Parts of a Viking Ship – Labeled Longship Diagram

All 17 parts on the diagram

Show the list

The ship from the side 12

Keel Forms the backbone of the ship with the stem and the sternpost. Shipwrights shaped these first, most often from oak.
Stem The front post of the hull. The strakes run into it at the bow.
Sternpost The back post of the hull. The strakes run into it at the stern, as they do into the stem at the bow.
Dragon head A carved head at the bow of some large longships. They carried a tail at the stern and were called dragon ships. Many ships had none.
Strakes Each strake overlaps the one below it, which is called clinker-built. The overlaps strengthen the hull along its length.
Oar ports An oar goes out through each one. On the Gokstad ship they could be closed with wooden covers.
Oars Used near the coast and in rivers. Also when the wind was too light or blew the wrong way.
Rudder It hung on the right-hand side. The word starboard comes from the old Norse name for the steering side.
Tiller A short bar set at right angles to the blade. Moving it turns the rudder.
Mast A Viking ship had one mast. Its foot stood in the keelson, and the mast could be taken down.
Yard The sail hangs from it.
Sail A square sail, woven from wool or from flax.

The hull cut across 5

Frame Sits across the keel and stiffens the hull from side to side. The hull then keeps its shape.
Crossbeam It ties the two sides together above a frame. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde uses the Norse word biti for it.
Knee Often cut where a branch or a root met the trunk. The grain of the wood then follows the bend.
Deck More a raised floor than a deck. It gave no shelter from the weather.
Keelson The foot of the mast stands in it.

How this list was compiled: Every name and detail checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two of these use it: (1) The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, All about the Viking ship: the hull of the ship (stem and keel, planks, frames, biti or cross beams, oar locks, rudder and tackle) and the ship's sail, https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/all-about-the-viking-ship/the-hull-of-the-ship , and its page on the Gokstad boat (side rudder and tiller), https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/boatyard/building-projects/the-gokstad-boat ; (2) Ingvald Undset, A short guide for the use of visitors to the viking-ship from Gokstad, Kristiania, 1898, public domain, https://archive.org/details/shortguideforuse00undsuoft (keel, stem and sternpost, clinch-built strakes, frames, beams joined to the side by knees, keelson, mast, yard and sail, openings for the oars with wooden ports, rudder and tiller, boards resting on the beams, no dragon head on this ship); (3) Wikipedia, Longship and Gokstad ship, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longship (dragon head and tail, oar ports in the upper strake, when oars were used, one mast set in the keelson, the sail hung from a yard, the rudder on the starboard quarter, deck of loose planks on the cross-beams, knees from the bend of trunk and root). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Not to scale. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a Viking ship start with a keel and two curved posts. Overlapping strakes make the hull, and one mast carries a square sail.

Read the full guide

From the side

The keel runs along the bottom and turns up into the stem at the bow and the sternpost at the stern. Between them the strakes overlap, each over the one below. Oar ports pierce a strake near the top. One mast holds the yard and the sail, and the rudder hangs over the right-hand side near the stern.

Cut across

The second view slices the hull in the middle. A frame curves across the keel like a rib. A crossbeam ties the two sides together, held by a knee at each end, and the deck planks rest on it. The keelson holds the foot of the mast.

The stem is the front post and the sternpost the back one. On this drawing the bow points right.
Starboard, the right-hand side of a ship, is named after the steering board that hung there.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a Viking longship?

A keel with a stem and a sternpost, overlapping strakes fixed to frames, crossbeams held by knees, and loose deck planks. One mast carries a yard and a square sail. Oars pass through oar ports, and a rudder hangs on the right-hand side.

What is the front of a Viking ship called?

The bow, or prow. The curved post that forms it is the stem. On some large longships the stem ended in a carved dragon head, which is why those were called dragon ships.

How was a Viking ship steered?

With a side rudder: a broad blade like a large oar, hung on the right-hand side near the stern and turned with a tiller. Rudders fixed to the sternpost came later, in the Middle Ages.

Are the parts of a Viking boat the same?

Mostly: keel, stems, strakes, frames and a side rudder. The small boats found with the Gokstad ship had no oar ports. Their oars were held against small wooden knees fixed on the gunwale.