Ruins of the Longship

 In just one trip through the forest, twenty sailors belonging to the expedition were killed, four seriously wounded, and four slightly injured, and that's with plenty of preparation and essentially no through-the-woods damage ...

 Just one oversight.

 Herbasi's boars were brutal and huge, each weighing four or five hundred pounds at least, with sharp tusks and red eyes.

 Judging by the aggressiveness, they should be carnivorous.

 And should be at the top of the food chain on this island, reigning supreme.

 Considering the rate of growth and reproduction of hogs, the size of the herd becomes difficult to gauge with such a clan of overlords in the windward open forest.

 Definitely not too much and definitely not too little ...

 This means that the sparse forest is far from safe as it seems.

 So long as they found a total of two suspected sources of fresh water, with a bit of luck, it was unnecessary to die in the woods with a herd of wild boars.

 The order of probing is thus determined.

 Carrying the harvested boar and the carcasses of their companions who had died in vain, the bruised and battered party haunted their way through the sparse forest to the large pool by the beach, which, it was soon ascertained, was indeed one of the main sources of fresh water on the island.

 There were obvious signs of beasts roaming around the pool, the footprints were mostly hooves, no bear paws, cat claws or other killing stars, and no scary island crocodiles, good news after good news allowed Lorraine to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

 Then there is the second question ... of how to gather back the fresh water, and the rich food resources of the windward slopes.

 Shipping along the island was the best way, but the Buttercup couldn't be launched, and the two submarine boats together couldn't bear the burden of transportation.

 Lorraine looked somberly at a wild deer poking its head around the edge of the forest.

 "Haina, do you think the boars will come and evict us if we camp on Windward Beach?"

 "What about the Buttercup if we camp here?"

 "The camp can be spread out, with the logging group staying on the narrow east beach and the logistics and expedition groups moving here. This way, the water and food collected can be processed and stored in situ, and only a small amount of transshipment will be needed to meet the needs of the logging group."

 Hina raised an eyebrow, "There are two streams of fresh water here, we'll set more traps around the pool and actively hunt. The smart beasts will avoid here and go to the forest for water."

 "There are also guns ..." Lorraine added, biting her lip, "The short six-pounders on the transom are light enough to be brought over by ramrod. It can be used both as a defense for the beach camp and to startle the beasts and open up space."

 "When the Buttercup is repaired, it won't be a problem to ship fresh water."

 In a few words, Lorraine ordered the sailors who could move to split into two, one group dug a trench in the beach and created an artificial island, creating a site where hundreds of people could camp.

 The other group felled trees and tied a log back to East Beach to report.

 It turned out that the first thing to be accomplished instead was the improvised raft, and three sailors, using their own smocks for sails, rigged up a crude sail raft and floated it down the coast to the eastern shore.

 At sunset, Yacharin arrived at the new camp with two assault boats, twenty sailors, shovels, and many empty barrels, dramatically speeding up the excavation of the sand island and bringing Lorraine a message.

 On the way in, they found the remains of a longboat under a cliff.

 "Longships? Viking longships?" Lorraine was surprised.

 "Aye, judging by the slender proportions of the hull, it would have been a Snekjer-type longship of war, prevalent in the 9th century, but we didn't board and explore it because it was getting late."

 "9th Century Vikings ..." Lorraine rapped, patting Acharin's shoulder appreciatively, "You're not only knowledgeable, you've made the right decision, Acharin."

 "Compared to the remains of an ancient ship that won't run, digging through the sandy island before nightfall and defending it from wild animals is our first priority. Tomorrow, we'll see that ancient ship ..."

 ...

 The sand island camping and the transfer of personnel and materials lasted all night, and by the time the sun rose again the next day, Herbasi's windward sand spread had an additional semi-independent curved sand island.

 The island is nearly one square kilometer in size, with one side facing the sea and the other side facing the sparse forest.

 It is separated from the open forest by a two-meter wide channel, almost two meters deep, which introduces seawater and is raised on both sides and supported by a simple shrub fence.

 Beasts of the land don't like the sea, and with such a simple waterway to protect the camp, wild boars or other ferocious beasts hiding in the woods won't be able to launch large-scale attacks, and as for sporadic attacks, the sailors on duty will be able to cope with them.

 The sand island and the island are connected by a four or five meter wide wooden bridge, and forty or fifty meters past the bridge is the fresh water pool.

 Haina and Pierce would organize the sailors to make a succession of traps on the forestward side, and they were also in charge of the temporary camp.

