St. Brendan was a real monk who lived and ministered around Ireland and Northern Europe in the sixth century, according to Irish Central. He was also a seafarer, and accounts of his voyages survive in ancient documents from around the region, according to Florida Irish Heritage Center. At least one of his reported voyages, according to legend, may have ended with him landing at a landmass in the Western Hemisphere, centuries before Erikson and a millennium before Columbus. Specifically, he claimed to have found a flat, warm, and verdant locale, which may have been Florida or a Bahamian island. Of course, his accounts are also filled with encounters with sea monsters and volcanoes, so perhaps those stories should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.

Nevertheless, in 1976, author Tim Severin tried to recreate Brendan’s boat, based on ancient descriptions, and see if it was seaworthy and could make it across the Atlantic Ocean. Sure enough, after 50 days at sea, Severin and his team did make landfall in the west, albeit not in Florida or the Bahamas but in Newfoundland. Of course, this just demonstrates that Brendan’s reported voyage was possible, not that it actually happened.