The Viking Road To Byzantium

[Richgee]

I have had a good look at it. For this kind of journey your not looking at a traditional long boat. It would most likely be a shorter more bowed version perhaps 15-20 foot in length with a single sail. This is the most common transport/trading vessel. It's not really suitable for open ocean, so the Baltic voyage would be a coast hugging run. The average speed under sail is 5-7 knots, but only with a prevailing wind. It would have 3+ oar benches dependant on size and cargo carried. The smaller size and shorter draw solves some of the port age issues and difficulty in navigating shallow river sections. The smaller size also means as a trading vessel the crew would be under 10 people. This leads to more fatigue when traveling under oar especial against currents going up stream. The best time to journey is when the prevailing wind is from the north giving you the aid going up river. The smaller boats are a more realistic vessel for the journey but not nearly as cool as rowing up to the dock at Byzantium in a magnificent 60 foot Dragon head war ship.

[Richgee]

If you can find it on the net somewhere the BBC ran an excellent documentary series narrated by Magnus Magnusson called Vikings (I think). I'm sure one of the episodes was specifically on the Baltic-Black Sea trade.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Apologies I was being alitle facetious. I fully accept that this journey was undertaken. It was an incredible feat of ingenuity and determination, by desperate men. My only issue is time frame. For a low fantasy Viking setting it makes a great back drop and well done for highlighting it. I still belive in reality it would take considerably longer than the maths would suggest.

For the benefit of those coming in late:

 

The York Factory Express, usually called "the Express" and also called the Columbia Express and the Communication, was a fur brigade operated by theHudson's Bay Company in the early 19th century connecting York Factory and Fort Vancouver. It was named "express" because it was not used only to transport furs and supplies but also to quickly move departmental reports and letters. It was the main overland connection between the Columbia Departmentand the Hudson's Bay Company's headquarters at York Factory (bulk cargo from England to the Columbia Department was shipped by sea around South America). The express brigade was known as the York Factory Express on its eastbound journey in the spring, and as the Columbia Express or Autumn Express on its westbound journey in the fall. The same route was used in both cases. Its length was about 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi). To expedite messages the express messengers would often speed ahead of the main bodies carrying supplies and furs.

 

Contents  [hide] 

• 1History
• 2Transport
• 3Route
• 4References

 

History[edit]

The York Factory Express evolved from an earlier express brigade used by the North West Company between Fort George (originally Fort Astoria founded in 1811 by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company), at the mouth of the Columbia River, to Fort William on Lake Superior.^[1]

In 1821 the North West Company was forcibly merged (at the behest of the British government) into the Hudson's Bay Company after armed conflict in the Red River Colony between the two companies.^[2] George SimpsonGovernor of Hudson's Bay Company, visited the Columbia District in 1824-25, journeying from York Factory. With the help of John Rowand, the Chief Factor at Fort Edmonton, George Simpson investigated a quicker route than previously used, following the Saskatchewan River and crossing the mountains at Athabasca Pass. This route was well known by the North West Company and was being used in 1811 but after the forced merger with the Hudson's Bay Company many of the Northwester's were loyal to the North West Company and refused to share this route with the Hudson's Bay Company. It wasn't until John Rowand beat George Simpson to Fort Assiniboine by nearly a month and Simpson threatened to shut down Fort Edmonton that Rowand let Simpson know about this route.^[3] This route was thereafter followed by the York Factory Express brigades.^[4]

By 1825 there were usually two brigades, each setting out from opposite ends of the route, Fort Vancouver in the Columbia District on the lower Columbia River and the other from York Factory on Hudson Bay, in spring and passing each other in the middle of the continent. Each brigade consisted of about forty to seventy five men and two to five specially made boats and travelled at breakneck speed (for the time). Indians along the way were often paid in trade goods to help them portage around falls and unnavigable rapids. An 1839 report cites the travel time as three months and ten days—almost 26 miles (40 km) per day on average.^[1] These men carried supplies in and furs out by boat, horseback and as back packs for the forts and trading posts along the route. They also carried status reports for supplies needed, furs traded etc. from Dr. John McLoughlin head of the Oregon CountryHBC operations, and the other fort managers along the route. This continued until 1846, when the lower Columbia district was ceded to the United States by the Oregon Treaty.

