A faering is an open boat

Boat

A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a...

 with two pairs of oars, commonly found in most boat-building traditions in Western and Northern Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

.

History

Faerings are clinker

Clinker

Clinker may refer to:* Clinker , construction method for wooden boats* Clinker , waste from industrial processes* Clinker , a kilned then quenched cement product* Clinker brick, rough dark coloured bricks...

-built, with planks overlapped and riveted together to form the hull. This type of boat has a history dating back to Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

-era Scandinavia. The small boats found with the 9th century Gokstad ship

Gokstad ship

The Gokstad ship is a Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad farm in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway.-Discovery:The place where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen , although the relevance of its name had been discounted as...

 resemble those still used in Western and Northern Norway, and testify to a long tradition of boat building. Faerings may carry a small sail, traditionally a square sail, in addition to oars. The only significant difference being a conversion from a side-mounted rudder to stern-mounted. They are used as small fishing vessels in areas of modern Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, and occasionally raced.

Etymology

The word faering comes from the Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

 word færing (Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

 feræringr), literally meaning "four-oaring".

Other sources

• Greenhill, Basil (1976) Archaeology of the Boat (London: Adam and Charles Black Publishers Ltd) ISBN 978-0713616453
• Leather, John (1990) Clinker Boatbuilding (Adlard Coles) ISBN 978-0713636437