Tim Severin, a British adventurer who for 40 years meticulously replicated the journeys of real and mythic explorers like St. Brendan the Navigator, Sinbad the Sailor and Marco Polo, died on Dec. 18 at his home in West Cork, Ireland. His daughter, Ida Ashworth, said the cause was cancer. St. Brendan was a sailor who spread the Gospel in his trips around Ireland, Scotland and Wales. If the tale of his trip to the Americas were true, he would have beaten Leif Ericson and Christopher Columbus by centuries. The 36-foot two-masted boat of oak and ash was covered in oxhide a quarter-inch thick.

Source: New York Times January 02, 2021 16:52 UTC