 Fishing, hunting, repairing the ship, and collecting fresh water, the Buttercup was completely relieved of its existential crisis, and Lorraine briefly adjusted the seafarers' assignments.

 Pierce and Heena preside over Camp Windward, and Heena also serves as the camp's protector, responding to accidents.

 Keren and Noa were in charge of the east coast beach. The narrow inlet and outlet there, flanked by rocky mountains that were difficult to rise, was certainly not as structurally safe a defense as Camp Windward, but they could stay on the boat at night.

 Noa is the protector of the east coast beaches. The Rom Witch has a shy personality, but her personal combat prowess is far higher than that of the two normal humans, Yacharin and Keren, and is firmly in the third chair on the ship.

 Lorraine also further simplified the expedition group. The wounded recuperated, the sailors who moved without orders were delegated to logistics, and Haina was replaced with Acharin.

 This left the expedition group with only 8 people. In order to more or less increase his combat power, Lorraine re-gave Yacharin's Ivory Short Rifle to him, on loan.

 Thus, after transporting the two stern guns up to the windward camp, the expedition team commandeered an assault boat and, guided by Yacharin, paddled out to the remains of the longship.

 Not much farther along, Lorraine met the Sneekjay-type longboat that Acharin had spoken of at the bottom of a bluff.

 She was seventeen or eighteen meters long and less than three meters wide, and right in the middle of it stood a mast, about ten meters high, with a cross-sail on it that had long since weathered away, leaving only a lone wooden pole, shaped like a tombstone.

 Looking over the ruins, the members of the expedition docked and landed, and Lorraine stood on the jutting reef to get a closer look at the ancient warship, which was largely intact.

 Her ship's timbers are oak, gradually petrified over the years, yet with little outward decay.

 Her hull was wrapped with a layer of planking on the outside, secured to the hull with long iron rivets.

 The huge gaps between the planks are due to the fact that the threads and ropes made from animal hair and plant fibers are not as resistant to decay as the ship's timber and have long since disappeared.

 There is also the famous high, curved bow, which is carved from a single piece of intact oak. On the bow is a bust of a woman, with large eyes and curly hair, and at the base of the figure is engraved a line in Old Icelandic, [HALLVEIG].

 Lorraine 㤞 half a dozen times, couldn't help but look at the beautifully carved bust again, and used her imagination to whiten her complexion, brown her eyes, and blacken her hair ...

 Vaguely, he saw the departed Helena ...

 This caused Lorraine to confirm a suspicion and give birth to more doubts.

 Helveg was the maternal ancestor of the Lorraine whaler line, and the legendary King of Iceland, Yngg. The wife of the legendary King of Iceland, Ynger Jarnasson.

 But she was not particularly conspicuous in her own right, i.e., she had no personal legend, nor did she fit into the Viking tradition of preferring to regale the Seven Seas with the black dragon Nyghod and the great serpent Ymengarde ...

 Why, has she become the bow statue and patron saint of this ship?

 Pressing down the doubts in his heart seat, Lorraine continued to inspect the ship.

 The keel material is taken from tall, straight oak trees, and the center is curved to increase the weight-bearing capacity, while the ends are gradually narrowed to form a streamlined channel.

 The ribs are made of sturdy oak, the material is all taken from naturally curved timber, which is carefully crafted and then placed in the various sections of the keel.

 The outside of the ribs were wrapped in inch-thick hull plates made of interlocking oak blocks, riveted to the ribs, leaving long rows of oar holes.

 Only now that the long oars are still there, the cable, which should have been made of cedar roots, has long since decayed to the point where the plates have become loose, and some of them more because.

 One of the main features of the Viking longships is the open-air single deck with no interior cabins.

 Through the dislodged hull plates, Lorraine saw rows of skeletons sitting peacefully in the bilge, rusted chains bound around their waists and legs, their deaths miserable, their heads mostly flying apart.

 They were paddling slaves, 24 in total, and by the looks of it were decapitated in a uniform manner.

 Combined with the complete structure of the ship, Lorraine guessed that she had not struck a reef, but had run aground of her own accord.

 He also found the ship's inscription on the keel pattern ...

 [INGOLF], the king's wolf.

 "Yinger ... Yanasun?" Lorraine's eyes widened in disbelief.

 He was trying to get further facts when Yacharin came rushing out of the inner side of the cliff with several sailors in a hurry.

 "Captain! Major discovery! Major discovery!"