Well according to a Nordic science web site it was birds. There is no mention of a sunstone. The questions should be based on fact and not Nordic myth. I chose birds because my scientific research came up with that answer. Please go stick the sunstone somewhere, where the sun doesn't shine.

https://www.sciencenordic.com/denmark-history-society--culture/how-vikings-navigated-the-world/1377436

If the B****y sunstones were so good why did they ever stop using them? Of course some scholars only think they did. It seems to be all getting rather silly now.
Roy

Ity is the old deja vu problem! It says I have answered already, but I still got it wrong. These Vikings are going to win their battle after all.
Roy

Hey ho!
AI goofed again🙄Same question as only 2 days ago, just slightly reworded and answer options changed.

Have a sunny day folks😉☀️

Hey Roy, there is a memorial in the hedge outside what was the main gate. There was an underground bunker/air raid shelter structure accessed by a rusty iron ladder, my mate and I used to play about int it when we were kids...

Hi Nick... In July 1957 I went to a dance in Moels. Some of the 'ladies' there wore miners boots if I remember correctly. I did not return....

I was being newly inducted into National Service at RAF West Kirby, it closed its' doors a few months later.

Roy

The Brunanburgh battle which we lost was in AD 937. Battle of Stamford Bridge was 1066 and down as the defeat of the Vikings.
All happening when the Frenchman arrived in Hastings.
King Harold fought the Vikings and won and then had to march down to Hastings to 'greet' the Frenchman. Perhaps with out being knackered after this fight he might have defeated the French?

The last 'invasion' was in 1949 to Pegwell Bay, I was 11 years old at the time and on holiday staying with my older married sister in Ramsgate. My brother and I, then 7 years old, had rebelled against her husband's regime of not allowed in the house while he was away at work.

I saved enough pennies to catch the bus and we had a memorable time, unaware of the iminent arrival of the Viking ship.

Pegwell bay is very shallow and the tide pleasantly warm when it arrives. We were just going back up the slope to catch the bus back when a much relieved sister came down and found us. I had told a neighbour where we were going!

The rules changed after this! But we both still remember 'the day'

Roy

The last big battle against the Vikings in England took place,so they say, in NW England. The battle of Barumbaugh (not sure of spelling) present day Brombourough. There is also a viking longship buried under the carpark of the Railway in in Moels, Wirral...

It looks like my score is following a magnetic 'lode stone' and going directly south!
Roy

AustinG - if there was a viking settlement on Newfoundland, we'll have to rename it 'Oldfoundland'.

Hello CommodoreH, you are welcome.

I completely agree with you and you have made some truly acute and admirable considerations about Christopher Columbus.

The recent discoveries on the voyages of the Vikings do not take away from the greatness of the Italian navigator and explorer, discoverer of America.
If no research had been carried out in this sense and they asked me: "Do you think the Vikings could have reached, during their navigations, the North American coasts of Canada?"
"Would you bet on yes or no?"
I would answer: certainly, without a doubt (even without having any knowledge) and I would bet on yes. Certainly yes for a simple question of probability.
For the same reason I am convinced that some man (before Columbus but also in ancient times) from the European or African coasts found himself in America (most likely in Brazil) without returning but above all without having any awareness of it.
It is awareness that makes the difference.

Columbus challenged the ocean sea to find the Indies and return. Luckily he found the Americas. He realized this by returning several times.

I am passionate about explorations and explorers, especially naval ones. Italy, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, the United States and many others have given birth to great explorers. Just think of Magellan (who attempted to circumnavigate the world, Elcano and a few completed it) Cook, Diaz, Vespucci, Verazzano and hundreds of giants in this field.
But Columbus is on another level because he was the first to face the ocean sea.
The unknown.
A taboo.
The unthinkable.
The unachievable.
Every man facing the ocean had been asking questions for years, decades, centuries but no one before him had tried to navigate in that direction and return alive.
After him, explorations began in avalanche. The journeys have become more and more intense, until they discovered every unknown corner of the earth and everyone has taken their share of the credit but the one who unlocked everything was only one.
After him an era has changed. Everything has changed.
Perhaps this is why many Spanish scholars have been trying for years to prove that Columbus was Spanish and many Portuguese scholars are trying to prove that Columbus was Portuguese.
They recognize his immense greatness.
Of course he was lucky because the scholars of the University of Salamanca were right and he was wrong.
The circumference of the earth was much greater than that estimated by Columbus.
Eratosthenes of Alexandria had calculated correctly but Columbus found a new continent in the middle of the ocean.

