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| THE VIKING SHIP - The celebration of the
discoveries
of Christopher Columbus did not pass without a feeling, in Norway,
that the world had not sufficiently honored a previous visitor to
America. But the poems about the Vikings had been generally
discredited, and when there was dug from a kitchen-midden in Norway a
real Viking vessel a thousand years old, reproducing the pictures
that had alone remained to tell their tale, the people of Norway,
with almost one accord, set out by popular subscription to make a
remarkable test of the truth of their traditions. With a fund
gathered from every village in Norway, a replica of the ancient
Viking vessel was made, and the Norwegian Commissioners took sail as
the crew. Under Captain Magnus Andersen, the proud Norsemen put
across the Atlantic in his small craft, and came to anchor by way of
New York and the lakes at Jackson Park about five 0'clock of
Wednesday, July 12, 1893. The late Mayor Harrison went aboard at
Racine, up the lake, and took command for the rest of the voyage,
assuring all hands in good Norwegian, that he himself was descended
from the sea-kings, which the good Norsemen might well believe. The
scene on the lake was that day the most animated of the whole season,
and it was generally held to be well-proved that Columbus, who had
gone to Iceland in his earlier days, might easily have there learned
of the discoveries of Lief Ericsson at Vinland, Markland, and
Helleland, on the coast of Massachusetts. |
