[BluH2o]

The Basques were excellent seamen and fished the Georges Bank for cod hundreds of years prior to Columbus.

That is highly improbable ... otherwise the Azores would have been discovered long before 1420 when the Portugese were the first Europeans to discover the islands.

[blam]

"The Basques were excellent seamen and fished the Georges Bank for cod hundreds of years prior to Columbus.

That is highly improbable ... otherwise the Azores would have been discovered long before 1420 when the Portugese were the first (modern) Europeans to discover the islands.

The comet that plunged into the Celtic Sea in 540AD and brought on the Dark Ages may have had something to do with this. (evidence for this comet is recorded in the worldwide tree ring data.)