Raft Kon-Tiki Travel Expedition
On the 28th of April 1947, the Kon-Tiki raft was towed out of the harbour of Callao in Peru, and left adrift within the Humboldt Present.
A hundred and 1 days later, after crossing 4300 miles (8000 km) with the Pacific, the raft was washed up on the Raroia reef nicely inside Polynesia.
The six men who made up the crew had been: Thor Heyerdahl, leader with the Kon-Tiki Travel expedition; Herman Watzinger, in charge of meteorological and technical analysis; Knut Haugland and Torstein Raaby, each wireless operators, who maintained get in touch with with radio amateurs; Erik Hesselberg, navigator, who plotted the drift of the raft; and the Swedish sociologist Bengt Danielson, who acted as steward.
The object with the KonTiki travel expedition was to test the sea-going abilities with the South American balsa raft, and to investigate whether or not it would have been practically feasible for the original native population of Peru, the Incas and their remarkably cultured predecessors, to have reached the islands out within the open Pacific.
For much more than a century scientists had debated as to whether or not balsa rafts had been seaworthy, and to what extent it may have been feasible for the aboriginal inhabitants of South America to have contributed to the peopling of the Pacific islands. The experts had lastly concluded that the balsa raft was water absorbent and consequently compelled to hug the house coast exactly where it could be beached at intervals and dried out in the sun. It was also argued that low deck of an open raft could be unprotected in the high sea, and moreover, that the balsa raft would dissolve as soon as the big logs began chafing on the rope lashing that held the craft together. Due to the common disregard for the former means of navigation in ancient South America, it had already been agreed, for practical factors, Polynesia could only have been reached from direction of Asia, until the arrival of European ships.
This generally accepted theory ran counter to the Pacific migration theory which Thor Heyerdahl had tried to obtain a hearing more than numerous years. The Kon-Tiki travel expedition which he organized was an attempt to throw lights on these practical issues.
With co-operation of the Peruan authorities the members with the Kon-Tiki Travel expedition built a balsa raft within the Callao naval yard. The raft was a copy of those used by the Indians on the coast of Peru and Ecuador at the time when the first European arrived. Large sailing rafts of this type, having a capacity of up to 35 tons, had been seen and described in detail from 1526 and on by the pioneering Spaniards who initial amongst the Europeen discovered and colonized the Pacific coast of South America. Small raft models, and equisitely carved paddles and raft centreboards, have also been excavated in big numbers in desserts graves along the coast of Peru and North Chile, some dating back, to the very initial centuries A.D.
The expedition test raft was built of medium size, consiting of nine 2-foot-thick balsa logs, ranging in length from thirty to forty-five feet, the longest in the middle, and lashed to balsa cross beams supporting a plaited bamboo deck and an open bamboo hut.
A bipod mast with a bamboo yard carrying a square sail; five centreboards thrust down in cracks in between the logs; and a stout block of balsa supporting a lengthy steering oar completed the construction.
The raft was christened Kon-Tiki”, following a legendary Sun-King who according to Inca history is supposed to have ruled their land before the coming of the Incas, after which he is claimed to have migrated into the Pacific.
Within the ocean the Kon-Tiki proved to be eminently sea-worthy , with an incredible carrying capacity.
Every day the raft was driven westward and away from South America by the powerful tradewind and the Humbolt Present, both of which maintained a steady course towards Polynesia.
Ample new supplies of food were also available in the Humbolt Present, each day edible flying fish and small squids would even come aboard uninvited: beneath the raft there was a continuous procession of dolphins, pilot fish, sharks, bonitos, and occasionally tuna fish, as well as edible plankton.
It was feasible to collect limited supplies of rainwater, and to squeeze a thirst-quenching lymph liquid from the ever present raw fish.
The raft was also at numerous occasions visited by whales, and two specimens with the Gempylus or snack-mackerel, a fish which by no means previously been noticed alive by man, jumped aboard from out of the deep.
On 1 occasion the six men on the raft produced the acquaintance, at uncomfortably close range, with the whale-shark, the world`s largest fish, which kept on swimming right below the raft.
The raft was caught in two storms, one of which lasted for 5 days, but the balsa logs rode the waves with incredible ease, and as mass of water crashed down on the stern of the raft, it ran out via the gaps in between the logs.
The higher danger that threatened was falling aboard in powerful wind, and at one such event a man was nearly lost.
After 93 days at sea the Kontiki Travel expedition sighted land for the very first time as the raft drifted helplessly past Puka-puka on the eastern fringe with the Tuamotu group.
4 days later the Kon-Tiki passed so close to the island of Angatau that the natives ashore paddled out towards the raft with their canoes, but once again it was swept past.
When Raroia was reached following 101 days, the raft was caught within the surf and wrecked on the windward side of a coral reef just off the island.
The crew made their way ashore, and after a week they had been discovered by native. Polynesians who lived on the other side of the wide lagoon.
The shallow raft was eventually washed correct over the reef and into the calm lagoon, whence it was rescued, towed to Tahiti, and shipped back to Norway with assistance with the French authorities and Norwegian shipowners.
In 1949 a number of Norwegians, anxious to provide a future home for this unique vessel, had a appropriate erected on the Bygdoy peninsula, on the outskirt of Oslo. Because, more than 15.000 0000 have visited the Kon-tiki Museum and noticed the original balsa raft Kon-Tiki.
