You can take the science teacher out of the classroom but you can’t take the love of science — or of teaching — out of the teacher.

Paul Cunningham of Freeport is both scientist and teacher but also professional photographer. His career as a staff photographer and photojournalist at The Times Record began in 1990 and ended in 2008, but his skill at telling stories through pictures continues. Now freelancing, Cunningham has assembled a series of photographs taken in 1996 and 1997 into a book, “Building a Viking Ship in Maine,” that tells of the ingenuity, skill and patience of a small band of boat builders who, out of wood and iron, created a sea-worthy vessel, the likes of which perhaps had not been seen in the light of day for 1,000 years. They built Snorri, a Viking knarr, modeled on a Viking merchant trading vessel scuttled circa 1000 in Denmark.

Among the men working on the vessel were lead builder Rob Stevens, boatbuilders Robert Miller and Dave Foster, cabinetmaker Scott Smith, and blacksmith Gerry Galuza, who produced the 2,700 handmade iron rivets that held together the pieces of oak, pine, locust wood, tamarack and willow that formed the hull and other parts of the boat.

Throughout the seven-month building process, Cunningham revisited the boat shop many times, curiosity having gotten the better of him. Many people were bitten by the same bug. So many, in fact, that boat builder Stevens had to post a “sorry, but we do not have time to talk” sign so that Snorri would be finished on schedule.

But a picture says a thousand words, and Cunningham’s photos, taken with decades of journalism experience, say volumes about the molding and construction of the 54- foot long, 16-foot wide, 6-foot deep open deck boat that was to trace Leif Ericsson’s route of 10 centuries ago across the cold Atlantic.

The project was the brainchild of W. Hodding Carter, who has been interested in Vikings since childhood and who founded The New Vinland Foundation to foster education about Viking lore and achievements. Carter was the expedition leader of Viking Voyage 1000 and had arranged sponsorship by Lands’ End Direct Merchants.

Snorri, named after a Viking child born in Vinland (Newfoundland), is powered by a canvas sail and six oars. Its brave crew, which included Stevens and Carter, made a first attempt at sailing from Greenland to Newfoundland in 1997, only to be turned back by damage to the hull that allowed water to pour in and scrubbed the voyage. A second attempt was made in 1998, and Snorri landed a L’anse aux Meadows on Sept. 22, 1998, after nearly three months at sea.

Snorri’s destination, L’Anse aux Meadows, is a Canadian National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was first excavated in 1961 by Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad, archaeologists who had identified the site of a Viking settlement through clues found in medieval Icelandic manuscripts and Viking sagas. Eventually, the footprint of several woodframed structures similar to those built in Greenland and Iceland during the same period were uncovered at the site.

From birth at the boat shop on Hermit Island in Phippsburg to permanent berthing at Norsted Village in L’Anse aux Meadows, Snorri was surrounded by the dedication of fine craftsmen and the bravery of a crew determined to follow in the wake of a great explorer who had made the trip 10 centuries earlier but perhaps with no less excitement.

Cunningham will speak and show photos from his book during the Boatshop Mug-Up Lecture Series (fee charged), at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Boat Shop of the Maine Maritime Museum, 243 Washington St., Bath.

He will hold author talks and book signings at North Creek Farm, 24 Sebasco Road, Phippsburg, on June 16 at 11 a.m. and Shaw’s Supermarket, 147 Bath Road, Brunswick, on June 22 at 1 p.m.

“Building a Viking Ship” in Maine is available at Gulf of Maine Books on Maine Street in Brunswick, North Creek Farm in Phippsburg, Shaw’s Supermarkets in Bath and Brunswick, at jstwrite.com and from other local book sellers.

For more information, contact Nancy E. Randolph at Just Write Books, 207-729- 3600; jstwrite@jstwrite.com.