History Alive: The Voyage of the Balangay

Though I get rather nervous when I'm travelling by boat and the sea is only choppy, I admire those who see the sea as a challenge to be adventurous and, at the same time, tell us something about our ancestors. In 1976 Tim Severin, an English explorer, set out on a journey with three others in a leather boat named Brendan to follow what might have been the journey of St Brendan, an Irish monk who died in 577 - a few years before St Columban set off on his voyage with twelve other monks from Ireland to continental Europe. it is possible that St Brendan reached north America.

One of my favourite poems in school was Sea Fever, by John Masefield:

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sails shaking

And a gray mist on the seas' face and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

and all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying

And the flung spray and the blown spume and the seagulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again adn the vagrant gypsy life,

to the gulls's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;

and all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover

And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

May the voyagers on the Balangay have safe sailing.