Building a Viking Ship in Maine

<p>In 1996 professional photographer Paul Cunningham made the long drive down a narrow peninsula and onto Hermit Island in Phippsburg Maine to the boat shop of Rob Stevens to record the building of a Viking knarr later christened Snorri. Throughout the seven-month process Cunningham revisited the site many times curiosity having gotten the better of him. Many people were bitten by the same bug. So many in fact that Stevens had to post a sorry but we do not have time to talk sign so that Snorri would be finished on schedule. But a picture says a thousand words and Cunningham's photos taken with decades of journalism experience say volumes about the ingenuity skill and patience of a small band of boat builders who out of wood and iron created a sea-worthy vessel the likes of which had not been seen in the light of day for a thousand years.</p>