Daredevil, the story of a little cargo boat

 

 

Long ago, in a place called Oslo in Norway, there was a small boat whose name was Daredevil. She was very special because she was alive, she could see and hear and feel things.

 Daredevil was tired. She had been working hard all day for her master, a man called Arnstein, carrying stones to the castle and then barrels of fish to the market. It had been raining all day, and it was cold with light snow showers.

It had been a long day, and her frames and planks were aching. Worst of all she could feel she was leaking, and water was coming in through old cracks in her body.

 She was a little wooden cargo boat over twenty years old with 2 sails and place for four persons to row. Arnstein was both skipper and owner and had worked very hard to support his wife and two daughters that lived up the road from the harbour in Oslo, quite close to the church.

The problem was that to make enough money to provide food for his family he had to work Daredevil day and night, and he did not have time to look after Daredevil properly.

At the end of a long day Arnstein tied Daredevil to the quay. But then Daredevil felt a tug on her ropes and her mast was gone. Then a shuffling sound and the sail went ashore. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that all the oars were also gone. Very strange. He had never done this before.

Next day Daredevil was expecting to be again carrying stones and fish around Oslo, but nothing happened. Arnstein had left her. The weather turned nasty with high winds, snow and huge waves that banged against her side. The leaks got worse over the next few days, and she was so tired that she just wanted to go to sleep for a long time. Then it happened. Quite suddenly she sank and gently came to rest on the soft mud at the bottom of the harbour. Strange thought Daredevil, I do not have aches and pains anymore and it is very peaceful down here. So, I will sleep now.

Daredevil was woken from her deep sleep by loud noises above her head. It was strange because when she went to sleep there was only the relaxing sound of water that had helped her to go to sleep.

What could this be?

She opened her eyes, and everything was black, and she could smell the soft mud that she recognised from when she sank.

Then the loud noises were replaced by scraping sounds, just like digging in the sand, although it seemed it was happening all around her. Suddenly she saw a speck of light above her that gradually got bigger until a deep blue clear sky appeared above. Then a face appeared with light brown eyes in a round smiling face surrounded by tight curly hair. She heard a shout. “There is a boat down here”. What are they talking about and what are they doing here?

The hole got bigger and bigger until all the mud was gone. They pulled her out of the mud, but something was strange. She did not look like a boat anymore. She was flat and broken into pieces. It was if a large weight had squashed her flat and her ribs and planks were scattered about.

Daredevil looked up expecting to see the familiar things, the quay, the church, but there was nothing. Instead, she was in the centre of a large hole surrounded by giant cranes and very tall buildings. Where was the sea?

What Daredevil did not know was that she had been asleep for over 400 years and in that time, Oslo had grown and taken back a lot of land from the sea.

Now she was in a building site in the centre of Oslo, and the sea was 500 metres away.

 So, what were these yellow coated people doing here? Why were they poking around with their trowels and photographing and measuring her planks.

They were scientists who study what life was like many years ago by, looking for and digging out old boats to understand how they were built and used. So, they scraped away all the mud from Daredevil and then started to separate her parts.

Daredevil was quite amused as she was used to repairs to her body, but this was quite different. She was now being taken to pieces, each piece numbered and carried away.

Daredevil hoped that they did not lose any of her parts and kept them together, after all she was a boat!

But where were they taking her and what for. She noticed part of a large sign that said museum. What is a museum and what would they do with her there?

While she pondered this, her parts were placed in large baths of what looked like water, and she heard Agnetta say that she should have to stay there a few months until she was finally clean.

She knew she had been used for dirty work, especially stinking fish, but a bath for a few months. After a few days in these baths, she started to feel better and stronger, as though she had been treated for a sickness.

Then, one day Daredevil’s parts were taken out of the bath and transported to a room full of computers and equipment.

These experts, especially one called Signy started poking her with a metal pin that was connected to a computer screen. Every so often there was a little bleep and the shape on the computer screen changed. What was all this about.

