Brendan Voyage, Ch. 1

Tim Severin and 4 companions, Peter, Arthur, George, and Rolf, set out to cross the Atlantic in a leather boat. Why? Some old manuscripts had been found, dating back to at least A.D.800. They told of how Saint Brendan and some monks sailed across the Atlantic in a leather boat. People doubted that these authentic, well researched Latin texts were true, and the idea of a leather boat settled it. Leather rots in water, so that was not even possible! To prove that it could be done, these five men set out in a boat made of of ox hides, made very much like the boat that Saint Brendan was supposed to have sailed in. The Latin texts told how the boat was made, and they were certain the boat was made of leather. So Tim Severin and his crew set out on May 17th, from Brendan Creek on the Dingle Peninsula, in one of the strangest craft ever seen. Not more than two weeks later, here they were, caught in a bad storm. After a long and frightening time, the gale let up. They were not more that 35 miles off the coast of Ireland, and all navigators gave that coast a wide berth. Many ships, with better steering than Brendan(she lacked a keel)had been wrecked on this coast. If the wind had blown towards the coast, Brendan would have been smashed on the rocks. Brendan flexed with the sea, almost as if she were breathing. This storm was the first one of the voyage, and it had been especially fierce. After they made it through the storm, they were almost run over by a trawler. Brendan, as they were to find out, was invisible to radar. The leather did not reflect the beams, and the metal reflector was drowned out by the waves. More later, Bell