"When the European tall-ships first arrived on the American continent, the natives couldn't see them." (from 'The Expanse')—I'm 90% sure this is bullshit, but still 10% curious, is there any truth behind this idea?

by almostambidextrous

("The Expanse" is a science-fiction tv show which plays with the idea of things that are well, expansive and hard to comprehend. No spoilers please.)

Full quote from the show:

"When the European tall-ships first arrived on the American continent, the natives couldn't see them. The sight was so completely outside of their experience, they just couldn't compute. So they didn't see."

I'm 90% confident that this was pulled out of some writer's arse to lend gravity to one of the characters' speeches, but still 10% curious if there might be any attested truth/record or justification behind the quote. It's an interesting idea.

I'm sure that Native Americans knew about boats. Perhaps they would have been shocked/amazed by the sudden arrival of a lot of very HUGE boats. Would any of these impressions have made their way into records that we have access to?

Is there any evidence that they "didn't see" the ships, or is this just a lot of colonialist fantasising/speculation?

Thanks!

(note to mods: reposted with slightly different title to get past AutoMod's claims that this "does not appear to be a question")

(Further edit addressed to anyone who might be reading: The Expanse is fucking awesome and if you like sci-fi at all —Star Trek, Doctor Who, The 100, whatever— then you should definitely give it a go)