HUGIN VIKING SHIP

9th September 1949

By Valerie Edwards

I remember visiting relatives in Newhaven and going down the harbour to see this boat, a lot of other people were there that day as well.  I remember the boat as being brown.

Hugin is now in Ramsgate, Kent.  It is documented that 53 Danes rowed the boat, which was built in Denmark in 1949 to commemorate the Vikings landing in Kent 1,500 years before! 

Photo: Illustrative image for the 'HUGIN VIKING SHIP' page

From the private collection of Ginny Smith

Photo: Illustrative image for the 'HUGIN VIKING SHIP' page
This page was added by Sylvia Woolford on 25/10/2008.
Comments about this page

I remember seeing the Hugin in Blackpool Lancs as a child. Until reading this article I did not know the year - I was only 9yrs old at the time - I now realise. Nor did I remember much about it except that I had never seen anything like it before.

By Joan Page
On 19/04/2008

Did any one else see the Viking Longship going East across the bay about 8.30pm on Monday 14th July? Pete

By Pete Mason
On 18/07/2008

Answer to Joan Page, the Hugin arrived at Blackpool on the 14th September 1949 having travelled by road from King George Fifth Docks in London - a journey taking five days. A most amazing journey of incidents. I was the driver's assistant at the time and could fill a book about some of the huge loads we travelled with. The Daily Mail reporter F.G. Prince-White had a write up every day of which I've still got most of the cuttings. The ship's skipper was Captain Peter Christian Jenson...oh yes the Blackpool lights were switched in by Anna Neagle for the first time since the war!

After all this was finished I was called up for National Service...

Thanks for sharing this Bill. Jackie - Editor

By Bill Poole
On 18/09/2008

I was looking for an illustration and read the note above. I seem to remember seeing the Hugin on display in Piccadilly Gardens, in the centre of Manchester, when I was a child ..maybe in 49 or the early 50s ...more recently I have seen the real preserved viking ships in Roskilde, Denmark and also in Oslo, Norway.

By John Penny
On 04/12/2009

I was 11 years old in 1949 when I saw the Hugin dock in Weymouth; we had a bit of trouble with Grandma when she saw those muscle-bound young men climbing the harbour steps !

By Alan Whitmore
On 21/12/2011
Add a comment about this page

If you're already a registered user of this site, please login using the form on the left-hand side of this page.