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36 THE VIKING PERIOD
the Vikings in their own element. 1
In 913 a
"
new fleet,"
manned by Ulstermen, attacked the Norsemen off the coast
of Man but was defeated. 9
Another Ulster fleet commanded
by Muirchertach mac Neill, King of Aileach, sailed to the
Hebrides in 939 and carried off much spoil and booty.
8
Moreover, the Irish seem to have imitated the Scandinavian
practice of
"
drawing
"
or carrying their light vessels over
land to the lakes and rivers in the interior of the island.
Mention is made of Domhnall, son of Muirchertach, who
"
took the boats from the river Bann on to Lough Neagh,
and over the river Blackwater upon Lough Erne, and
afterwards upon Lough Uachtair."*
The men of Munster also had their navy, which they
organised according to Norse methods 8
by compelling each
district in the different counties to contribute ten ships to
it. Thus by the middle of the tenth century they were able
to put a formidable fleet to sea. When Cellachan of Cashel
(d. 954) was captured by the Vikings and brought to Dublin,
1
It is interesting to recall that a new development in shipbuilding,
probably due to the same causes, was taking place in England about
the same time. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle first mentions .a naval
encounter with Vikings under the year 875, and some twenty years
later describes the long ships,
"
shaped neither like the Frisian nor
the Danish," which Alfred had commanded to be built to oppose
the oescs, or Danish ships.
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