BCVSP Picture Gallery - Keel Raising Ceremony Pictures

Welcome to the Keel Raising Ceremony picture gallery!

Here's where you can check out our big event to mark this important milestone. Actually it was a two-in-one affair: We had finished the boat shed roof and got the keel ready for the next phase of construction.

The big day and the big agenda

The Keel Rasing Ceremony was held on Sunday September 10, 2000. We kicked it off at 12:15pm with over 80 people in attendance. Even in our sizeable 24x64 foot boat shed, we were comfortably crowded.

We had laboured valiantly the day before to spruce up the hall with our project posters about Vikings, Viking ships, maps and so on. The red and white striped sail from our little ship at the Scandinavian Center made a great back drop as did the magnificent leather tapestry from the movie the Thirteenth Warrior. As an aside, we actually have quite a few props from the movie which was filmed here in BC.

After the ceremony and the formal part of the event, we retired to the patio deck for food and refreshments. The bar was open. One of our project members from the Society of Creative Anachronisms or SCA for short. The SCA is a historical re-enactment group, had brought some mead, so we had occasion to drink a very fitting toast to our ship.

We made quite a lot of friends from SCA during the Midsummer Fest and several came out to join in our celebration in full costume. This lent a nice touch to the event as we have not made much progress outfitting the project members yet.

Of inauspicious beginnings, great things may still follow

The weather had been great all summer, but turned wet and miserable the week before our big do. We joked that we maybe we should mark the invitations "bring your own oar" and have the crowd row the boat shed once around the field for a taste of adventure.

But this is BC and if you worry too much about the weather, nothing gets done. So we carried on. In the end, the clouds lifted sufficiently Sunday morning to stop the rain and all was well.

New and old friends came to celebrate

Many new and old friends turned out to celebrate the important milestone with us. Several dignitaries graced us with their presence on this Sunday afternoon such as Fred Randall, the MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly for BC) for Burnaby/Edmonds, Stein Gudmundseth, Norwegian Consul General and Burnaby Counsellors Barbara Der (Deputy Mayor) and Gary Begin.

All the Scandinavian countries were represented and we had just a grand old time.

Our indefatigable photographer was present and captured the historic moment for posterity.

All thumbnail pictures are clickable and will bring up a full size picture.

The BCVSP Keel Raising Ceremony

Marian Toft, the President of the Norwegian House Society (NHS), opened the ceremonies with a moving welcoming speech. The project is formally organized under NHS, and Marian did a great job of sharing the significance of the project with everyone. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

The Digital Norseman appeared in his analog aspect as Preben Ormen and Chairperson of the BC Viking Ship Project to play his part as Master of Ceremonies. He also got to explain why we were all there and why that was a great idea. (The crowd seemed to buy his story.) © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

Fred Randall, MLA for Burnaby/Edmonds, addressed the assembly and graciously expressed his support for out initiative. "One can hardly imagine a more fitting project in this year of the millennium celebrations of the Vikings' first arrival in North America" he said. Kind words, indeed. We are very pleased that we - both the project and the Scandinavian Center - have the support of people like Fred Randall and the Burnaby Council who play such an important role in making the local community what it is. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

Stein Gudmundseth, Norwegian Consul General took the stage next and said rather a lot of nice things about us. We, of course, lapped it up shamelessly and enjoyed his company. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

After all the speeches and formal stuff, it was time for some action. Everybody got ready by the keel in preparation for rasing it to its upright position. At 40 feet in length, we had room for a lot of people even if they had to jostle for space here and there. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

"Are we ready, now?" Double checking and starting the countdown to raise the keel. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

And up it came once the signal was given with a lot of eager shuffling about to get it up. Then running around for some hammers, nails and lengths of wood for the supports. That was definitely the most unrehearsed part of the day, but we declared victory in short order. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

Once up, everybody just stepped back to get a good look. Even though many of us had seen the keel lying on the floor for awhile, we had to admit it was a glorious sight to behold, so tall and majestic on the blocks. The guys at the end are six footers all of them. You do the math on the keel height (there is actually more beyond the picture edge.) Just rasing the keel like this gave us a much different perspective of how large this ship will actually be. From this you can really begin to get a feel for the lines of the Viking ship itself. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

Fair ladies abounded, some in great costumes as shown here against the greatest backdrop of them all. (OK, so we're biased...) © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

The shipwrights got excited and hauled out the station molds. Putting them up was great fun and lots of people got to lend a hand. We had five of the nine stations ready. More to come here, obviously. With the stations up, the size of the ship became even more imposing. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

Here is what it's really all about. The kids, of course, had it figured out right from the start and quickly climbed right up on the keel. (Can't you just imagine the exact same thing happening 1000 years ago, too.) What a great story to tell the class mates on a Monday morning: "So, what did you do on the weekend?" "Well, I sat on the keel of a Viking ship. How about you?" Top that, if you can. © Copyright 2000 Peter Jensen

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