by Tim Severin
Brendan’s stability was a vital factor in her success. This stability was due in large part to Colin Mudie’s design, and enhanced by ballasting with 1,600 pounds of fresh drinking water, over half of it stowed beneath the floorboards. Without doubt, the chief danger was capsize at sea. Deliberate capsize during sea trials proved to be extraordinarily difficult, even when the boat was unballasted. After being capsized with a shoreline to the mast, Brendan could be turned right way up by a 5-man crew and it took 12 minutes bailing with buckets to empty her. In the event of total swamp, buoyancy blocks of polyurethane foam were placed at bow and stern, and under three thwarts.
SAFETY
In view of the hazardous nature of her voyage, close attention was paid to the crew’s safety. Brendan was equipped with an 8-man life raft specially prepared by Beaufort (Airsea) Equipment Ltd., and through the kind permission of the Commanding Officer, Brendan’s crew attended a short course at the Royal Naval Safety Equipment and Survival School at Seafield Park. There we were instructed in the use of life raft and flares and in general survival procedures. In the waters Brendan sailed, the danger from cold if a man went overboard was much more real than the risk of drowning. So each member of the crew wore, and used, a clip-on lifeline supplied as an integral part of his Helly Hansen sailing suit. In very foul weather this same lifeline was transferred to the Beaufort immersion suits (helicopter passenger suits; general purpose coveralls), which were provided to Brendan’s crew through the generosity of the Irish Leather Federation, and made a great difference in the worst spells of weather. The use of lifelines was encouraged by the knowledge that if a man fell overboard while Brendan was under way, it would have been impossible to turn round to pick him up.
To report our daily position a crystal-controlled SSB Raytheon 1209C transceiver was used, operating on the 2-, 4-, and 8-megacycle bands. The aerial was a 15-foot whip, and gave a range of between 150 and 250 miles depending on latitude and radio traffic density. The Raytheon gave sterling service, and its power was successfully supplied by two Lucas solar panels lashed to the shelter roof (with thongs) which trickle-charged a pair of Lucas Pacemaker car batteries. Despite initial fears, the Lucas solar panels provided enough power for 5 minutes’ transmission daily, and their great advantage was that they required no maintenance. Brendan, of course, carried no form of engine, either to pump her out or to charge batteries. VHF links, wherever possible, were achieved ship-to-ship with a Seavoice portable transceiver in its waterproof Portaphone mode; and ship-to-air communication was with a transceiver, loaned by Park Air Electronics. The success of Brendan’s radio communications depended to a large degree on the patience and skill of the radio operators concerned at the shore stations of Valentia, Malin Head, Stornoway, Torshaven, Vestmanna, Reykjavik, Prins Christianssund, Cartwright, St. Anthony, and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Special thanks are also due to the radio operators aboard the Icelandic Fishery Research Vessel, Arni Fridriksson, and to the air crews of many trans-Atlantic airlines—especially Loftleidir/Icelandic Airways, who listened out for Brendan’s often weak signals as she crept across the Atlantic. Burndept Electronics of Erith, Kent, were kind enough to loan a BE 369 Flotation Beacon in case a search-and-rescue operation had to be mounted. During the 1976 season when Brendan was close to land, weather forecasts as well as radio direction bearings were obtained with a Brookes and Gatehouse Homer/Heron which survived even the drenching of heavy weather off Greenland, which was also when Brendan’s bilge pumps by Munster Simms were put to vital use, and again when the vessel was holed by ice. The medieval monks, of course, would have used wooden bailing scoops or buckets of wood or leather.
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2000 Modern Library Paperback Edition
Introduction copyright © 2000 by Malachy McCourt
Biographical note copyright © 2000 by Random House, Inc.
Series Introduction copyright © 1999 by Jon Krakauer
Copyright © 1978 by Tim Severin
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
MODERN LIBRARY and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in 1978 by McGraw-Hill, Inc.
This edition published by arrangement with the author.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Severin, Timothy.
The Brendan voyage/Tim Severin.—Modern Library pbk. ed
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-75560-5
1. Brendan (Curragh). 2. Voyages and travels. I. Title.
G470.S48 2000
910′.9163′1—dc21 99-37412
Modern Library website address: www.modernlibrary.com
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