This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Anthony Daniels, left, and Matt Barnes of Leetes Island Boatworks hew planks of white oak with broad axes in Stony Creek on August 23 for a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130.

Tucker Yaro, left, and Anthony Daniels, center, of Leetes Island Boatworks attach a pattern to a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130 in Stony Creek on August 23.

Matt Barnes of Leetes Island Boatworks hews the end of a plank of white oak with a broad axe in Stony Creek on August 23, 2022 for a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130.

Anthony Daniels of Leetes Island Boatworks keeps a plank of white oak wet while heating the board over a fire in Stony Creek on August 23, 2022. Once heated to the proper temperature it will be clamped and bent into shape on a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130.

Anthony Daniels of Leetes Island Boatworks keeps a plank of white oak wet while heating the board over a fire in Stony Creek on August 23, 2022. Once heated to the proper temperature it will be clamped and bent into shape on a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130.

From left, Tucker Yaro, Matt Barnes and Anthony Daniels of Leetes Island Boatworks clamp a heated plank to a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130 to bend it into shape in Stony Creek on August 23, 2022.

Tucker Yaro of Leetes Island Boatworks hews a plank of white oak with a broad axe in Stony Creek on August 23, 2022 for a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130. In the background, Anthony Daniels tends to a fire that will be used to heat a plank for bending.

Drawings of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130 that is being built by Leetes Island Boatworks in Stony Creek on August 23, 2022.

From left, Matt Barnes, Anthony Daniels and Tucker Yaro of Leetes Island Boatworks are photographed next to a replica of a Danish fishing vessel dating from 1130 that they are building in Stony Creek on August 23, 2022.

BRANFORD — In the heart of Stony Creek, three shipwrights with Leetes Island Boatworks have been wielding axes and working over red hot embers, in the burning summer sun, creating a unique seaworthy vessel that harkens back to the 12th century.

Traveling down Thimble Islands Road, nestled amongst the Victorian homes, the summer cottages and the expansive Long Island Sound, Matthew Barnes, Tucker Yaro and Anthony Daniels are building a traditional Viking ship at Bradley & Waters Marine Railway.

Old Norse terms, like “trerøring,” are often used to describe the Stony Creek boat with three pairs of oars. In addition, the shipwrights apply centuries-old techniques using the tools of the trade from back in the heyday of Viking ship building.

“This is in its own class in terms of the history, the cultural differences in building a Norse Viking era boat,” said Daniels.

The tools include different size and shapes axes, “to flatten boards, to make the planks, to carve this out,” said Barnes, standing next to the Viking ship.

Some of the dozen or so axes bear the markings of Gränsfors Bruk, a Danish company that has been making hand-forged axes for over 100 years.

“This is stuff that you wouldn’t be using if you weren’t building a Viking era boat, essentially,” said Daniels. “In traditional wooden boat building you don’t see these kinds of tools very often.”

Additionally, the craftsmen have created a “scraper” to create a specific aesthetic detail on the edge of the planks.

This particular detail highlights the handmade copper rivets and roves, that “fasten the planks together.”

“We’re using a forge, heating it up and hammering it down to nail shape and then peening a head on them,” Daniels explained, talking about making the rivet.

In between each plank is a combination of oakum and tar, “which acts as a gasket seal between two planks.”

“It will become water tight under its own expansion,” he added.

Oakum is a natural product made from jute.

Barnes explained that in the Viking age they would have used “spun lanolin wool to sit in the seams.”

During an unusual torrential downpour recently, Daniels scampered to the other side of the boat where he was working to save the ship’s plans, exposed to the elements.

The boat’s blueprint originated at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, where Barnes worked for 16 weeks in 2016.

After graduating from Daniel Hand High School in 2002, Barnes attended the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, R.I. Daniels also went through this two-year trade program that teaches classic yacht restoration.

Barnes, Yaro and Daniels worked together on the restoration of the Mayflower II as shipwrights at Mystic Seaport. Barnes was lead shipwright on this project.

It was as a result of his work at Mystic Seaport that Barnes was awarded the Mallory Fellowship Grant to work on the reconstruction of the Gislinge Boat, a 30-foot fishing boat from the Viking Age, at Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark.

He also traveled to seven different countries in Scandinavia and Northern Europe “researching Viking age vessels and how it’s affected the Western expansion and how it’s affected boat building.”

The Stony Creek-made replica of a 12th century Scandinavian vessel was commissioned by a Virginia nonprofit group dedicated to veteran outreach work. As a group of Viking enthusiasts, they specifically requested the unique vessel.

Yet, Barnes said, the client “didn’t ask us to do it this way. They wanted it built nicely, but they didn’t say ‘you need to cleave logs and use an axe.’”

“But we were given an opportunity and it was really something we wanted to do because we love this kind of work and there’s really nobody else doing it, unfortunately,” he added.

The boat comes with a price tag of $70,000, but “we’re taking some concessions to do it this way.”