I understood from my history lessons that the vikings were active on the NE coast of England and returned there many times also Ireland and Normandy. What about the settlement in Newfoundland?

AustinG

Thank you AlessandroSPQR that was a vey interesting discussion of the vikings.

There is often some discussion of how or if the vikings were the first Europeans to "discover" America. I far as I understand they mostly stayed close to the coast when they sailed and were most interested in attacking and plundering places that were not well armed.

I feel that in order to be considered the discoverer of a place you have to be able to make a map to show other people where you have been and be able to make return trips to the same place. I haven't heard that Vikings were able to do this. Columbus actually was able to navigate accurately and made many return trips so I credit him with the discovery.

Doug, the news was OK when I was still working there (not claiming any credit for that, just an observation) but I haven't watched it since I left.
I was thinking more of the imported programmes which seem to convince the more gullible members of the audience.
I once worked on an end of the year special in which we used some footage of the Queen Mother arriving at some unrelated event and a surprising number of of viewers really thought she was there!

Dear Doug, first of all, congratulations on your Italian.

My message (n.3354) was divided into two parts.
In the first part of the message I specified where I had heard the sunstone mentioned for the first time and where I had seen it (so movies and TV series).
The last of these TV series (the one I remember well) is the fictional series about the Vikings (I will put the link at the end).
It is clear that I did not give and do not give any scientific or historical credit to the fiction broadcast by Netflix (yours is a strange question, I was certainly not clear enough in the translation).
No question about the contents of Netflix, we all agree.
However, this is only the latest fiction among the many about the Vikings. The one I remember best because it is more recent.

In the second part of the message I wanted to clarify that I later found that this sunstone was not only not pure invention but perhaps it worked and perhaps it had actually been used by the Vikings.
In this regard, I cited a text from Focus (rather than others readily available to everyone such as Wikipedia) because it seemed concise enough to report it verbatim and because (perhaps) less easily available.

On this subject, I want to open two digressions.
In Italy, the Vikings are known by different terms: vichinghi, norreni, variaghi or vareghi and normanni.
The term vichingo, although the most used and best known, is considered not very correct and is valid only in its meaning of marauders. It should be used only for that part of the population that raided and pillaged.
The term "norreno" is the most correct and includes all those Scandinavian peoples who in a certain period began raids and then invasions in Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy.
Be careful, however, to define the Vikings, the place of origin is not enough, they are not the only ones to come from Scandinavian countries. Already many centuries before, both the Goths (Visigoths and Ostrogoths) and the Lombards had gradually descended towards the south coming from Scandinavian areas (Gotland).
The term "variaghi" o "vareghi" (Varangians) is used to specifically indicate the Norsemen who advanced into Russia, sailing on the great rivers, and who founded the various Rus kingdoms (predominant over the much more numerous Slavic population).
The term "Normanni" (Normans) refers to the Norsemen who conquered southern Italy and Sicily, subjugating the Romans, Lombards and Arabs.
The emperor Frederick II (the stupor mundi) grandson of Frederick I Barbarossa was on his mother's side of the Norman family of Altavilla and Hoenstaufen on his father's side.
Sorry if there should be mistakes but I wrote based only on memories.

Another digression:
Many historical or historically set films have little connection with historical reality, and yet they are beautiful.
I think of Gladiator (the first) and Bravehearth.
A mass of gigantic errors, yet they turned out to be beautiful films.
On the other hand, very accurate films turned out to be ugly, boring, terrible from a cinematic point of view.
A film is not and cannot become a documentary.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings
https://www.netflix.com/it/title/70301870

I thought it was the nautilus so got it wrong
Rats.
Philuk👍

Rats!!😠

😎
https://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/NWP_Transits_Underwater.php

Sure is Michel.
In the words of the prophet😉; 'and for my next trick'💥😁

Gute nacht, Bonne nuit, Buona notte 😴💤💤💤
Doug😎

Olala!!
It's amazing what a sunstone can do!
Good night,
Michel-C.

