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Who do you call when your replica Viking longship needs an inspection? 

That’s the question the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead pondered when crewmembers who sailed the Hjemkomst Viking Ship to Norway nearly a half-century ago pointed out the ropes holding up the sails might collapse.

Since the 78-foot replica ship made its 2-month-long journey from Lake Superior, across the Atlantic Ocean to Oslo, and was greeted by the King of Norway, the wooden vessel has been on display inside the Hjemkomst Center. 

While that might not seem stressful, the years can take a toll.

“There’s a lot of weight on those ropes, and they’ve been in the same position for a long time,” said Markus Krueger, research historian for the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. “We don’t want the rope to snap and then the yard falls down, and the ship falls over and rips a hole in the fabric roof of our building.”

In order to fit the ship’s 63-foot mast inside the building, there’s no real roof of the Hjemkomst Center, just a giant white tent held up by a few pillars. If the mast tips over, it would cause a lot of damage.

The Hjemkomst’s rigging is made up of about half a mile of rope, some of which needs to be replaced before the ship literally falls apart. Rigging refers to the ropes on a ship that move the sails to catch the wind and hold the mast up, which is the big central structure on a boat that carries the sails.

As it turns out, one of the few people suitable to repair ropes on a replica sailing ship is Courtney J. Andersen, a former Minnesotan whose worked on fictional ones like the Black Pearl in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies and on real ones too.

“I jumped at the chance to do this,” said Andersen, who now lives in California.

Maritime museums are Andersen’s usual clients; he’s also worked on replicas of legendary historical ships like the Golden Hind, which explorer Francis Drake sailed around the globe.

While there’s something special about every ship he works on, Andersen said the Hjemkomst is unique as it’s his very first Viking ship replica.

“These Viking longships were designed to obviously sail, but also to be rowed across the ocean,” Andersen said. “It’s like a canoe with a mast. And so it’s a very different kind of a sailing vessel than what I've encountered.”

Moorhead’s city government, which owns the ship, budgeted $30,000 to repair the rigging, which included a $10,000 grant from the Minnesota Historical Society.

While he usually focuses on historical accuracy, this time around Andersen is more concerned about preserving the legacy of the Hjemkomst’s builder, Robert Asp.

“He’s on that poster right there, watching every move I make on this ship,” said Andersen. “So I definitely feel him here.”

Asp was a Moorhead high school guidance counselor in the 1970s when he began building the Hjemkomst, which translates to “Homecoming” in Norwegian. He began the construction of the ship after a fall from a roof one summer left him with time on his hands as he recovered from his injury.

“It took quite a few years,” said his daughter, Deb Seitz.  “It was always just kind of a part of my growing up, it was always there.”

The child of Norwegian immigrants, Asp dreamed of not only constructing the ship, but sailing it to Norway, but he died of leukemia before he could make the journey. Seitz knew right away she wanted to be on the voyage to honor her father’s dream.

“It was like you’re either going to do this or you’re probably going to regret forever that you didn’t at least try,” she said. 

Seitz was a sophomore in college when she officially joined the Hjemkomst crew after a summer of training that included sailing down the Knife River and across the waves of Lake Superior.

“A bunch of people were just up there on Lake Superior with the Hjemkomst, trying, sailing, practicing, getting to know each other, finding the kinks, finding the bugs, working it out, figuring out what worked and what didn’t work,” she said.

Then, in the spring of 1982, the crew of 12, including three of her siblings and an experienced Norwegian skipper began the trip from Lake Superior to Oslo.

Seitz says the trip was a mix of emotions as they battled through storms, heavy winds and a healthy dose of boredom.

Early on in the journey, a tropical storm caused a 14-foot-long crack in the underside of the ship. It was only an eighth of an inch wide, however, and they continued on their path after stuffing it with burlap sacks.

Seitz said the voyage was “terrifying, sometimes boring, sometimes fun, but a lot of waiting.”

Then, after over two months and 6,000 miles of ocean, they made it to Norway. When they finally arrived, the crew had an audience with King Olav V.

“The King of Norway invited us onto the deck of his yacht,” she said. “We had a royal, literal royal reception at the American Embassy in Oslo.”

The ship was stored in Norway for a year before eventually finding its way back to Moorhead in 1986, where it now resides inside the Hjemkomst Center.

“That’s pretty cool that they have kept this,” Seitz said. “Keeping the Hjemkomst in good shape, while also having a spot for the history of the area.”

Andersen expects the new rigging to last another half-century, and with no predicted tropical storms in the climate-controlled museum, it will likely be viewed by thousands of people in the decades ahead.

But the rigging restoration expert wants everyone to remember that it all started with Asp.

“I think almost every project I’ve worked on for a replica ship, there is somebody with the vision, somebody who says, hey, I want to do this really crazy thing,” he said.

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A replica Viking ship called the Hjemkomst, built by a high school counselor in the 1970s is starting to age and needs new sections of rope to stay standing. The ship sailed to Norway in the 80s, fulfilling the dream of its builder, Robert Asp. 

Noah Bloch | MPR News

Coils of rope sit on the ground near the ship.

A view of a ship inside of the history center.

A plaque reads "A Tribute to Robert Asp" on a stairway.

Legendary Viking ship replica that sailed to Norway receives new rigging

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