Our warship Erik Emune

In the early 1980s five sunk viking ships were discovered in a barrier in the mouth of the Bay of Foteviken just north of where the Viking town now lies. During a marine archaeological examination one of the ships was recovered and it is this ship that Foteviken Museum has recreated a full scale copy of. The 11 meters long ship is named Erik Emune after the king who stood victorious at the Battle of Foteviken in 1134 AD.

The ship is narrow and has 14 oarsmen, indicating that it was a small warship. In total the ship can carry 20 men. Using the sail high speeds can be reached, and in a lull the fourteen oars still gives the ship remarkable speed. It is likely the original was used as  a guard ship, perhaps a patrol ship controlling the beaches of Höllviken and Foteviken a thousand years ago.

The ship is built by the skilled marine archeologists and boatbuilders of Foteviken Museum. Aside from Erik Emune the museum has produced another ship on request from Finland, a copy of a viking ship found at Lapuri at the Gulf of Finland. This 14 meters long ship now sails along the Finnish coast.

Erik Emune was in 1998 brought on a trailer to Stockholm to participate in the sailing regatta during the Cultural Capital year. Following that she was sailed to Birka. The image is from this occasion.

In 1999 the ship was brought on a trailer to the large Viking market in Normandie, France, and here she proudly plowed throgh the waves of the English channel.

In 2000 Erik Emune rounded the northern cape of Zealand and brough her crew to the Roskilde Viking Market.