The door opened and a medium tall man with a loud voice came in and asked Signy what she was doing.  

“We want to measure Daredevil accurately and learn more on her life and how she was built. With this equipment we can record all of Daredevil’s pieces and all the damages she has suffered even her nail holes.”

Daredevil thought this was a little too personal, but she did not have a choice so accepted quietly to this examination.

 Examination over they returned her parts to the large baths.

Some months later whilst relaxing in her bath she heard Signy say to somebody that it was time to look after all her parts by freeze drying.

Freezing and drying seemed a horrible thing to do, thought Daredevil. Drying was OK. She was fed up with being wet anyway but freezing she did not like. She knew all about freezing as she had carried cargo in the middle of winter covered in blue ice. Not nice, but what could she do?

But sure enough, one day her parts were taken out of the bath and loaded into what looked like a giant metal box. I don't like this she thought. As the door was slammed shut and she started to feel cold, and it became colder and colder and colder and then she just fell asleep.

Many months later she started to feel warmer and yes, also dry. The door opened and there stood a woman in a white coat.

She had long brown hair, tied in a bun, and large brown glasses through which she looked closely at Daredevil’s parts. “Good,” she said, “Daredevil is dry and ready for storing.” “Great”, said Signy. “We can help you transfer her to the shelves.” “OK,” said Mildred in the white coat. “I can help you store Daredevil’s parts.”

What does this mean thought Daredevil. Am I to end up as a dusty set of parts hidden away. That's not what I want. I want to be a boat again, charge through the waters that I remember from my younger days. So, she lay there in her various parts, dreaming of being a boat again when suddenly the

storeroom door opened, lights switched on and she heard a young woman's voice say, “I think Daredevil is over in this corner.” Daredevil looked up into a kind warm woman’s face surrounded by short blonde hair. “There she is Roar,” said Kari. “Let's see if she is complete.” Well, I could have told him that I was not complete. Some of my parts got lost or mixed up in the discovery at the building site. Roar. Who is Roar? I thought. They don't sound like experts at all. Well, they are. Kari looks after old Norwegian boats like Daredevil and Roar is a boat builder.

So, what are they up to. Roar started to examine my body parts, making comments, and referring to computer printouts. Roar was a stocky, medium sized man with a red face.

“We need to talk to Pål, the technical expert on how we can put Daredevil back together as a boat,” said Roar. “It will be like a jigsaw puzzle finding where the parts fit and what will we do about the missing parts?” “How will we hold everything together.”

Pål came down to the storage area. He was a quiet, thoughtful man so took his time before he said, “we need to add a steel frame to hold the boat together.”

Daredevil was a little irritated at this as she had never needed extra metal bits to hold her together before. Yes, she had wooden parts replaced and held in place with large iron nails, but a steel frame seemed a very unusual addition to her hull! Well, well, she had no choice so just accepted that she was over 400 years old and needed a little help to keep her in shape.

Patiently, Pål and Mildred put her back together around this new steel frame and finally she was complete. “Time to return her to where she came from,” said Pål. Oh, thought Daredevil, that will be exciting, going back to my old home. Of course, she had forgotten that her home was gone, replaced by a modern city and her new home was where she was found but now was in the basement of a modern building.

 

“Wait,” said Roar, “we could also build a copy of Daredevil with new wood using the drawings the experts made. That way we will learn a lot on how she was built 400 hundred years ago and how she sailed.” A copy of me I thought. A copy of Daredevil from the old days. That sounds interesting. I will be strong and young again like I was all those 400 years ago. Hope they remember that I was strong because I was built of oak.

“OK,” said Roar. “We start by chopping down some oak trees. We need many straight bits for her back and planks and some curvy branches for her ribs.” This Roar seems to know what he's doing, so I will have to find a way to keep an eye on him on his work.

But here I lie in this dark, dry room, not the place I want to be. I was built to be on the sea, to feel the salt spray on my body and the wind in my sails. I must find a way to transfer my spirit and energy to this new Daredevil. How shall I do that.

