Expedition to the ancestors. Along the St. Brendan's route
"St. Brendan - Tim Severin's boat
Forward, my boat! Let the wind drive us!
No matter what country we rush to,
But we won't see a sadder one
Countries than the one that escaped from the eyes.
Thomas Moore. From "Irish Melodies"
(translation by Alexey Pleshcheev).
The wind is driving
boat in the ocean
from another millennium, with a straight sail,
on which the Celtic cross is red,
and with a team of five soaking wet
desperate sailors.
Tim Severin "The Voyage of the Brendan"
No matter what country we rush to,
But we won't see a sadder one
Countries than the one that escaped from the eyes.
Thomas Moore. From "Irish Melodies"
(translation by Alexey Pleshcheev).
The wind is driving
boat in the ocean
from another millennium, with a straight sail,
on which the Celtic cross is red,
and with a team of five soaking wet
desperate sailors.
Tim Severin "The Voyage of the Brendan"
People and culture. The publication of materials about the ancient sailors of sunrise and sunset aroused considerable interest among a certain part of the VO readership. Many asked to continue this topic or talk about some specific routes, voyages and floating craft of the distant past. VO readers were also interested in the story about Tim Severin’s voyage on the dried apricot “St. Brendan." Well, naturally, there were requests to tell about Brendan himself and about the boat named in his honor.
We fulfill these requests.
St. Brendan. Icon of the 20th century.
And it so happened that the story of travel, naturally with edifying content, became very widespread at a certain time in medieval Europe, and everything popular usually multiplies in quantity.
But in this case, the stories about the voyage of St. Brendan are based on certain real events. In any case, this man himself is not a fiction. It is known that he was born, lived and was buried, and subsequently, for his deeds useful for the cause of faith, he was canonized.
He was called Brendan of Clonfert, and also Brendan the Navigator or Traveler, and he was one of the early Irish saints, abbot of the Clonfert monastery.
His years of life are known: approx. 484 – approx. 578, as well as a fictionalized story his seven-year odyssey - sailing across the ocean to the west in search of the Promised Land. The feast day of this saint is May 16th.
He was born around 484 near what is now Fenit, in the southwest of Ireland, and in the world he bore the name Ciarraight Luachra. But then he became a monk and began to be called Brendan, perhaps in honor of Mount Brandon, where between 512 and 530 he built monastic cells.
Schematic description of the ship "St. Brendan"
He is famous mainly for his voyage to the Isle of the Blessed, which was described in detail in the Voyage of St. Brendan the Navigator in the 9th century.
By the way, such works as “The Swimming of Snegdus and Mac-Riagla” and “The Swimming of Ua Corra” date back to the 10th century. The first tells about two monks from the monastery of St. Columba (6th century), who voluntarily joined the criminals who, as punishment, were to be sent “to the will of the waves,” that is, left far out to sea. Snegdus and MacRiagla, while traveling, visit many amazing islands, including the Island of Repentant Criminals. The Voyage of Ua Corra is also based on the idea of redemption. So obviously this was a very popular topic at the time!
Projections of the model "St. Brendan" from the author's book "For those who love to tinker" (Moscow, "Prosveshchenie", 1990)
However, as already noted, it did not arise out of nowhere. Thus, medieval chronicle sources report that the inhabitants of Ireland made long voyages (even to America!) on ships covered... with leather. Pieces of leather were boiled in oil, after which they were sewn together with oiled leather straps, just like the case set.
Theoretical drawing of the body contours
There are many versions of how this voyage was carried out, and they tell how Brendan set out on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean with sixty pilgrims (other versions have fourteen, and three more unbelievers who joined him at the last minute) on search for Eden.
This event, if it actually happened, took place around 530. On his journey, Brendan saw a blessed island covered with wonderful vegetation. He also met with a sea monster named Jascontius, an encounter also attributed to his contemporary St. Columba.
The most famous adventure is the landing on an island, which turned out to be exactly this giant sea monster. Moreover, it is interesting that this story is found both in the Bible (Jonah in the belly of the whale), and in the legends of other peoples, ranging from tales of the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor to the wooden Pinocchio.
