Fred
I have sometime wondered (pure speculation) whether the Carlin beam or
"Carling"
which is a familiar term in ship building was indeed so named by a Viking!
BTW our family always said that Carlin Beams were invented by Captain James
Carlin CSN!
The Vikings had two main types of craft.
One was the raiding long boat we all know.
The other was a larger trading vessel. Apparently the problem with these
larger vessels
was that they shipped water as they were not decked. They had to have a gap
or "sink"
in the cargo reaching down to the bilges for bailing which was probably
pretty
ccontinuousespecially at the start of the spring voyages if the ships had
been out of water
for winter and the seams were still "open".
One can imagine that it was not too difficult a carpentry feat to deck a
whole ship but the
problem would have been the weakness round any opening for handling
cargo.
The technical descriptions of a Carling that I have read show that the
invention of a Carling
would have solved these problems and would have enabled the Vikings to deck
these
large cargo boats.
Whatever:
The other aspect of the development/origin of the name is the the fame of
Charlemagne or Charles the great. Charles or Carl would have become a more
common personal name throughout Europe during his reign. All the little
Carls would have been Carlins! (Also Carlings/Carlinis/Karlins/ etc.)
Carlingue is more likely to be from this route than from the Viking
settlers who became
Normans.
Colin