 By magic, that is how. I will concentrate all my energy, into the parts in the storeroom. Then, as Roar starts measuring the strongest part of me, my back which is called the keel, I will use Roar as the magician to transfer myself to the new keel.

So, I waited and waited by practicing how to concentrate all my energy in my old keel.

Then one day, Roar came down to the storage room, took out his ruler, and started measuring my keel. This is the moment. I struck and all my energy transferred to Roar.

“Ouch” said Roar, jumping back. I just had an electric shock, he said to the Yorkshire man. “No, that cannot be as the keel is wood,” said the Yorkshireman. “I'm telling you I received a shock,” shouted Roar. Daredevil smiled. Success. She was alive and well in Roar.

Now for the second part of the magic. Transferring my energy to the new keel. But it must happen quickly as I cannot stay in Roars body too long. “I need a cup of coffee after that shock,” said Roar. “OK, I will make some in the workshop,” said the Yorkshireman. “Then you can keep working.”

“OK,” said Roar, and they returned to the workshop. Roar took out his ruler and started measuring the new keel. Fizz, Bang, Wallop, Daredevil’s spirit and energy was transferred down the ruler into the new oak keel. “Ouch” said Roar. “I got that tingling feeling again.” “You are getting old,” laughed the Yorkshireman. “Here, drink your cup of coffee.” Daredevil smiled as she snuggled down into the new keel. Her magic had worked and all she had to do was to be patient and wait until Roar had finally finished building her and she would be a boat again.

Summer past, also autumn and Daredevil’s parts were connected to the keel and then the first planks. This went well and Daredevil’s strength grew and grew as she felt she was going to be a new, younger version of the old Daredevil. Roar was an expert. Everything had to be exactly as it was shown on the old Daredevil and slowly, she grew and grew until her body was complete.

She smelt of pine tar and linseed oil just as she did 400 years ago.  Daredevil was really happy.

Then the day of the big launch came, and she was wheeled down to the water's edge and given a great send off as she once again became a boat on the water.

Daredevil was very happy as she lifted to the waves and smelt the salty spray. Now she was back to life.

NOTE:

 If you visit Oslo, you can see the old Daredevil in her new home in the basement of the National bank. On the pavement is a large glass pyramid. If you look through it, you will see Daredevil resting peacefully in her steel frame.

If you want to see the new Daredevil, go down to the museums harbour at the Norwegian Maritime Museum in the summer and you will find her at her moorings with a big smile on her face.

Navigators toolchest – mapping the world

 

The Age of Discovery

The earths map in the 1400’s was fragmented. Although the Chinese had voyaged as far as East Africa in the voyages of Admiral Zheng Ho[1] and mapped the voyages with Portolan type coastal strip maps and the Mediterranean was covered by Portolan charts[2], the majority of the earth’s surface was not mapped[3].

Although ancient Greek philosophers had postulated that the earth was round as early as 300BC no confirmation of this had been made by the mid 1400’s.

The earth’s land masses were rather a series of independent regions of culturally diverse populations[4] unmapped and relatively self-sufficient.

Marco Polo wandered east along the Silk route in the 1200’s for over 20 years bringing back to Europe information on the rich resources of the Middle and Far east, especially China[5]. This spurred the Europeans to seek means to reach these riches and led to the “Age of Exploration” by mariners[6] and the mapping of the earths coastal land masses.

From the early 1400’s to the middle of the 16^th. Century Portuguese and Spanish mariners discovered and mapped many of the Earths coastal areas and confirmed the major oceans. It all started with Africa.

Mapping Africa

“Henry the Navigator” was Prince Henry of Portugal, born in early 1400’s, who is regarded as the pioneer who started the “Age of Discovery” exploring and conquering lands in northern and western Africa as well as the Atlantic islands of Madeira and the Azores.[7]

Not only did he explore, but he also used new technology to build new ships capable of sailing closer to the wind using a lateen sail from Mediterranean ships. Thus, he discovered the oceanic trade winds and currents of the Atlantic which he used to his advantage on his maritime adventures.[8]

 

Glory, God and Gold[9]

 The motivation for exploration had more earthly reasons for these voyages than altruism or adventure.

