54-Foot Viking Boat Replica Launched

Author-adventurer W. Hodding Carter floated a step closer to reliving history, launching the boat he hopes will retrace Viking Leif Ericsson’s voyage to North America. Several hundred people, who had lined the rocky shore of a coastal inlet at Phippsburg, cheered as the replica of a wooden 54-foot Viking knarr was lifted off its cradle by the rising tide. Carter, 34, plans to chronicle the route Ericsson took in the year 1000 from Greenland to Labrador and Newfoundland. The open-deck boat is powered by a sail and six oars. The 12-member crew will train for several weeks.