÃ³ngr meaning king and haugr meaning mound), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in norway bear similar names. shortly after the 1880 new year the sons of the owner of gokstad farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the bow of a boat and its painter while digging in the still frozen ground. as word of the find got out, nicolay nicolaysen, the then president of the society for the preservation of ancient norwegian monuments, reached the site on 6 february 1880 and, having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artefact, liaised for the digging to be stopped. nicolaysen returned on march 27 and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing. with his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging was surprised to find the bow of a ship. ===construction=== thumb|right|side view of the ship the gokstad ship is clinker-built, constructed largely of oak. the ship was intended for warfare, trade, transportation of people and cargo. the ship is  long and  wide. it is the largest in the viking ship museum in oslo. the ship was steered by a quarter rudder fastened to a large block of wood attached to the outside of the hull and supported by an extra stout rib. the block is known as the wart, and is fastened by osiers, knotted on the outside passed through both the rudder and wart to be firmly anchored in the ship. there are 16 tapered planks per side. the garboard planks are near vertical where they attach to the keel. the garb
9th-century_ships Archaeological_sites_in_Norway Sandefjord Ships_preserved_in_museums Viking_ship_burials Viking_ships