Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-02-18
Lief and John. Who Were the Best
ShipbuilderS of Their Gen
Grafton
1t is Claimed That Lief Landed on
American Soil in the Year
1909.
As Navigat0rs the ErieSsons Deserve
Great Credit, And Eyineed
Wonderful Skill.

covered and coIonized by the Scandina-
vians, writes John Volk In the New York
Recorder The hardy vikings, with a
spirit of adventure rare and indomitable,
pushed THEN explorations westward as far
a, the bleak and rugged shores of Iceland,
which according to tradition was coloniz
ed by the Norwegians in the year S74
That hardy maritime nation adapted it.
self naturally to exploration of unknown
seas, and boldly sailed westward from the
Maze and Skaw in search of new lands to
conquer.
The vessels in which they sailed were
Elarvels of naval arehitecture-far superior
| to the scow-like ships chat carried Column
bus and his men. They were both swift
and seaworthy. In a year 1879 large
viking vessel was discovered close to the
entrance of the Christiana Ford. It was
dug up from a grave mound and was IN a
splendid state Of preservation. 1t was Gus
tomary to bury viking in bis war galley
and heap up earth on and around it. IN
this case the bones of the grim chieftain
were found in the ship, together with
those of cog and bird which naturallst=
! declared to be a peacock. Colin Archer,
a Norwegian naval architect, read paper
IN 1891 before the Institution Of Naval
Architects (British) which gave detailed
description Of the vessel. The gentlemen
present were surprised at the scientific
knowledge evidently possessed by the de-
signers and builders Of the craft. She
was 70 feet long, with beam Of Is feet,
inches and a depth OF 6 feet. Her con-
struction was of the strongest and he1
shape was such as to make her capable OF
withstanding the iercest tempest.
! 1t was in vessels Of this kind that the
vikings, with their hardy followers, de
vastated the British coasts and carried 0 f
fat cattle as we'll as the wives and daugh-
tiers of the Inhabitants. Ia SHIPS like the
one dug Up at Christiania Ford they
sailed to Greenland and thence to this CON
tinent. All this is told in the sagas, and
runic inscriptions found at Upernavik con-
| firm the tradit:..us of those wild and yAird
rhapsodies.
/ Lief, the son Of the founder of the
Greenland colony determined to sail west
ward, his curiosity being excited by his
story Of an lcelander who, while steering
his course for Greenland, had been driven
| to the south west, where he saw beautiful
country, well wooded and fertile. Accord
ngiy. Lief, accompanied by another
chief called Bjorn, launched ar galley
and steered to the southwest In search Of
the unknown country depicted in such
glowing colors b. the lcelander. There
is little doubt that the Scandi-
navian sea kings were acquainted
with the magnet, as other wise it
would have been impossible for them to
navigate their vessels with such skill and
precision. There is no record of the
length of Lief's voyage, out it was doubt
less long and tedious. They Landed in
what was undoubtedly Rhode Island and
spent winter there. Because of the
wild grasses they found growing in pro,
fusion they called the colony Vinland.
| It's exact location has never been dis
covered, but it was probably Nara
gansett Bay. The curious structure at
Newport known as the old windmill, but
which was probably Scandinavian tenn
pie, may have been erected by the daring
and adventurous Lief. Everybody has
read and admired The Skeleton in Ar
NOR" the work of the incompatible poet
Longfellow. The poem, which is as weird
as Scandinavian saga, is founded ON the
fact of a skeleton, dug up at Fall River,
clad in broken and rusty armor. In all
probability it was all that was earthly of a
sea-ioving Norseman.
In Boston stands the statue of L; eff, who
accord ,ng to well-founded tradition was
the first white lnan to tread the shore of
year A. D. 1902, nearly FIVE centuries be-
fore the sailing of Columbus from ?alos
Lief as a navigator deserves far more
credit than the renowned Genoes sailor,
for while the expedition of Columbus was
4foI
the balmy and genial northea t trade
winds, the Norseman had to con-
tend with the wintery and
tudes. Experienced navagtors do not hest
tate to declare that if Columbus had tried
the northern passage his southern sailors
would have succumbed to the climatic and
unaccussomed hardships. Should not Lief
and his valiant comrades, who were made
of sterner stuff, receive some little recog-
milton at the worlds fair. The statue at
Boston is scarcely a fitting tribute to the
memory OF a man SO daring.
Lief is a name that will ever be asso-
slated with the early history of America.
According to tradition he was the son of
Eric the Red, and therefore called Erics.
son. From him In one unbroken line of
ancestry was descended the famous Sweed-
ish engineer John Ericsson, who invented
the screw propeller and the Monitor. He
was certainly the father of the modern
ironclad, and the mighty part the mont
ors played in settling the war CT the rebel
lion has been admitted by every author of
authority.
As for the efficacy of the Monitor, it
was thoroughly demonstrated in The battle
with the confederate ironclad Merrimae.
The chief feature of the Monitor was re-
volving wrought iron turret, composed OF
inch plates boIted together until a
thickness of s inches had been obtained.
The turret was 20 feet in diameter and
was armed with two II inch Dahlgren
guns capable of throwing solid shot
weighing l66 pounds with a charge
of fifteen pounds of powder. The
iron hull of the vessel was 1877 feet long,
Sc feet beam and II feet depth of hold.
She had a low freeboari and when IN
fighting trim seemed almost submerged.
She was built in Greenpoint, n Y, in
100 days, her cost being 1915, 900. The
SUCCESS of this vessel had remarkable
effect upon naval construction throughout
tie world.
The old monitor Nantucket, which was
painted up to take part In the marine
pageant in honor of Ericsson's memory
when his remains were sent to his native
land, is now being fitted out for coast
defense ship. It is not necessary
to speak of Erickson's achievements.
They are part and parcel of the modern
history of the United States. He was
superiatively great, and it is only just to
his memory that thu statue in Central
Park to be soon erected should have a