I was thrilled last year to find a mysterious Viking artifact at a consignment store in Bath.  Calling it a Viking artifact is a bit of an exaggeration¬; it was just a framed cross stitch of the Snorri, a reproduction of a Viking ship built in Phippsburg in 1997. Still, it is mysterious.

I sent a picture of it to Hodding Carter, who commissioned the Snorri and sailed it across the Atlantic. He had never seen it, and neither had Dr. Burden, who is involved with everything that happens at the Maine Maritime Museum.  Who created it and why?

Viking artifacts, real or imagined, have been found in Maine before. The Maine Penny was found in a native shell heap in 1957. It was an 11th-century Norwegian coin and is the only officially recognized Viking artifact ever found in the U.S. It became less mysterious when a Viking settlement was later found up the coast in Newfoundland. It stands to reason that they might have ventured south from there to explore. It’s also possible that natives could have traded the coin until it ended up in Maine.

Stones with Viking runes carved on them have also been found in various locations in the U.S. Among these are the Spirit Pond Runestones, found by a carpenter in Phippsburg in 1971. Most experts agree that they are fakes made sometime after the 1930s.

I am convinced that my cross stitch is a genuine artifact from the 1990s, just as the Snorri itself is real. Carter, an adventure journalist from Camden, commissioned the ship so he could recreate the Vikings’ historic journey to the New World. Before this, he attempted to join the Olympic swim team in his 40s. Most recently, he recreated Benedict Arnold’s arduous trip up the Kennebec River to Quebec.

With a $300,000 grant from Land’s End, Carter hired Jim Stevens of Phippsburg to build the ship. Once completed, Carter successfully sailed the Snorri from Greenland to Newfoundland on his second attempt. The ship can now be seen at a museum called Norstead, near the site of the original Viking settlement in Newfoundland.

Zac McDorr is a Coastal Journal contributor. He can be reached at [email protected].