Alfred Søvik from Lysefjorden
Alfred Søvik from Lysefjorden in Os was one of the builders of Os River boats who ran the traditional handicraft work as his main occupation. (Hans-Kr. Bukholm).
The Wooden Boat
If you look along the gunwales of an Oselver which takes its name from the Os River1 you will see a fine profile along the strake. It is this sort of profiles that the skilled tradesmen who built the stave churches, used. It was the same tradesmen who mastered the art of boat-building. But the lines of the Os River boat are older than the Middle Ages themselves. The Os River boat is the Norwegian boat type which most closely resembles the small boats found with the Gokstad Viking Ship from the period around 900 AD. Even older boat finds from Hordaland show that the boat-builders of the Viking times had even then a 1,000 year old tradition behind them. In the bottom of bogs in Hordaland the remains of boats almost 2000 years old have been found; amazingly like today’s forms. But how did these boat remains get there?
En av keipene fra båtfunnet på Mangersnes på Radøy er trolig fra 400-tallet e.Kr. (Bernt Kristiansen, 1988).
Today’s Os River boats are closely related to the smallest of the small boats in the Gokstad ship. (Hans-Kr. Bukholm).
An Os River boat. You should note the wide planks and the naturally grown ribs. (Hans-Kr. Bukholm).
The Os River boat is also an excellent sailing boat, primarily because of the bottom of the boat with cut shanks, but it demands a skilled crew. (Hans-Kr. Bukholm).
Alfed Søvik fastens the shanks on to the keel of a new Os River boat.(Hans-Kr. Bukholm).
“The big boat” under sail off Bjelkerøy. (Hans-Kr. Bukholm).
The vengebåt which is moored at Laksevågsiden is probably “the Eidsvoll boat”: the royal agent Janson from Damsgård put his boat at the disposal of Fredrik Meltzer and his entourage on their trip to the National Assembly held at Eidsvoll in 1814. ("Fra Laksevåg mot Nordnes". Photo: Knud Knudsen, owner Billedsamlingen, Universitetsbiblioteket i Bergen (KK 3510)).
Båtbyggerverkstedet til Torgeir Oma, ca. 1920 (A. Tellefsen, eier: Kvam kulturkontor).