The Ra Expeditions
by Heyerdahl, Thor -- 1914 - 2002
pub by Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1971 - - isbn - - illustrations, map on endpapers, photos. - translated by Patricia Crampton - 341 p.
Heyerdahl attempts to cross the Atlantic demonstrating that the pre-Columbian people of North Africa could have crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a raft made of papyrus reeds, as such were built along the Nile in ancient times.
The 1969 effort was not totally successful. The raft came apart and sank after it made it well past the mid-point of the voyage. Heyerdahl made specific note of the level of pollution in the mid-Atlantic on this voyage.
A later attempt, the Ra II was made in 1970. It was made of reeds in Bolivia, then taken across the Atlantic (by ship?) and launched in Morocco. Ra II made it across the Atlantic to the island of Barbedos.
~1976~

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