The Milestones of the Hjortspring Boat

The Milestones:

350 BC	The boat was built somewhere in the Baltic area.
3xx BC	The boat was conquered and sacrificed in the bog.
1880 - 1889	Fragments of the boat was found when peat was dug in the bog.
1915	The inspector Jens Raben at the museum in Soenderborg was informed of the existence of the boat.
1921-1922	The boat was excavated by G. Rosenberg.
1921-193x	The boat was preserved and placed at an exhibition at the National Museum in Copenhagen.
1937	The book Hjortspringfundet was published.
1960'ties	The boat was taken down for re-conservation and stored in a magazine.
1971	An attempt of reconstruction in 3 weeks by scouts in Roskilde at the Viking Ship Museum.
1986	A new exhibition was made at the National Museum made possible by funds from The Society of Friends of the National Museum.
1987	The bog was reopened an a small number of wooden fragments was found of which two was C14 dated.
1991	The Guild of the Hjortspring Boat was formed.
1992 - 1994	The training period where two full-scale pieces of the boat was made: a middle piece and a stem.
Autumn 1993	The two test-pieces have been used at an exhibition at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.
February 1994	The building of the boat started.
Marts 1994	The two test-pieces have been used at an exhibition, Exempla 94,  in Munich.
Marts 1996	The bottom plank finished and the two stems attached.
June 1997	The two side planks finished and attached to the bottom plank and the stems.
September 1997	The Eight International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, held at The Polish Maritime Museum in Gdansk, Poland, 24-27 September.
April 1998 - September 1998	Our full scale models are used in an special exhibition at Hjemsted Oldtidspark, together with some of our copies of weaponry and tools. Hjemsted Oldtidspark is an museum of the early Iron Age and a entertainment park.
August 1998	The gunwale planks are now finished and are being sewn to the side planks and the stems.
December 1998	The gunwale planks are now sewn to the side planks and the stems, missing just a few inches of stitches. The gunwale at the fore half of the boat are shaped into the final form
January 1999	The first rib-frame (no. 6) are now tied to the planks.
February 9 1999	The last stitch have been made at the hull.
May 6 1999	The Boat are finished.
June 5 1999	The launch festivity at Dyvig. The book Tanker om Hjortspringfundet og Als i keltisk jernalder are published.
September 9 - 11 1999	The first real test of Tilia together with 13 persons from Vikingeskibshallen at Roskilde (The National Museum, NMF / NMU), where the boat was exposed to various experiments, such as: Acceleration Speed Stopping distance Turning Different stability and hydrodynamic experiments. In a very beautiful weather. These kind of test will be continued next year.
May 6 2000	On the 6th and 7th of May Silkeborg Museum celebrates the 50 years (re)birthday of the Tollund Man and Tilia Alsie were invited to play an active role in the festivity.
August 31 - September 3 2000	Tilia was tested again, this time with a crew of very experienced paddlers from the Dragon boat club Viking, 22 in all the drummer included. The results were very exciting: Max. speed: 8.2 knots ! An unexpected well behavior in rough weather - 1m waves, 10 m/s wind. Due to the rather bad weather, the planned long distance test of around the island of Als was postponed to May 2001.
December 2000	The Ninth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, held in Venice, Italy. Two members of the Guild participated.
May 2001: Long-distance sailings at Als	Fair weather on Aabenraa Fjord. At anchor at the Soenderborg Castle.  On the 11th to 13th of May a series of tests with Tilia was performed. The tests were co-ordinated by Max Vinner, Vikingeskisbhallen assisted by Rikke Johansen, Vikingeskibshallen. Otto Uldum (Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the National Museum of Denmark) conducted documentation with photos and video. See the full story with larger pictures (64 kB).
June 3, 2001	The 10 year jubilee of the Guild.
June 16, 2001	Tilia Alsie participate in the festivities around the new ferry to sail between Ballebro and Hardeshoej.
July 25, 2001	At The 350 years Jubilee of Agustenborg we have a vist of our Queen Margrethe II and the Prince Consort Henrik on board the Royal Yacht Dannebrog. We parpicitate with Tilia Alsie in the festivte with 25 members in Iron age clothes. The evening before Tilia was towed to Augustenborg fjord by a motorboat and 6 men onboard Tilia. We moored at the Naust of Sebbe Als with 3 men taking guard during the night. Early next day the were some practice in good seemanship and behavior. Dannebrog was anchored far out in the fjord and the barge  was used for the remaning distance, Tilia followed at the starboard side of the barge. Later during the day we participate in 75 years jubilee of Augustenborg Roklub. Prince Henrik inaugurated a new building at the club. After the ceremony Prince Henrik went out on the jetty were we were with Tilia and 24 crew-members at the padles, steering-oar, drum and bailer. Very interested he asked Magda Pedersen, Jørgen Jessen and Dan Feldfos, all at the stem of the boat, about our boat and its history. Suddenly we were asked: Are there time for at small trip? There was!
August 28, 2001	The Hjortspring Boat was the theme of an half hour TV-program at Denmark's Radio DR2 - Viden Om.
.	To be continued...