“It has a very nice price tag, but they’re not paying for the amount of work we’re doing,” Barnes said.

The vessel, when completed will be 5 ½ -feet-wide and 26-feet-long and will represent 2,000 hours of work.

“We’re kind of taking this on as an experiment of being able to do something, personally,” he said. “It’s a personal exploration for us to do this and prove that it can be done and we might end up breaking even, but it’s kind of something we’ve committed to.”

“To build it with machinery it would probably be profitable,” he said. “If we were to do it again, in this form, it would be somewhere $140 to $150 (thousand).”

Barnes is familiar with Washington State’s Viking ship builder Jay Smith, but added that there are no other Viking ship builders on the East Coast.

Historically, a vessel like this was used to transport light cargo. When completed, this modern-day ship will fit three to five passengers with three spots for rowing and sailing on the Chesapeake River.

Talking to Barnes, he often uses Danish words when talking about the Viking ship.

“There’s three ‘thorts,’ seats that go across,” Barnes said.

The Madison resident explained that it is known as a ‘treroring,’ “for three rowers and it will also have a single mast and big square rig sail.”

“They’ll use it to take vets out and do sailing and events and fundraising,” said Barnes, adding that the organization has requested anonymity as many of its members are active duty military.

As Daniels worked away, “fitting a scarf” with a hand plane on the inter Fiord vessel, Barnes explained the process of building the boat with lapstrake construction.

“A scarf is like a joint,” he said. “Each plank is made of two different parts. What that (a scarf) does is overlap the two and connects the two planks together. Generally, it’s two planks per length.”

Next to him, Yaro used a broad axe to create a plank.

“I’m taking my broad axe and just slowly working my way down the lines, make it down to a 20 millimeter plank,” he said, standing among oak shavings.

The logs were procured in December 2020, the keel was laid last summer and October is the scheduled completion date.

“We’ll put it on one of the cradles and we’ll launch it right here,” Barnes said, pointing to the rail system on the property.

In addition to this project, the three craftsmen started building furniture in 2017 and recently opened a showroom, Handlavet, on Wall Street in Madison.

Barnes talked about the project, from procuring 10 white oak logs, to putting the boat together.

“What you do to make the plank is you have this log and you do what’s called cleaving,” said Barnes.

“You drive a wedge down the length of this log and you gets splits out,” he said. “You’ll get 16 out of a log.”

The splits are whittled down, with an axe, to 20 millimeters or three quarters of an inch planks.

In keeping with tradition, the planks are heated over red-hot embers to make them flexible and pliable.

“We put the plank over the fire, sitting on that chain, and we’ll boil water,” said Barnes. “Then you mop on the boiling water on each side for about 20 minutes. Then you bring and bend this piece right onto this boat, clamp in place and when it cools it’ll hold that shape.”

The work is then finished with a linseed oil and pine tar combination that serves as a sealant.

This specific type of boat construction is labor intensive, but three shipwrights are not complaining. It is a labor of love.

“Being accustomed to the same result with the more modern practice or modern techniques, we know how to shortcut it, we know tools that can make this a lot faster,” Daniels said.

“But in the name of tradition and working with our client we’re stepping back and doing this as traditional as possible,” the 37-year-old said.

The men are right in their element, working at Bradley & Waters Marine Railway.

Looking around out over the Long Island Sound, with boats bobbing in the water Barnes said “this is really the only place we want to be.”

The community has embraced the work.

“All day long people are walking by, stopping and talking,” said Daniels. “It’s like we’re interpreters in a museum, so to speak, which we also have experience doing.”

“The community’s fantastic here,” said Barnes. “We’re had no complaints even though we’ll have a fire going, there’s smoke billowing everywhere, making a lot of noise.”

“Swinging axes for nine hours,” Daniels chimes in, imitating the sound.

The area devoted to the Viking ship is close to the road and covered by an awning. Work progresses in all types of weather.

Daniels talked about the personal satisfaction of working on the Viking ship.

“These people don’t live anymore,” he said. “This is a generation that’s come and gone and these are techniques and traditions they’ve passed down and we’re trying to apply that.”

“There’s something really special to be said for that,” he said. “And, we’re just happy. This is fun. It’s really interesting, it’s historical. You’re doing a lot of research and you don’t even know it.”

Yaro said the satisfaction comes from seeing the boat take form.

“It’s very rewarding,” the Guilford resident said. “It’s just kind of an intrinsic reward of doing this kind of manual work and creating such a beautiful object.”

“You can toil away at a lot of physical jobs and you don’t get to behold the final project that everyone can appreciate,” the 39-year-old said. “That’s a real satisfying part of this job.”

“It’s really important to us to keep these kinds of things going,” he said. “With working at the museum, I apprenticed with master shipwrights who had been there for 40 years. It was kind of drilled into me that this kind of stuff has to be maintained and has to continue.”

“Most of those guys have retired now, so I personally feel an obligation to teach other people and keep this kind of stuff going.”