The bulk of supplies and trade goods for the Columbia District were brought from Britain to Fort Vancouver every year by ship around South America, not overland via the York Factory Express route. They tried to maintain one year's extra supplies on hand in case a shipment might be lost at sea or attempting to cross the bar at the mouth of the Columbia River. The furs acquired by trading and trapping during the previous year were sent back on the supply ships and sold in London in an annual fur sale.

James Sinclair followed the southern portion of the route in 1841, when he brought nearly 200 HBC settlers from the Red River Colony (located near the junction of the Assiniboine River and Red River near present Winnipeg, Canada) into the Columbia District. This attempt at British settlement failed because HBC reneged on its promise to settle them. Some of the families did settle at Ft. Nisqually and other HBC sites; others eventually joined the American Oregon settlers for the promise of free land in the Willamette Valley south of the Columbia River.

Transport[edit]

 

York boat replica at Fort Edmonton Park, Edmonton, Alberta

 

York boat under construction showing use of heavy materials.

An inland boat, the York boat, was used to carry furs, trade goods along inland waterways in Rupert's Land east of the Rocky Mountains. The express brigades also used these boats, although they did not carry bulk cargo. The boats were named after their destination: York Factory, headquarters of the HBC, and were modeled after Orkney Islands fishing boats (themselves a descendant of the Viking long boat). York Boats were preferable to the canoes, used by North West Company Voyageurs as a cargo carriers, because of its larger size, greater capacity, and improved stability in rough water. The boat's heavy wood construction also gave it an advantage in travelling through rocks or ice; it was more resistant to tears and punctures. That advantage became a disadvantage, though, when portaging was necessary. The boat was far too heavy to carry, and it was necessary instead to cut a path through the brush, lay poplar rollers, and laboriously drag the boat overland. The mountainous terrain of the Pacific Northwest necessitated the regular use of pack horses over significant portions of the fur brigade routes.

Boats similar to the York but lighter and somewhat smaller were made specifically for use in the Columbia District and constructed on the Columbia River, especially at Fort Colvile. In 1811David Thompson of the North West Company introduced the use of batteaux (French for boat, modern spelling "bateaux") on the Columbia River, made of split or sawn cedar planks. The NWC and the HBC continued the practice of using batteaux, as bark canoes proved too fragile for use on the rivers of the Pacific Northwest and birch bark was in short supply west of the Rockies. In the 1830s John Dunn of the HBC described the Columbia boat as "made from quarter-inch pine board, and are thirty-two feet long, and six and a half feet wide in midships, with both ends sharp, and without a keel—worked, according to the circumstances of the navigation, with paddles, or with oars."^[1]

Route[edit]

From west to east, Fort Vancouver to York Factory, the express route ran as follows. Up the Columbia River past the posts of Fort Nez Perces, Fort Okanogan, and Fort Colvile to Boat Encampment (today under Kinbasket Lake), then over Athabasca Pass to Jasper House, down the Athabasca River to Fort Assiniboine, then overland 80 miles (129 km) along the Athabasca Landing Trail to Fort Edmonton. Thence down the North Saskatchewan River and Saskatchewan River to Lake Winnipeg and via Norway House on the Nelson River. Finally the brigade would travel down the Hayes River to York Factory on Hudson Bay.^[5][6]

[bigdamnhero]

If you can find it on the net somewhere the BBC ran an excellent documentary series narrated by Magnus Magnusson called Vikings (I think). I'm sure one of the episodes was specifically on the Baltic-Black Sea trade.

