To some it might have seemed at odds with the new era of the atom bomb and jet-powered flight.

Heyerdahl's mission was to use primitive, indigenous technology to prove his theory that people from South America could have colonized Polynesia.

His book became a best-seller and a documentary film about his voyage won an Academy Award in 1951. On ApHeyerdahl had set out from the coast of Peru, cutting through the waves aboard Kon-Tiki, a simple raft made from balsa wood logs, based on drawings made by Spanish conquistadors, and begun a long, strange journey that would grip the world. you are suddenly astonished, and ask yourself how in the world it came about?'Ĭonsidering that, at the time, he was adrift in the Pacific on a raft with five men and a parrot, it wasn't a strange question to be asking. (CNN) - 'Once in a while you find yourself in an odd situation,' wrote Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl in Kon-Tiki: Across The Pacific by Raft.

Group sought to prove people from South America could have colonized Polynesia.

Heyerdahl was joined on 1947 expedition by small group of scientists.

Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl sailed on balsa raft across Pacific Ocean.

Kon tiki across the pacific by raft