The vikings were excellent sailors, and their ships were considered high tech at the time. The craftsmanship that went into the ships is legendary, and especially the development of the sails made a real difference in the era, as the viking ships could suddenly cross vast distances. The ships were also characterized by having very small keels implying low drafts. This feature made even the largest ocean-going ships able to sail very close to shores, sail on rivers, and even land on beaches. The ships transported the vikings from their ancestral Scandinavia as far as to Greenland and the Americas to the west and Constantinople of the Byzantine Empire to the east. By sailing on various rivers, the vikings also met up with Arabic tradesmen in Russia, where they bought precious goods from the Caliphate in Baghdad and brought them home to Scandinavia.
6 small ships