The Brendan Voyage: A Leather Boat Tracks the Discovery of America by the Irish Sailor Saints

Drawings by Trondur Patursson. Some laughed, others blessed themselves when they came to Brandon Creek in Dingle, Ireland, to bid farewell to Tim Severin and his crew. Farmers and fishermen alike were awed that these men were going to challenge the North Atlantic in an open boat. But this boat was made of leather! Now it’s a great day for the Irish. Severin and his hearty band of sailors succeeded in their mission. And their epic voyage has shown that a sixth-century Irish monk, St. Brendan, could have crossed the Atlantic in a curragh made of oxhides, and Irish monks may have been the first Europeans to set foot in America. The legend of St. Brendan has puzzled scholars for years. Many simply dismissed it as being a fanciful tale about an impossible journey. But Severin believes that historians should practice what they teach, in much the same fashion that Thor Heyerdahl opened up new vistas by his voyages on the rafts "Kon Tiki" and "Ra." Before Severin could start his own journey, he first had to research the ancient writings about the Irish Atlantic voyages. Then came the problem of determining whether leather could be strong and waterproof enough to use as the skin of an ocean-going boat. After careful testing of various types of leather, the answer was positive — leather made by tanning in a solution of oak bark and then steeped in wool grease might resist the sea. Severin was not surprised: this was how the ancient texts said St. Brendan had made his boat of leather. Step by step, Severin and his crew built "Brendan" the same way as would have the old seafaring Irish monks. A basket-like frame of wood strips was tied together with leather thongs; then 49 oxhides were hand-sewn over the frame, using up more than 23 miles of waxed flax thread. Finally, the leather hull was greased. Now "Brendan" was ready for one of the most exciting voyages in modern history. The leather boat was swamped by a gale, gashed open by ice floes (and sewn together again), constantly visited by curious whales (one killer whale seemed ready to eat the boat, apparently interested in its hull of protein), and welcomed by seafaring folk all along her successful odyssey to the New World. This incredible story is recounted with humor and humility by author Severin. Photographed by "The National Geographic," the book contains 32 pages of color pictures, the majority of which have not been published elsewhere. The book also contains 46 sketches by Trondur Patursson from the Faroe Islands, famous for their artists. "Could an Irish monk in the sixth century really have sailed all the way across the Atlantic in a small open boat, thus beating Columbus to the New World by almost a thousand years? Relying on the medieval text of St. Brendan, award-winning adventure writer Tim Severin painstakingly researched and built a boat identical to the leather curragh that carried Brendan on his epic voyage. He found a centuries-old, family-run tannery to prepare the ox hides in the medieval way; he undertook an exhaustive search for skilled harness makers (the only people who would know how to stitch the three-quarter-inch-thick hides together); he located one of the last pieces of Irish-grown timber tall enough to make the mainmast. But his courage and resourcefulness were truly tested on the open seas, including one heart-pounding episode when he and his crew repaired a dangerous tear in the leather hull by hanging over the side - their heads sometimes submerged under the freezing waves - to restitch the leather. A modern classic in the tradition of Kon-Tiki, The Brendan Voyage seamlessly blends high adventure and historical relevance. It has been translated into twenty-seven languages since its original publication in 1978."--BOOK JACKET. FOREWORD 1. STORM 1 2. THE IDEA 10 3. BUILDING 35 4. DEPARTURE 57 5. GAELTACHT 69 6. HEBRIDES 91 7. THE SHEEP ISLANDS 105 8. FAROES TO ICELAND 136 9. ISLAND OF SMITHS 162 10. EMERGENCY 177 11. GREENLAND SEA 200 12. PUNCTURE IN THE ICE 222 13. LAND IN THE WEST 245 APPENDIX I. The "Navigatio" 265 APPENDIX II. The "Navigatio" and "Brendan" 274 APPENDIX III. "Brendan" 280 Recounts the harrowing voyage of Timothy Severin and his crew from Dingle, Ireland across the North Atlantic in a thirty-six-foot leather boat to prove that a sixth-century Irish monk, St. Brendan, could have reached North America as legend claims An account of the 1976 voyage of Tim Severin and his crew from Ireland to North America in a small leather boat