The Brendan voyage
Subtitle: [sailing to America in a leather boat to prove the legend of the Irish sailor saints]
By: Tim Severin ; introduction by Malachy McCourt.
Edition: Modern Library pbk. ed.
Series: The Modern Library exploration series; Modern Library exploration
Publisher: Modern Library
Published: 2000
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 269
Subjects: Brendan (Curragh); Voyages and travels
Description: "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.
Notes: Subtitle from cover.

"Originally published in 1978 by McGraw-Hill, Inc."--T.p. verso.