Made from solid oak using authentic Scandinavian plans, a Viking longship built by military veterans battling mental health issue is finally ready after a long labour of love.

"It is not about a boat, it's not about wood. We're making boats, but we're actually rebuilding people," Bob Marshall told AFP at the project's workshop in Darlington, northeastern England.

A former soldier who served in both the Falkland Islands and Northern Ireland, he has kept the project running through every setback since it was launched in 2019 to support veterans' mental health recovery.

Now like a phoenix, a longboat christened "Stormbird" measuring 30 feet (nine metres) went on view for the first time at a Viking festival in northern England this week.

The project was originally run by the military Help for Heroes charity from a rehabilitation centre at the army's Catterick Garrison in northeastern England.

It began using wood donated from an oak tree chopped down in 2018.

But when the pandemic hit and funding was cut in 2020, it looked as if its future was........

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