Steinar Hvitstein was quick off the mark and became the first sponsor of rowing chests for the new Gokstad ship. Now he’s challenging other Sandefjord patriots to do the same.
Text and photo by Einar Chr. Erlingsen
Steinar didn’t just sponsor one rowing chest—he went for two at once: one as a personal contribution and the other through his company, Nytbyn AS. “The Gokstad ship is Sandefjord’s magnificent contribution to the world’s cultural heritage, so of course I want to support this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring an exact replica home to Sandefjord,” Steinar says. “Nothing against GAIA, but it’s owned by the municipality and has been promised on long-term loan to the planned Viking park near the Gokstad mound.”
With a smile, he also points out the friendly rivalry between Sandefjord and Tønsberg:
“Tønsberg got sponsors for all 28 rowing chests for the Oseberg ship. Now we’ve got the
chance to beat that—because Gokstad had 32 rowers!”
NOK 10,000 per chest
Although only one rowing chest was found on the Oseberg ship and none on the Gokstad ship, historians believe there would have been one for every rower. This was a practical necessity—you simply can’t row seated directly on the deck. Each chest likely served both as a seat and as a small personal locker for the rower.
Sponsors won’t get to keep the chests—they’ll be used on board the new Gokstad ship. But each chest will carry a brass nameplate acknowledging the sponsor. The price is NOK 10,000 per chest, with a few larger commander’s chests available for NOK 20,000. Steinar Hvitstein has already claimed one of those, so you’ll have to act fast!
“We need sponsors to build the new Gokstad ship,” says site manager Roger Pande Løvall
(left), pictured here with the first sponsor, Steinar Hvitstein.
“Professor-made”
The rowing chests are mainly being crafted by our skilled volunteers at the Sandefjord Viking Park. One of them is Svein Solberg, a professor affiliated with NIBIO (the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research), who’s been volunteering at the build site for the past three years.
Svein has a holiday home nearby and combines holidays with a few days of hands-on timber work every month. No surprise there—his academic field is wood science! He and the team at Oseberg Vikingarv have already completed a joint research project on splitting oak.
No shortage of effort in the summer heat as Svein Solberg wields his axe on the timber that
will eventually become a rowing chest for the new Gokstad ship.
Want to sponsor a chest?
If so, get in touch with Roger Pande Løvall at the Sandefjord build site:
Phone: +47 900 32 920
Mail: roger.p.lovall@gmail.com
Translated from Norwegian by ChatGPT.