 Colonialisation gave power and glory; the establishment of the Catholic faith was to combat the expansion of Islam and trade brought gold and wealth. These were the main drivers for the voyages of exploration, to discover new lands and exploit them. The vision of the Spice Islands far to the east spurred the Portuguese and Spaniards to set out into unknown waters.

Bartolomeu Dios, a Portuguese mariner started in 1488 and explored the West African coast and got as far as the Cape of Good Hope which he called the Cape of Storms and rounded it thus confirming the southernmost tip of the African continent and realised that the Indian Ocean was not an enclosed sea but opened the way to sail north and east in what was the Indian ocean towards the Spice Islands.[10]

Westward to the Americas

Christopher Columbus, an Italian cartographer and mariner, was entrusted by the Spanish King to try to reach the Spice Islands by sailing westward and the start of the age of exploration began with Portugal and Spain competing to capture the riches of the Spice Islands.

He left Spain in 1492 and reached land 5 weeks later which turned out to be the Bahamas, a part of the American continent. He explored further visiting Cuba and the Dominican Republic before returning to Spain in 1493 and the fury of the Portuguese who contended the voyage was in violation of a treaty between the two countries.

 

 

The consequence of this impasse between the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies was that the Pope issued a new treaty, the “Treaty of Tordesillas”[11] that divided the world into two sections, one for the Portuguese and one for the Spanish realms to claim. The dividing line was from pole to pole, some 2000km west of the Cape Verde islands.

Round Africa to India

Four years after Christopher Columbus’s return the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama set off in 1497 on a voyage to the Spice Islands continuing the route pioneered by Bartholomeu Dias around the Cape of Good Hope. With the help of Arab pilots, he crossed the Indian ocean to India, learning enroute the seasonal monsoons that greatly affect the passage of sailing ships. He returned in 1499 having established the first international maritime trade with the Indian sub-continent and placed the Indian ocean, the African continent and the Indian sub-continent on the global map.

 

Westward around the world

Twenty years later the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for Spain, set off on voyage westward to find a route to the Spice islands. Following the trade wind route to Brazil, now part of the Portuguese empire, he sailed south until he found a westward passage through a strait he named after himself and entered a vast ocean, the Pacific Ocean. Sailing westward he stopped at the island of Guam and reached the Philippines after a 98-day voyage crossing the Pacific Ocean. There he was killed and his navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano took command and returned to Spain via India, the Cape of Good Hope and the Atlantic Ocean

arriving in Spain in 1522 after a 3-year voyage that was the first to circumnavigate the globe and establish new land masses on the earths map and one new ocean, the Pacific Ocean.

The role of technology in these voyages of discovery

What contributed to the success of these voyages?

 One factor was the adoption of new technologies in ship building that was applied to both the Portugues and Spanish ships built specifically for these voyages.[12]

They needed to be capable of extended voyages offshore with unknown winds.

Two types of ship were used the caravel and the carrack, both carvel built.

The caravel was based on Portuguese fishing vessels. It could be rigged with lateen sails that enabled it to sail closer to the wind than a ship with square sails but could also be rigged with both lateen and square sails making it a very versatile ship.

A much larger vessel was designed for these voyages in order to carry stores, weapons and a

larger complement of sailors. This was the carrack, a 100-ton, 3 masted vessel of about 19 metres in length and was the flagship of the fleet. It had both a forecastle and after castle, a characteristic of the design. Rigged with square sails it was the slowest vessel in each voyage of exploration carrying the captain.

Both types of vessels also introduced stern mounted rudders hung with gudgeons and pintles, [13]something the Chinese had done some 80 years before. This gave the ships much more control over the traditional side rudder or steering oar characteristic of Mediterranean ships.

