The legend further states that on his voyage back, Erikson rescued two men who were shipwrecked, thus earning the title Leif the Lucky. This place would come to be known as Vinland. It'd be nearly five-hundred years until Europeans dare to venture our across the Atlantic again. According to Norse writings about Leif Ericson during his voyage back to Greenland he picked up two men who had shipwrecked, these two men would have been the first Europeans to make landfall in the New World. Some of the information suggests he found North America accidentally when his ship was blown off course. Several ships are named after Leif - a viking ship replica, a passenger ship,[56][57]and a large dredger. Exploration in his family blood since he's the son of Erik the Red, who was the founder of the first European settlement in Greenland. Leif left Greenland to sail back to Norway for supplies. After several efforts Sweden became Christian during the reign of Sverker (, Leif, Erik’s son, together with some 30 others, set out in 1001 to explore. The Vikings of Scandinavia were the first to discover and understand that there was a new continent to the west of them. Many believe that Christopher Columbus was the first European to lay eyes on a new continent, but almost 500 years prior to Christopher Columbus’s epic journey a Norseman named Leif Ericson set foot on North America. They probably reached the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland; some think that the farthest point south reached by the settlers, as described in the sagas, fits best with Maryland or Virginia,…, …was visited and named by Leif Eriksson about the year 1000. He would eventually earn the nickname “Leif the Lucky.” He was the son of Erik Thorvaldson, better known as “Erik the Red,” and Thorhild.