Workmen hoisted the Sea Stallion from Glendaloughout of the river Liffey on to a waiting lorry late on Thursday night and loyal members of the crew ran down Custom House Quay to send her off.
This was the last leg of the journey of the replica Viking longship from Roskilde in Denmark to the National Museum at Collins Barracks in Dublin, where she will form part of the " Sea Stallion- Dublin's Viking Warship Comes Home" exhibition.
The Sea Stallionwould have easily sailed up river in 1020, when the original ship was built, but more complicated arrangements had to be made for yesterday's journey due to the series of low bridges that have been built across the Liffey over the past millennium.
A Garda escort flanked the ship as she made her way up the quays in darkness, followed by a cortege of anxious Irish and Danish museum staff. "It was very emotional for me when we passed Wood Quay where the Vikings first settled, and to see the wheel coming full circle," Dr Pat Wallace of the National Museum said.
The Sea Stallionsaw the sun rise from Croppy's Acre in front of Collins Barracks, where four cranes waited on stand-by to lift her over the museum building and into Clarke Square, where she will be on view to the public until her return voyage to Roskilde next year.
Gregory Kelly, facilities manager at the museum, said that moving the ship was a huge logistical operation, but that it went "swimmingly well". He added: "Even the weather was on our side."
A large group of spectators and photographers gathered at 7.30 yesterday morning in the museum car park to see the ship being lifted by a 300-tonne crane, one of the largest in the country. A collective gasp rang out from the crowd as the Sea Stallionrose and appeared to diminish high above their heads. "It's pretty weird to see it up there, it looks like it is flying!" said one crew member, Kristine Hyllested.
The crowd ran forwards and back from the car park to the courtyard of the museum to watch the ship's progress as it was manoeuvred over the roof of the barracks, suspended from the crane's 55-metre arm.
"It's incredible to imagine that there were 60 people sailing in it when you see it from here," the Sea Stallionskipper, Captain Carsten Hvid, told The Irish Times. "It looks so small. It's as if we are looking at it from the sea bed," he said.
The ship landed safely into the museum's central square and crew members carried in the mast on their shoulders, so that it would be in place for public viewing later in the morning.
The director of the Roskilde Viking museum, Tinna Damgård-Sørensen, admitted that everyone was a bit worried about moving the ship, but that they were very pleased with how the operation had gone. "It has been very successful. I just hope that they have booked the same people to take it out again next year," she said.
Dr Wallace said he was delighted that his organisation was now able to host the ship. "Dubliners should take pride in this part of their heritage."
He said that it was also important to remember that the men who built the ship were not invaders from abroad. "They were already living here for 200 years when they built [the original ship] the Skuldulev2, so they would have been Dubs."
Along with some of the crew members, staff of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde held a Viking craft workshop yesterday in the square. They displayed the sail of the Sea Stallionand gave rope-making and coin-minting demonstrations, as well as lessons for children on how to paint Viking shields with paint made from beer and buttermilk.
The past week of Viking related activities culminated yesterday evening in a ceremony held in Clarke Square to honour the crew of the Sea Stallion. A specially commissioned piece of music by Shaun Davy, Arrival of the Crew, welcomed Captain Hvid and the 80 other crew members and reserves, who sat proudly in front of the ship which had brought them 1,000 nautical miles from Roskilde to Dublin.
A crowd of over 12,000 people filled the courtyard square in a moving ceremony that featured music performed by the Garda Band with Liam O'Flynn on uileann pipes and off-stage percussion led by Noel Eccles.
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney welcomed the crew and read his adaptation of the Voyage from Denmarkpassage from Beowulf. Most of the crew leave Ireland today.