There was a lot of snarky comments in Danish news a couple of years ago when the Forestry Department sent the government a message stating that some oak-trees c

There was a lot of snarky comments in Danish news a couple of years ago when the Forestry Department sent the government a message stating that some oak-trees commissioned 200 years ago for the royal navy were now ready for harvest. To me, the most surprising thing I have learned about Viking ships and resources is that the _sail_ not the boat was the real constraint: A sail would take an entire village several years to make, while a ship crew could complete a ship in less than a month. I have heard stories of ship crews deliberately wrecking the ship in a place where they could recover the sail, rather than risk loosing the sail in an uncontrolled wreck. Don't know if there is any truth to this.