Navigation techniques also benefitted of new technologies, the astrolabe.[14]

Probably adapted from a land-based version, the astrolabe enabled the navigator to accurately measure the altitude of the sun at its meridian passage at local noon and also measure the altitude of stars. Therefore, the ships latitude could be determined with some accuracy whilst the measurement of longitude remained a mystery and was determined by estimates of daily distance travelled, “dead reckoning”. This affected the navigator’s ability to fix the east/west position of land accurately and resulted in distorted maps of the world. Additionally, these voyages were unable to take account of the curvature of the earth, and the resulting maps were represented as planar maps, a further distortion.

 

 

However, after a 34-year period of exploration a new map of the world appeared in 1542, the Battista Agnese map.[15]

Incomplete in many ways and misshapen in parts, it was the first global map founded on maritime exploration.

It was the beginning of a new era in plotting the oceans and producing charts in a more systematic manner.

 

 

 

References

‘Bartolomeu Dias | Biography, Voyage, Significance, Accomplishments, Areas Explored, Death, & Facts | Britannica’. 14 May 2026. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bartolomeu-Dias.

Blake, John. The Sea Chart: The Illustrated History of Nautical Maps and Navigational Charts. Second edition. Conway, 2016.

‘Portolan Charts’ Origins Menu’. Accessed 6 February 2026. https://www.maphistory.info/PortolanOriginsMENU.html.

‘When Did Ruuders Get Gudgeon and Pintle - Google-Søk’. Accessed 2 May 2026. https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+ruuders+get+gudgeon+and+pintle&

 

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[1] ‘Ming treasure voyages’, Wikipedia, 26 January 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ming_treasure_voyages&oldid=1334982176.

[2] ‘Portolan Charts’ Origins Menu’, accessed 6 February 2026, https://www.maphistory.info/PortolanOriginsMENU.html.

[3] ‘Cantino planisphere’, Wikipedia, 28 February 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cantino_planisphere&oldid=1340844061.

[4] ‘Globalization’, Wikipedia, 2 May 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Globalization&oldid=1352194860.

[5] ‘Marco Polo’, Wikipedia, 10 May 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marco_Polo&oldid=1353526898.

[6] ‘Age of Discovery’, Wikipedia, 21 April 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Age_of_Discovery&oldid=1350282934.

[7] ‘Prince Henry the Navigator’, Wikipedia, 11 April 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_Henry_the_Navigator&oldid=1348256653.

[8] Wikipedia, ‘Prince Henry the Navigator’.

[9] John Blake, The Sea Chart: The Illustrated History of Nautical Maps and Navigational Charts, Second edition (Conway, 2016).

[10] ‘Bartolomeu Dias | Biography, Voyage, Significance, Accomplishments, Areas Explored, Death, & Facts | Britannica’, 14 May 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bartolomeu-Dias.

[11] ‘Treaty of Tordesillas’, Wikipedia, 13 April 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Treaty_of_Tordesillas&oldid=1348597703.

[12] ‘Medieval ships’, Wikipedia, 16 March 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Medieval_ships&oldid=1343743141.

[13] ‘When Did Ruuders Get Gudgeon and Pintle - Google-Søk’, accessed 2 May 2026, https://www.google.com/search?q=when+did+ruuders+get+gudgeon+and+pintle&sca_esv=e5768309613c313d&sxsrf=ANbL-n6uU0L4EFGDcUMWV9oDLW5bS4bUZA%3A1777730541965&source=hp&ei=7QP2aaLlOP3Vxc8Pi6HKgQY&iflsig=AFdpzrgAAAAAafYR_WjZEY9RSMQqPilxbuE0GmUl80Rl&ved=0ahUKEwjij9Wr4pqUAxX9avEDHYuQMmAQ4dUDCCM

[14] ‘Mariner’s astrolabe’, Wikipedia, 2 March 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mariner%27s_astrolabe&oldid=1341252217.

[15] ‘Battista Agnese’, Wikipédia, 23 January 2026, https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battista_Agnese&oldid=232686554.