Tim Severin
Giles Timothy Watkins arrived in Jorhat, Assam, India on the 25th of September 1940. His father managed a tea plantation there while his mother cared for him during his early years. The boy grew up surrounded by the humid air and vast green fields of British colonial India before moving to England at age seven. He attended Tonbridge School and later studied geography and history at Keble College, Oxford University. At some point he adopted the name Severin to honor his maternal grandmother who had raised him as a child.
An undergraduate student named Stanley Johnson joined Giles Timothy Watkins on a motorcycle expedition in 1961. They set out from Oxford University to retrace the thirteenth-century journey of Marco Polo through Asia. The trio traveled through Switzerland, Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan using Polo's book The Description of the World as their guide. Sandstorms battered them while floods threatened to wash away their path. They survived multiple motorcycle accidents and spent time in jail along the way. Guides helped them ride camels through the Deh Bakri pass to find Persian apples of Paradise. Visa problems at the Chinese border forced them to return to England by sea from Bombay.
Severin constructed a thirty-six-foot replica of Brendan's currach using traditional tools in 1976. Irish ash and oak formed the hull lashed together with nearly two miles of leather thong. Forty-nine ox hides wrapped around the frame sealed with wool grease protected the vessel. Crew members George Maloney, Arthur Magan, and Tróndur Patursson sailed from Dingle Peninsula on the 17th of May 1976. They covered four thousand five hundred miles over thirteen months before landing on Peckford Island Newfoundland. The Canadian Coast Guard towed them to Musgrave Harbour after their arrival on the 26th of June 1977. Severin told reporters that they proved a leather boat could cross the North Atlantic. The boat now sits at Craggaunowen open-air museum in County Clare Ireland.
Omani shipwrights built an eighty-seven-foot Arab dhow named Sohar in seven months during 1980. Nearly four hundred miles of coconut-husk rope sewed wooden planks together for the vessel. Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said sponsored the project while Severin guided the construction process. The ship left Sur Oman on the 21st of November 1980 with a crew of twenty-five men. They navigated by stars across six thousand miles in eight months reaching Guangzhou China on the 6th of July 1981. Broken spars and freighters nearly ran them down during the journey through the Indian Ocean. They were becalmed in doldrums for nearly a month but continued eastward along India's Malabar Coast. The voyage ended when they arrived in Singapore then traveled up the Malacca Straits to reach China.
Master shipwright Vasilis Delimitros hand-built a fifty-four-foot replica of a Bronze Age galley called Argo in Spetses. Twenty volunteer oarsmen rowed and sailed from northern Greece through the Dardanelles in 1984. They crossed the Marmara Sea and passed through the Straits of Bosphorus into the Black Sea. The expedition reached the Phasis delta in Soviet Georgia after traveling fifteen hundred miles. Along the way they identified landmarks visited by Jason and found explanations for the Golden Fleece legend. Severin used the same vessel Argo again in 1985 to follow Ulysses' return home from Troy. He made tentative identifications of King Nestor's palace and the Halls of Hades during this second voyage. The crew also located Scylla Charybdis and the sirens described in Homer's epic poem.
Tim Severin and Sarah Dormon rode horseback across nine hundred years of history starting in 1987. They followed Duke Godfrey of Boullion's route from Belgium to Jerusalem on two specific horses named Mystery and Carty. Mystery was a riding school palfrey while Carty was a Heavy Ardennes descendant of Crusader war horses. The journey spanned two years with rest periods over the winter of 1987 and 1988. Civil war in Lebanon forced them to route through Syria and Jordan instead of following the exact path. This marked a return to long-distance land exploration after many marine expeditions. They traveled through modern lands including Germany Austria Hungary Bulgaria Turkey and Syria.
Severin oversaw construction of a sixty-foot bamboo raft named Hsu-Fu on Sam Son beach Vietnam in May 1993. Two hundred twenty bamboos and rattan cording formed the structure driven by an eight-hundred-square-foot junk-rigged sail. Monsoons typhoons and pirates attacked the crew during their ten-day voyage across the Pacific Ocean. Rattan began rotting and the raft fell apart before reaching their destination one thousand miles short. They abandoned the craft after traveling five thousand five hundred miles in one hundred five days. Severin believed the expedition proved a second-century BC bamboo raft could cross the Pacific. Later he searched for living white sperm whales in the South Pacific to compare Melville's account with reality.
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Common questions
When and where was Tim Severin born?
Giles Timothy Watkins arrived in Jorhat, Assam, India on the 25th of September 1940. His father managed a tea plantation there while his mother cared for him during his early years.
What motorcycle expedition did Tim Severin undertake with Stanley Johnson in 1961?
An undergraduate student named Stanley Johnson joined Giles Timothy Watkins on a motorcycle expedition in 1961 to retrace the thirteenth-century journey of Marco Polo through Asia. The trio traveled through Switzerland, Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan using Polo's book The Description of the World as their guide.
How did Tim Severin construct the replica of Brendan's currach in 1976?
Severin constructed a thirty-six-foot replica of Brendan's currach using traditional tools in 1976 with Irish ash and oak forming the hull lashed together with nearly two miles of leather thong. Forty-nine ox hides wrapped around the frame sealed with wool grease protected the vessel.
Where did the Sohar dhow voyage led by Tim Severin end in 1981?
The ship left Sur Oman on the 21st of November 1980 with a crew of twenty-five men and navigated by stars across six thousand miles in eight months reaching Guangzhou China on the 6th of July 1981. The voyage ended when they arrived in Singapore then traveled up the Malacca Straits to reach China.
What landmarks did the Argo expedition find during its voyages in 1984 and 1985?
The expedition reached the Phasis delta in Soviet Georgia after traveling fifteen hundred miles and identified landmarks visited by Jason while finding explanations for the Golden Fleece legend. During the second voyage, the crew located Scylla Charybdis and the sirens described in Homer's epic poem.