Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki: A Balsa Raft Voyage Built on a Wrong Theory

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Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl believed Polynesia was settled not from Asia but by fair skinned Tiki people who drifted from pre Columbian Peru, pointing to resemblances between Easter Island's moai and Peruvian monoliths and to the Hanau Eepe and Hanau Momoko legend. To prove the drift possible, he built the Kon-Tiki in a Peruvian naval dockyard from nine balsa logs up to 45 feet long, lashed with hemp and no metal, following Spanish conquistador illustrations. Experts said the ropes would chafe through, but the soaked balsa swelled and the wet hemp shrank, tightening the lashings. The crew included wartime radio operators Knut Haugland and Torstein Raaby, navigator Erik Hesselberg, Bengt Danielsson, Herman Watzinger and a parrot named Lorita.

Towed 50 miles out from Callao on April 28, 1947, they drifted 101 days and 4,300 miles, ate flying fish and mahi mahi, survived three rogue waves that washed straight through the logs, and wrecked on the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on August 7. Heyerdahl's book became a global bestseller and his film won the 1951 Academy Award for documentary feature. But DNA, linguistic and archaeological evidence shows Polynesians came from island Southeast Asia, and in 1976 the voyaging canoe Hokulea sailed Hawaii to Tahiti by traditional wayfinding against the prevailing winds.

• They carried US Army rations, a sextant and watches, arguing only the raft itself was being tested.
• Their radio, call sign LI2B, reached Oslo on about six watts.
• Sweet potatoes in Oceania suggest contact with South America, likely by Polynesians sailing east.
• William Willis rafted even farther on Seven Little Sisters in 1954.
• The 2006 Tangaroa raft, crewed by grandson Olav Heyerdahl, crossed 30 days faster using guaras.