(Seaworthy) Viking ship made out of ice cream sticks

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

Stuntman Robert McDonald must have been gripped with Sea-Fever indeed; according to an article our art editor found this morning, Robert, his son, and more than 5,000 children have worked to build a seaworthy Norse longship out of 15 million ice-cream sticks. I'm not kidding about this. It staggers my imagination. McDonald and his faithful crew are about to leave port in the Netherlands and brave the icy northern seas for England. But they are not coming as marauders; according to Reuters, "he has loaded his ship with cuddly toys and plans to reach London and visit children in hospitals." The media, of course, is eating up the human interest factor, and for my part I am gawking at what this man and 5,000 children made out of ice cream sticks. (A Viking ship carrying stuffed animals to hospitals in England may be wildly bizarre, but it is infinitely more beautiful and useful than 15 million small wooden sticks sitting in a landfill or at the bottom of the sea. I stand amazed.)

Our art editor has posted a link to the article and has opened the forum for discussion here, on our message board. Swing by, see a video about the ship, and comment - this is a remarkable, if unexpected, moment in the history of seafaring.