Viking ship sailing into Ocean City for tours

Take advantage of the chance to tour the largest Viking ship ever built in modern times as the Draken vessel visits Ocean City from Aug. 22-29.

The Draken will be docked at Third Street and Chicago Avenue, on the bay. It will arrive at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, tours will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23, to Tuesday, Aug. 28, before the vessel departs at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 29. 

The Vikings left almost no record of how they built their ships or how they sailed them. Draken Harald Hårfagre is a recreation of what the Vikings would call a “Great Ship,” built with archaeological knowledge of found ships, using old boatbuilding traditions and the legends of Viking ships from the Norse sagas.

Plank by plank, nail by nail, more than 10,000 of them, the ship was constructed by a band of experienced boat builders, historians, craftsmen and artists.

It measures 115 feet from stem to stern, 26 feet wide, and 260 square meters of silk sail and a 79-foot tall mast made from Douglas fir.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for children. Call 410-289-2800 or 800-626-2326, or visit http://www.drakenhh.com.

In March 2010, construction began on the vessel, named after Harald Hårfagre, the king who unified Norway into one kingdom. The great dragon ship came together in the town of Haugesund in western Norway.

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