An ancient manuscript, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis , more commonly known as “ Navigatio ", Narrates the adventure of an Irish monk who lived in 500 AD. who made, together with some brothers, a long journey aboard a leather boat (ox skins).
This monk was called Brendano and he left Ireland traveling in the North Atlantic, until he reached a distant land in the west.
Some scholars think that this land is America, thus discovered almost 1000 years before Columbus and about 400 years before the Vikings.
He spent much of his life at sea, so much so that he was known by his contemporaries as Brendano the navigator.
The stimulus to make the mythical crossing was given to Brendano by a visit received by an Irish priest who described a fabulous distant and beautiful land, located even more to the west.
Intrigued and intrigued by the description of the place, Brendano took the sea with abundant provisions and some companions, monks too.
The framework of the "Curragh" (typical name of the Irish boat), was made of ash, tied with three kilometers of leather strings knotted with 1600 knots performed by hand. the planking of the boat.
▶ ️ The first stop was the Hebridean Islands, located along the west coast of Scotland.
From there they went as far as the Faroe Islands and from the latter to Iceland, continuing towards the coasts of Greenland and then sailing again towards the coasts of Newfoundland and then perhaps to North America.
▶ ️ In 1976 an expert navigator and explorer historian, Tim Severin, to consolidate the real chances of success, faces the epic journey with some companions.
He retraces the route, not without dangers, aboard a light boat ( baptized Brendano) built and assembled rigorously according to purely medieval methods.
▶ ️ The boat departed from Brandon inlet, County Kerry, the place according to which the legend said that the group of monks set sail.
The local population had strong doubts about the success of the enterprise of Tim Severin and his crew:the boat looked more like a lifeguard than a vessel capable of overcoming the pitfalls of the journey.
But on June 26, 1977, at 8 pm, after fifty days of navigation and several adventures, Severin arrived in the New World, showing that that 'poor' journey was possible.
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