Show SAME AS IN AD pacific J journey ELAN 0 11 N ru I 1 I 1 y ff made madr on raft alft dr thor heyerdahl 32 year old norwegian and goolo gist had a theory that the first poly were blue eyed blondes who floated over to their pacific is lands from south america on rafts in about the year A D what he d d about proving that theory now is history he and a party of six men built themselves e primitive raft of bamboo and balsa wood climbed aboard and set them selves adrift at callao peru exactly days later the group drifted ashore on their raft the kon tiki at barola reef in the arch pelago center of their target they had used no motors oars or sails their only means of propulsion on the 4 mile trip had been the humboldt and south equatorial current that said dr heyerdahl as he landed in san francisco en route to norway provided indubitable proof of the veracity of bis his theory the fact that we made the jour ney demonstrates it could have been done around A D when the polynesians were first populated he said expert navigators said it couldn coulden t be done that the balsa wood would sink that it was impossible but it wasn gasn t he related that the current and wind sometimes carried the raft as much as 71 miles a day sometimes only 9 miles but that we always moved westward the raft was 45 feet long and 18 feet wide a vir dually infinitesimal craft on which to cross the vast sweep of the pacific with true scientific objectivity the men ate a little of everything that came their way during the course of the journey fish small crabs that walked on the ocean seaweed and plankton plankton was de scribed as a semi microscopic sea life both animal and vegetable which was like shrimp paste cost of the expedition estimated at 40 was financed by dr hey erdahl through funds of his own and by borrowing money |