I managed to find this on YouTube. The video quality isn't great, but you're right that the series is well done. I also managed to find the companion book at my library. Both do mention the trade routes to Constantinople. But yet again, neither says anything about how long the trip typically took.

 

One note from the book that I hadn't heard before and found amusing: the Rus-Byzantine Treaty that was signed in 907 after Oleg of Novgorod's attack on Constantinople, which gave Russian merchants favorable trading status, also included the provision that the Russians should be given as many free baths as they wanted.

[bigdamnhero]

I came across a great book called "The Urge To The Sea: The Course of Russian History: The Role of Rivers, Portages, Ostrogs, Monasteries, and Furs" by Robert J. Kerner. The entire book is about the role these river trade routes played in the formation and development of the Russian State, from the 9th Century onward.

• Small fortresses called Ostrogs were built at the most prominent/popular portage locations, which over time grew into town. Bailiffs were appointed to manage traffic over the portages and collect taxes. There are even records of instructions to the Bailiffs specifying which nations' traders have priority over others based on who has signed treaties with whom recently. It sounds like it was way more organized and controlled than I would've imagined.
• In subsequent centuries, the Russians extended the river trade routes eastward literally all the way to the Sea of Japan! The author argues this was what fueled Russia's expansion eastward. Later on when railroads were built, they mostly followed along these established (and settled) routes.
• 45 pages of the book are spent just listing all the different routes & portages he could find documentation for, up this tributary across that portage to that lake and down this tributary. It's remarkably exhaustive.
• But of course, still no discussion of how long the trips would've typically taken... (I would've emailed the author but he's passed away.)

[bigdamnhero]

So here are the best estimates I've been able to cobble together based on everything I've read and some fooling around on Google Earth. As noted above, there were a ton of different routes used, but I'm only looking at a couple of them.

 

Distances are approximate, and are all given in statute miles for consistency.

 

The swags I'm using for speeds, based on estimates from a couple of sources, are roughly 3 knots upriver and 8 knots downriver, which assuming 8 hours of travel per day works out to roughly 28 statute miles a day upriver, and 75 miles a day downriver. For the portages, I'm guessing dragging boats overland you're probably not going to do much better than 1 mph, so call it 8-10 miles per day? PLEASE VALIDATE/CHALLENGE THESE ASSUMPTIONS?

 

So given all that: the fastest route appears to be the Riga Route, which starts in the Gulf of Riga, up the Dvina, portage to the Dneiper, and down the Dneiper to the Black Sea:

 

Riga Route south from the Baltic to the Black Sea:

• From Sweden (vic. Stockholm) to Riga: 300 miles, call it 4 days (with a good wind)
• Up the Dvina River to around 35 miles past Vitebsk: 420 miles, call it 15 days
• Up the Kasplaya River to Lake Kasplaya: 140 miles, call it 5 days
• Portage from Lake Kasplaya to the Dneiper River vic. Smolensk: 22 miles overland, call it 2 days
• Down the Dneiper River (past Kiev) to the Black Sea: 1160 miles, call it 16 days
• Add a couple days to negotiate/portage around the 7 rapids on the south Dneiper: call it 2 days
• Across the Black Sea to Constantinople: 485 miles, call it 6 days (with a good wind)

Total travel time: something like 50 days, plus stopovers

 

Return trip: Riga Route north from the Black Sea to the Baltic (same distances but different times due to direction of current):

• From Constantinople across the Black Sea to the mouth of the Dneiper: 485 miles, call it 6 days
• Add a couple days to negotiate/portage around the 7 rapids on the south Dneiper: call it 2 days
• Up the Dneiper River (past Kiev) to Smolensk: 1160 miles, call it 41 days
• Portage from the Dneiper to Lake Kasplaya: 22 miles overland, call it 2 days
• Down the Kasplaya River to the Dvina River: 140 miles, call it 2 days
• Down the Dvina River to the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea: 420 miles, call it 6 days
• From there to Sweden (vic. Stockholm): 300 miles, call it 4 days (with a good wind)