Mio caro Alessandro.
Surely you don't give credence to ANYTHING that Netflix broadcasts?🙄
NETFLIX is a pure fiction channel; action, adventure, fantasy, drama.
Sometimes based on a single historical or scientific fact/premise.
But then extrapolated exponentially into the realms of Sci-Fi / fantasy.

'The Vikings' series I watched a few years ago was a serious documentary about the rise and fall of the influence of the Nordic races. From marauders and conquerors through to peaceful traders when they had spread across Europe.
The series was supported and presented by researchers from various Universities and scientific institutions from the US, Scandinavia and Europe.
Might have been from National Geographic, History Channel or even the excellent German series Terra X.
Whichever; the use of the Sun stone (a.k.a Iceland Spar, Feldspar or Felspar) was convincingly demonstrated and explained during a journey on a replica iconic Viking ship.

Ciao, Doug😎
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunstone_(medieval)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnenstein_(Wikinger)

My Dear Oxford-Dave,
Surely you are not insinuating that our dearly beloved, 'Holier than thou' Better Biscuit Company is a purveyor of Fake News?!😉

Cheers, Doug😎

Hi Oxford-Dave it's true what you say.
In the series Vikings which aired recently (in recent years) on Netflix in Italy there are all kinds of historical errors. From the clothes, to the weapons, to the names, to the simple succession of events there are errors after errors, even gross ones.
However, perhaps the only thing they got right is the sunstone.
Apparently there are studies that confirm this.

Quite honestly, I really wouldn't believe much of what you see & hear on TV.
I worked for a national television company for 16 years, and became increasingly sceptical as each year passed.

Heyyyyy!!
Thanks for the clarifying words and information! As I said, now a landlubber knows a bit more about ship lore. . . 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Michel-C.
PS: I think I have to downgrade myself, with this ignorance . . .

I agree with Simplesailor.

I had heard about the sunstone and had seen some films and TV series that talked about it.
However (since it was fiction) I never gave it serious consideration.

This article taken from Focus (a medium-reliable popular magazine) talks about it as if it were something that really exists. Here's what he writes:

"""""""""""""""""""""Satellite navigator enthusiasts would never think of using crystals to orient themselves. Yet that is exactly how the Vikings sailed the seas, using the "grandmother" of the compass and magnetic compass. Recently, some Hungarian researchers discovered the existence of some "sunstones", used to navigate safely even when the sun was obscured by fog or clouds. They are particular prisms of Cordierite, a magnetic rock that exploits the polarization of natural light and changes color depending on the inclination of the sun. Nordic sailors used it to look at the sky, as is usually done with the slides used to observe solar eclipses. From the refraction and color of the stone, they were thus able to deduce the position of the sun and, therefore, the cardinal points. The discovery puts an end to a decades-long debate: although the use of sunstones was a hypothesis from a few decades ago, no finds had ever been found and the only evidence remained the epic sagas and some ship's logs. One of the darkest mysteries about the men of the North, who around the year 1000 managed to explore a good part of the Arctic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, could thus be revealed."""""""""""""""""

Icelandic calcite no less!

Well I got that right by guess work. However the description of how the sunstone works is a bit off. "(a form of calcite), which could detect the direction of polarized light in the sky." The calcite crystal could not detect anything, it is the user that is detecting and using the polarised light with their eyes. I must look into this a bit more because to find a bit of crystal, look into it and then have a eureka moment by thinking, "Wow I could use this for navigation" is interesting. Sorry for the rant. Bad head this morning 😂😂😂

There was a tv show aired some time ago and the presenter sailed with the Viking recreated longship in Norway where they compared the sunstone with modern navigation methods. The results were pretty close...

Well, this new format and new questions are refreshing but I don’t think it will be long before I am sitting in the corner with a dunces cap on.

