this is a perfect one for St. Pat's day coming up
Brendan and his Irish monks crossed the Atlantic
in ox hide boats...wayyyy before columbus, even
before the Vikings and Leif Erickson.

They were Irish monks who never married, left no descendants, and their settlements were abandoned with their passing . But they did make the voyage. In fact, one of them, a monk named St. Brendan wrote Navagatio Brendini, the story of his visit to America, more than 900 years before Columbus and 400 years before the Vikings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan

http://www.nyaoh.com/Brendan_The_Navigator.htm

http://ics.villanova.edu/in_saint_brendan.htm

see thre book of the journey re-created by Tim Severen and crew in 1976


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brendan-Voyage-Seafaring-Classic-Followed/dp/0717139271