Leather Boot Crosses Ocean,
Challenges Columbus, Ericson
By ROBERT C. RADCLIFFE
National Geographic New*
Christopher Columbus and Lief
Ericsoo may have to move to the back
of the boat. Now it looks as if a 6th-century
Irish monk was the first to cross
the Atlantic and set foot on the New
World.
That theory, floating around for
years, may have been shoved onto dry
land at last, thanks to four men who
completed the crossing just as the old
Irish legend claimed - in a skin boat.
Timothy Severin, who conceived the
voyage, sailed his 36-foot leather
curragh from County Kerry in western
Ireland to Newfoundland along the
route that scholars say St. Brendan
supposedly followed about 1,400 years
ago.
Greeted by Crowd
"We are back in the 20th century,"
grinned Severin as his boat, named
after the famous seafaring missionary,
was towed through the shoals off the
fishing village of Masgrave Harbor on
Newfoundland's northern coast.
The Newfies, as they call themselves,
had followed the voyage almost
from the start, and they were crowding
the pier, cheering, at the finish.
Severin, a 36-year-old English historian
and student of the history of exploration,
will write about his voyage
for the National Geographic and
Reader's Digest Press, which helped
support the trip.
The voyage began in 1976, the
Brendan putting out to sea on May
17-the day after St. Brendan's Day.
She sailed from a miniature fiord
called Brandon Creek on Brandon
Head, the first of a number of place
names recalling the adventurous saint
that the 20th-century voyagers were to
find along the route.
After a two-month sail to Iceland,
with stops in the islands of the Hebrides
and Faeroes, they overwintered in
Iceland, leaving Reykjavik May 7.
Exactly 50 days later the Brendan
made her North American landfall,
nearing place names that recall the
early days of exploration along the
coast: New World Island, Cabot Island,
named after John Cabot, and even an
island community named St. Brendan.
Near Viking Settlement
On Newfoundland's northern tip lies
the New World's only known Viking
settlement, L'Anse au Meadow, excavated
with National Geographic
Society help in the early 1960s.
The voyage of the 20th-century
Brendan ended when sailing master
George Molony, 28, of Woking,
England, waded ahsore, pulling the
Brendan by her painter.
Severin, as master of the craft,
stayed aboard, and was still sitting by
the steering oar when waiting newsmen
on a Canadian coast guard boat
' began shouting their first questions
to him.
What does it all prove?
"That a medieval boat can actually
get across the Atlantic by a very cold
and difficult route. And what we
experienced is just too much like St.
Brendan's account to be a coincidence,"
Severin said.
The voyages of St. Brendan and the
early Irish missionaries were described
in an early Celtic book, the
Cash Reward
offered for information leading to the conviction
of person or persons taking part in recent
desecration of the Jones Family Cemetery in
which Anne Carter Lee is buried. All information
will be treated with utmost confidentiality.
Telephone 257-3713. W. Duke Jones.
BULK LINE fr FERTILIZER
Warren FCX Service
Warren ton, N.C.
"Navigatio Saocti Brendan! Abbatia,"
which became one o# the world's first
best sellers.
"I think now that all is left us it to
find some concrete evidence, some
relic," said Severin. "Now there is
every reason to look."
So far, unlike the Viking settlements,
no archeological trace has been found
of the Irish in North America.
Troubled by Winds
The modern voyage was bedeviled by
contrary winds that sometimes drove
the Brendan in circles because, with
her two square-rigged sails, she could
not sail into the wind.
Severin said his biggest fright on the
voyage came one rough night as he
stood watch and a huge wave washed
over the entire boat, the water swirling
up to his chest.
"I thought, my God, we're a submarine,"
Severin recalled.
Only air trapped beneath the foul
weather tarps covering the open boat
prevented her from possibly going
under.
Off the coast of Labrador, pack ice
punctured the leather bow, but after a
night of bailing, the crew patched and
sewed her until she was seaworthy
again.
According to Severin, a wooden-hulled
ship would have been crushed by the
ice.
The 36-foot Brendan has a sturdy oak
frame covered by 42 ox hides, sewn
together and waterproofed by an
ancient concoction of cod oil, wool
grease, and tallow. She was so
watertight that water leaked in at the
rate of only eight gallons a day, which
was easily bailed.
On the slow and often monotonous
voyage, the crew tried fishing, without
too much luck, and caught seagulls for
the cooking pot. Several birds hung
lifelessly over the stern as she
arrived in the harbor.
One day Severin was wakened from a
nap by the sound of the sea rushing by
the hull. He discovered that the
Brendan was being towed by a 15-foot
pilot whale harpooned-briefly-with
the idea of adding fresh red meat to the
voyagers' diet of ship's stores.
The whale had been harpooned by
Trondur Pattursson, 33, from the
Faeroes, a sometime fisherman and
whaler turned artist. Curious whales
often sounded within yards of the
Brendan.
Whale Recalls Legend
According to one of the legends of St.
Brendan's voyages, the missionaries
once supposedly beached on a small
island where they built a cooking fire,
only to have the island lurch into life
and disappear. It was a huge whale.
The fourth crew member of the
Brendan, Arthur Magan, 25, of Dublin,
Ireland, also has been a commercial
fisherman.
Severin will truck the Brendan to
Boston soon for controlled sailing and
rowing tests of the unusual vessel, a
faithful copy of 6th-century curraghs.
The Brendan ended her voyage as
Newfoundland observed a special
holiday.
Newfoundland coastguardsman Bill
Ryan put it this way: "June 24, 1497,
was when John Cabot discovered
Newfoundland-but now we find that
St. Brendan was here first."
Dies On Birthday
William Shakespeare died
on his birthday at the age of
51.
w lion its
TI IY1 E Tb ACT
f
— Tluv.k e$
JACK HARRIS
AL FLEMING
Far off places can be
your retirement dream.
Drop in and let us show
you how a Life Insurance
program can provide
you with a good
retirement income.
Attend Church
On Sunday
iiTSnii]
These Christmas stockings were entered in the Christmas Stocking Contest held last
Thursday in the Home Economics Extension Office of Warrenton. (Staff Photo)
Stocking Contest Set
The Christmas Stocking
Contest for Warren County
Extension Homemakers
was held Thursday, Sept. 22,
in the Home Economics Extension
Office.
Six stockings were entered
in the contest. The top
three will be judged at the
state level.
The state judging committee
will select one
Christmas stocking per
county to be exhibited at the
Southern Christmas Show in
Charlotte, from November
5-13.
The three county winners
will each receive two tickets
to the Christmas show.
The contestants were Mrs.
Gracie Burton, of the Macon
Extension Homemakers
Club; Mrs. Clarence Kearney
of the Snow Hill Club;
Mrs. Magnolia Alston of the
Ridgeway Club; Mrs. Willie
Williams of the Ridgeway
Club; Mrs. Thelma B.
Howard of the Olive Grove
Club; and Mrs. Helen
Rooker of the Zion Club.
HENDERSON'S Beit
FAIR
ALL NEXT WEEK
OCTOBER 3-8,1977
Rides ★ Amusements
Wednesday and Thursday will be
SCHOOL DAYS
Children of Warren County will be
Admitted Free Both Days & Nights
Rides Reduced until 6 School Days
FUN FOR EVERYONE!
iPM.iuuci * ages
GRANITE MEMORIALS...Each time a family member
died. Col. Henry C. Wooldridge erected a full-sized
granite statue over the grave at Maplewood Cemetery,
Mayfield, Kentucky. Wooldridge accumulated a fortune as
a horse and mule trader. His fame—and family,—are
remembered in the cemetery.