Summary

Archaeological fragment recorded as a plank from a Viking ship, removed from remains of a vessel buried at Gokstad, Norway. Believed to date from the 8th century AD, it was excavated in 1880.

In late 1880, Captain Robert McEachern presented a piece of planking, a sample of soil, and two photographs of the recently excavated Viking burial ship at Gokstad to the Industrial and Technological Museum of Victoria (now Museums Victoria).

Captain McEachern, sailing on the 'Sir Jamsetjee Family' ship landed (June 1880) at the Norwegian port of Friederickstadt just weeks after the discovery of the very significant 9th century ship burial. The land on which the ship was found was owned by a family of mariners. Two sailors on the Sir Jamsetjee ship were Norwegian, and it has been suggested that the objects may have been passed as a gift to the visiting sea captain, and that it was not unusual for this kind of souvenir to be presented to a fellow sailor at that time. The curator of the Viking Ship Collection at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, has advised that the piece of planking is unlikely to be part of the Gokstad burial ship itself, but the piece may have been from other broken wooden objects found with the burial ship.

Captain Robert McEachern was born on 16 March 1813 in Islay, Argyllshire, Scotland. He died 29 April 1885 at his home in Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia.

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