The runic rock of Noman’s Land has apparently disappeared, and it is believed that erosion of the shore line of that island during the hurricane of 1938 may have buried it or changed its location so that it is no longer accessible to searchers, Joshua Crane, owner of Noman’s Land, has looked for the rock unsuccessfully, and there is no record that it has been seen since the hurricane.

 

The rock was first reported in 1926, lying on an exposed part of the shore where it could be examined only at ebb tide. It bore an inscription in runes giving the name of Leif Eriksson, and under this the Roman numerals MI, indicating the year 1001. Other runes had been started but never completed. At first the inscription was widely regarded as a record made by Leif Eriksson himself, or by Icelanders who followed him.

 

In 1935 Prof. Edmund B. Delabarre of Brown University, after exhaustive study, reported his conclusion that the runes were the work of a twentieth century author, possessed of no more than a smattering of knowledge. The voyage of Leif Eriksson, which many scholars believe brought him to Martha’s Vineyard (the Straumey of the sagas) was actually made in 1003.