Very realistic model of "Brendan" from material by Klaus Plonus
It is generally accepted that this voyage is nothing more than a religious allegory, but debate about whether this voyage was actually carried out, and what kind of Isle of the Blessed it was that Brendan reached, continues to this day. Many people believe that this island is America.
Moreover, there is even the St. Brendan Society, which believes that Brendan was the discoverer of America, and even celebrates this event.
A slipway was required to make it!
Well, the fact that sailing on ships made of leather is quite possible was proved by a bold experiment conducted in 1976 by the Irish historian and writer Timothy Severin. He planned to repeat the route of St. Brendan's voyage and cross the Atlantic Ocean on a leather boat - dried apricots, or as they were also called - carre.
And just like that, from bent slats, the body was assembled on it...
The boat, named "St Brendan", had a length of 10,9 m, a beam of 2,4 m, two masts with straight sails and a steering oar on the starboard side. The voyage of the brave traveler and his crew continued intermittently for about two years. They were able to cross the Atlantic and reach the coast of North America.
By the way, on the sails of “St. Brendan" depicted a red "cross in a halo" - the symbol of the monks of Ireland.
To build this boat, Severin used 49 bovine hides, carefully treated and impregnated with wax. That is, he didn’t come out cheap at all!
Finished ship wreck
As Tim Severin's example shows, Brendan could well have sailed to North America, in which case he was indeed one of the first Europeans to visit the New World.
By the way, Christopher Columbus, in proving the existence of a sea route to Asia across the Atlantic, also relied on the legends about the voyage of St. Brendan.
And this is how the frame slats were tied together by hand! In my opinion - a real execution!
In general, we cannot say for sure whether this was a voyage or not. Tim Severin proved that it could be, but nothing more.
But... there is a recorded story, in many ways a fairy tale, like the Odyssey or the Aeneid, and this is another story about the time when monks, for the sake of heroism, retired either to caves, or... sailed on boats on the seas and oceans!
In the mountains, on the river bank,
I took a piece of brick red
Bark and carved a boat,
The size of a trout, no more,
And watched him swim
And drowning. And where he disappeared
An inch of silvery flesh above the water
Flashed in the sun - for one moment.
Fenton James (translation by Vladimir Svetlosanov).
As for me personally, I learned about Tim Severin’s voyage after the publication of my first book, “From Everything at Hand.” It is clear that I immediately wanted to write and publish a second one, but for books about homemade products at that time, not only their drawings and diagrams were required, but also photographs confirming that you had done this yourself.
Finished stitched body from the inside
Finished body from outside
Deck hatches
And I had to make “Brendan” for the book “For Those Who Love to Craft.”
At that time, the “Skillful Hands” store was operating in Penza and, although its assortment could not have been poorer, it sold scraps of leatherette from a local leather goods factory. First, I decided to cut out the case from foam plastic, attaching a cutter made of a thin metal plate to the tip of an electric soldering iron. And cut it out! And then I sanded it down with sandpaper. But as soon as I started covering it with strips of brown leatherette, the leather glue dissolved the foam and rendered my body completely unusable.
I didn’t have the patience to do it a second time, so I soldered the frame of the ship from copper wire: I bent the frames, two gunwales from it, and assembled the keel from pieces of wire soldered in turn between the frames. Then I covered this entire structure with strips of brown leatherette, and since the sails on the model were made of paper, I also glued paper crosses onto them using the appliqué method.
Leather trim
Finished body covered in leather
Finished body, top view
The model turned out to be small, but very cute. It’s just a pity that there are no photographs left of it - both the photograph and the film faded, so I had to throw them away.
Stern and steering oars
Let me note that I am not one of the modellers who try to do “everything as in life,” which is why 28 knots on the luff of a sail instead of 29 is almost a disaster for them. But... I appreciate their tenacity and perseverance.
Particularly in this regard, I was impressed by the work of one of the foreign modelers just on the model “St. Brendan." Klaus Plonus wrote about it and posted photographs of the process of making the model on the Internet. I think that their VO readers will also be interested in watching!
Irish stamp commemorating the voyage of St. Brendan
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