Mike..
https://images.app.goo.gl/H2TUkei1JAsArUmW6

🤔🤔🤔🤔
Can someone explain what a ‘sunstone’ is?
Bb Michel-C.

Answer just come through and I think it is wrong, again. Oh! dear.

Just checked with Wiki and they agree with me!

The existence of sunstones is still debated among scholars, but recent archaeological finds have supported the theory that they may have been used by Vikings for navigation. Nevertheless, the Norse Compass remained the primary tool for Viking navigators, providing a reliable and accurate means of finding their way across the open seas.

Also a compass of whatever type does not give your position at sea only the direction you are travelling in.
Roy

Something is screwed up here! I have been told I have previously entered and it refuses to say whether I was right or not. So I cannot see other posts. BTW I went for magnetic.
GRRRRR
Roy

Got it wrong, but good question. Caused us to think and the explanation was interesting.

Got today's answer right, but my score has gone down from 73% to 70% - doesn't make sense to my addled brain!

Finally got one right, good guess 🥴

Triton was not commissioned until 27 September 1959. I don’t know how she could have gone through the strait in February.

I opted for the British sub as Gibraltar is British. Wrong again!

Mike Stoney. By the look of your post today I think ypou must have done the same as me, !!!!Sh** !! GOT IT WRONG TODAY.

I have now dropped another three %, for getting one wrong. It will now take god now how many to get right to jump up the 1% back up to my 70% again.

Wrong again! B****r!
Roy

!!!! Sh** !!
**
**

oh sorrry . . .
Michel-C.

Well I got that one wrong after considerable research, I couldn't find anything out about the Straights of Gibraltar and submarines. Only that the USS Triton was launched in August 1958 and commissioned in November 1959. So maybe the running through the straits was done on her shake down trials.☹️

Thanks for the lexical clarifications Doug. Much appreciated.
Even though I didn't know the English terminology, I was convinced that the term "sail" was not a technical term but had been added later (almost like a nickname).
I have to remember this term: "Conning Tower".

Hi Nick,
Re "I was under the impression it was Amundson in the Goja, nkt St Roch.. "
Amundsen's trip in the Gjøa was in 1903-1906 and was through the Northwest Passage from East to West. The Gjøa only has a small 13HP auxiliary motor. Presumably for manoeuvring in harbour. It relied on sails for voyaging. The journey took so long because it was icebound for two years.
St Roch had a 150HP engine which it used for it's traverse of the Northwest Passage, West to East, in the 1940s.

BTW This is also a recycled QoTD with revamped question formulation and answers.
BTW 2 Some years ago a Canadian (?) member posted a Blog/Thread of his building of a St Roch model.
Cheers, Doug😎

Oh! dear I am told I have entered already!
Wasn't me guv!
Roy

Hi Alessandro,
Re "The turret of the submarine ...", "the submarine cannot use a sail (which is actually a turret) ..."
Must be a translation problem. Submarines do not have turrets.
In various navies at various times the 'superstructure' of a submarine has been known as Conning Tower (German Kommandoturm), Fin (Dorsal😉) or Sail which I believe originated in the USN.
Definitions of turret from Oxford Language Dictionary-
- a small tower on top of a larger tower or at the corner of a building or wall, typically of a castle. "a castle with fairy-tale turrets"
- a low armoured tower, typically one that revolves, for a gun and gunners in a ship, aircraft, fort, or tank.
- a rotating holder for tools, especially on a lathe.
Ciao, Doug😎

"the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy warship ..."
A Pyrrhic victory as the submarine was also lost with all 8 crew members☹️
A 'recycled' previous question🙄

😎

Same here first time to answer question and tell me I already have, not true today.

I have just come on here for the first time today to enter the days question. And for some reason it tells me as I go to answer it comes up as I answer that I get it wrong and it's not the answer that I put. It tells me that I have already answered todays question. My % had dropped again, and I haven't been on here at all today We were watching stuff on the Firestick until 2am and I didn't get up until 11am and this is the first time I have been on the Model Boat Website today.
I JUST DO NOT GET THIS???????🙊🙊🙊😠😠

Mike, Bashibazooks! Troglodites! Vegetarians!