Written by Charles Dalgleish is a veteran who operates programs for other veterans. He is a retired U.S. Army Colonel who founded the 501c3 not for profit Odin’s Warrior Tribe. He is not a boat builder. Maybe I should say he was not a boat builder. When a fellow veteran got the idea to build a Viking longboat, Dalgleish and others chipped in. None were boat builders, so it did not go well.
They turned to Mystic Seaport Museum for advice and assistance. The museum recommended contacting Matthew Barnes and Tucker Yaro. The two shipwrights now co-own Leetes Island Boat Works. Odin’s Warrior Tribe commissioned Barnes and Yaro for the project.
Barnes and Yaro split ten oat tree logs and set 600 rivets to create the Viking longboat now called the Saeulfr, which means Sea Wolf in Old Norse. She is a clinker-built 26-foot full scale replica of a 12th century Danish Gislinge boat.
The Saeulfr then entered service in the programs operated by colonel Dalgleish for fellow U.S. veterans.