American Woman Dies While Re-Creating Viking Voyage

An American woman has died after the boat she was in—a replica of a Viking-type ship—capsized off Norway's west coast late Tuesday. The BBC reports she was one of six people aboard the Naddoddur, a 30-foot long boat that encountered rough seas while traveling from the Faroe Islands to Alesund, Norway, in a trip that mimicked one Vikings would have taken a millennium ago.

Norway's Sea Rescue Society described angry conditions, with waves of up to 16 feet and wind speeds at 40 knots. The boat issued a distress signal, and the other passengers managed to get into a life raft. They were later airlifted from it by helicopter. AFP reports that local media described the victim, who was found in the water, as an American in her 20s.

The head of the Faroe Islands' Naddoddur boat club says the boat had previously completed Viking-style trips to Iceland, Shetland, and Norway; this expedition had been underway for four days. "It's not a Viking boat," he explained, but "a Faroes fishing boat without a motor but with sails" and oars. Prior to setting out on the trip, which was delayed a number of days due to weather, the BBC reports a crew member wrote that "you just try to do the best you can" during a storm. "It's an open boat. You sleep under the stars, and when it's raining or windy you can feel the elements." (More Vikings stories.)