The Norwegian Viking ship Draken Harald Hårfagre must obtain 3.5 million crowns after experiencing unforeseen problems when it entered US waters.
US authorities consider the Viking ship a commercial vessel, and therefore it requires a navigator on board, the newspaper Daily Herald said.
The unforeseen cost will add around 430,000 dollars – a little over 3.5 million kroner – to the ship’s travel budget. A navigator costs around 400 dollars – that is over 3,000 kroner – an hour.
The viking ship was launched in 2012 and is built with Olav Tryggvason fabled warship Ormen Lange from year 999 as a template. It was expected to be part of Chicago Tall Ships exhibition later this month.
Sons of Norway is an organization for Norwegian Americans, and it has begun fundraising to get the ship on through the great lakes to Chicago.
Friday afternoon they had already collected a little over 25,000 dollars – around 210,000 kroner.
Until the money is collected, the ship is stuck in Bay City in the state of Michigan.
The ship is the world’s largest Viking ship and was let out of the home port in Haugesund on 24th April this year. Along the way it has been through Iceland and Greenland before it crossed the Atlantic to Newfoundland in Canada. 1000 years earlier, the site was discovered by Leif Eriksson and his Vikings, who named the area Vinland.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
Interesting, USA always and only need our money. I think that every american Norwegian navigaor will be proud to navigate free of chanrge like volunteer.