News of Norway, issue 2, 1997
Heyerdahl wanted to prove a controversial theory that the Polynesian islands might have been populated from the east--that is, South America. He had written a treatise on his theory, but few in the scientific community took him seriously. It was assumed that balsa wood could float for only two weeks. Heyerdahl wanted to prove that this was false. He decided to make the type of balsa raft that the Peruvians used several hundred years ago. He gathered 5 other men--4 Norwegians (Herman Watzinger, Torstein Råby, Knut Haugland and Erik Hesselberg) and a Swede (Bengt Danielsson). They cut down trees in the Ecuadorian jungle and transported the logs to Peru, where they built the raft based on old drawings. They named it "Kon-Tiki" in memory of the Peruvian sun-god who, according to legend, vanished westward across the sea. When the Kon-Tiki crew set sail from Peru's Callao Harbor on April 28, 1947, most people believed they were about to commit suicide. The raft was not easy to maneuver; it could only sail in trade winds and drift with the currents across the Pacific. Yet, after 101 days at sea--and traveling 4,300 nautical miles--the Kon-Tiki made landfall on a coral reef near the uninhabited Polynesian island of Raroia. In 1950, Heyerdahl published the book Kon-Tiki, which has been called "one of the greatest sea sagas of all time." The restored raft is on permanent exhibition in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo. Heyerdahl, who lived many years in Italy, now lives on the Canary Islands.