 

Total travel time: something like 63 days, plus stopovers

 

 

A more popular route appears to have been the Novgorod Route which started further east in Lake Ladoga, took longer and had a 2nd portage, but went past Novgorod, which was a key trading center:

 

Novgorod Route, south from the Baltic to the Black Sea:

• From Sweden (vic. Stockholm) to the mouth of the Neva River (currently St. Petersburg): 445 miles, call it 6 days
• Up the Neva River to Neva Bay: 45 miles, call it 1.5 days
• Along the shore of Lake Ladoga to the Volkhov River: 60 miles, call it 1 day
• Across Lake Ladoga and up the Volkhov River to Lake Ilmen: 160 miles, call it 6 days
• Up the Lovat RIver and up its tributary the Kunya River: 270 miles, call it 10 days
• Portage from the Kunya to Lake Zhizhitsa: 8 miles overland, call it 1 day
• Down the Zhizhitsa River to the Dvina River, and down the Dvina to the Kasplaya River: 80 miles, call it 1 day
• Up the Kasplaya River to Lake Kasplaya: 140 miles, call it 5 days
• 2nd portage from Lake Kasplaya to the Dneiper River vic. Smolensk: 22 miles overland, call it 2 days
• Down the Dneiper River (past Kiev) to the Black Sea: 1160 miles, call it 16 days
• Add a couple days to negotiate/portage around the 7 rapids on the south Dneiper: call it 2 days
• Across the Black Sea to Constantinople: 485 miles, call it 6 days (with a good wind)

Total travel time: something like 58 days, plus stopovers

 

Return trip: Novgorod Route, north from the Black Sea to the Baltic

• From Constantinople across the Black Sea to the mouth of the Dneiper: 485 miles, call it 6 days
• Add a couple days to negotiate/portage around the 7 rapids on the south Dneiper: call it 2 days
• Up the Dneiper River (past Kiev) to Smolensk: 1160 miles, call it 41 days
• Portage from the Dneiper to Lake Kasplaya: 22 miles overland, call it 2 days
• Down the Kasplaya River to the Dvina River: 140 miles, call it 2 days
• Up the Dvina River to the Zhizhitsa River, and up the Zhizhitsa to Lake Zhizhitsa: 80 miles, call it 3 days
• 2nd portage from Lake Zhizhitsa to the Kunya River: 8 miles overland, call it 1 day
• Down the Kunya River to the Lovat River, and down the Lovat to Lake Ilmen: 270 miles, call it 4 days
• Across Lake Ilmen and down the Volkhov River to Lake Ladoga: 160 miles, call it 2 days
• Along the shore of Lake Ladoga to the Neva River: 60 miles, call it 1 day
• Down the Neva River to Neva Bay (current site of St. Petersburg: 45 miles, call it 1 day
• From there to Sweden (vic. Stockholm): 445 miles, call it 6 days (with a good wind)

Total travel time: something like 71 days, plus stopovers

[bigdamnhero]

Addendum: an online lecture I found by Prof. Kenneth W. Harl of Trinity College gave these stats:

• Viking Longboats typically sailed 8 hours per day
• In open water under oar, can easily average 3-4 knots
• With the wind under sail can do maybe 8-12 knots
• So an average sailing day could cover 40-65 nautical miles (45-75 statute miles)
• In 845 a Viking fleet sailed from Denmark to attack Paris.
• They covered the 900 miles to the mouth of the Seine in ~ 3 weeks. (~40-45 statute miles per day)
• It took them 3-4 days to sail 150 miles up the Seine to Paris against the current: (~40-50 statute miles per day!)

He claims one of the Vikings biggest advantages was that even on rivers they were 3 times faster than the typical European land army, so they could completely outmaneuver their opponents.