Conservation of the Gislinge Boat

After the excavation, the boat was sent to the National Museum's conservation department, where a lengthy conservation process began. The wood, which had been protected by the fjord's mud for over 800 years, now needed to be stabilized in order to be put on display.

By impregnation with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and an advanced freeze-drying process, the original shape of the Gislinge boat was preserved. A long process that spanned several decades, as the boat had to wait in impregnation tanks for almost 20 years before the freeze-drying itself could begin. The PEG treatment replaced the water in the wood's cells with a type of wax, so the wood would not collapse when it dried.

The freeze-drying process took place at very low temperatures and took several months. To ensure that the planks retained their original shape, they were fixed in specially built molds during the freeze-drying process, a technique developed specifically for ship preservation.

After drying, each plank and frame was cleaned and the fragments were carefully reassembled to recreate the structure of the boat. The work required meticulous precision as the boat had to be stabilized without losing its characteristic Viking and medieval features.

The result of this years-long effort is that the Gislinge boat today appears as one of the best preserved boats from its time in the exhibition at Holbæk Museum.