Viking Ship Built With 15 Million Ice Cream Sticks

A replica Viking ship made of 15 million ice cream sticks was launched in Amsterdam by a former Hollywood stuntman who hopes eventually to sail it across the Atlantic. Robert McDonald hopes to set a world record for the largest sailing ship made of ice cream sticks. The 15-meter ship, which took McDonald two years to build, was launched in Amsterdam harbor on a test run.

The 45-foot replica Viking ship is equipped with oars and a mast and built with sticks of birch-wood glued together painstakingly by McDonald and two volunteers in a Dutch workshop. It is made of millions of wooden ice cream sticks and more than a ton of glue.

McDonald has named the ship the "Mjollnir" after the hammer of the mythic Norse god of thunder, Thor. After the 13 ton boat was lifted into the water by crane, "Captain Rob" stood calmly on the stern as a team of volunteers rowed the apparently sturdy vessel around the river behind the city's central station.

McDonald set the previous record in 2003 with a smaller version of a Viking ship built from 370,000 wooden ice cream sticks, which has been approved by the Guinness Book of World Records. He estimated that this time around in all, he used up to 2.2 tons of glue and 15 million birch wood ice cream sticks donated by an ice cream manufacturer and by children who collected discarded sticks around the world.

McDonald and his son Rob Jr., 11, fixed a final ceremonial "15 millionth" ice cream stick, made of gold, shortly before the launch. The inside of the boat was reinforced with fiberglass and it can be propelled by its modern mast and sail, or oars, or a backup motor.

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