The Great Thor Heyerdahl: The Wrong Way Expedition - Kon Tiki fiction

Voyages attempted after the Kon Tiki Expedition

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Mr. Thor Heyerdahl was born in the very small common town of Larvik Norway, a quiet slow place far in the north, a port town, where some how the most thrilling stories of South American Empires and a warrior Pacific sailing Polynesian people had reached, most likely through the many books and published journals by Explorers of the 1800's. Thor's actual journey into the Ancient South began first when he was sifting through the pages of a personally owned book collection by Bjarne Kroepelien, who also was not an academic, but was an alcohol and wine seller with a Meso-Native American interest. Norway's History being settled by a Viking culture had no ancient stone built wonders that marveled the world like in South America, Egypt, or Asia and Polynesia. And so Thor's fixation on Rapa Nui Polynesia (Statues of the Moa'i) and the Incas can be said to be one of deep envy. While in Europe, Mr. Thor was married and had several children suffering a divorce and he lived through the World Wars dug into his work. There is no record of him becoming active for his own nation of Norway.

"And thus begins his journey, with wild ideas from various published works and stories. A harmless infatuation that would become an obsession with no regard or responsibility to the actual cultures he and his work might bring upon others. It's one thing to write a book and have ideas, giving your perspective on theory, but it's the lengths at which Thor went, knowing it was all lies that made him in the future be seen as a fraud"

In the 194o's, Thor made claims that were so outlandish in theory that it was clear it's purpose was either politically motivated or racially motivated, or both, publicly declaring that a type of White Aryan type of race must have originally built the Step-Pyramid Empires of South America, possibly left it's ruins there after a defeat in War, and that the Incas Natives were merely uncivilized occupants of a White designed ancient city. According again to Mr. Thor the defeated White Gods then left South America and voyaged into the Polynesian region and that Polynesians were an ancient lost Caucasian race. Without being able to decipher or have translated accurately any South American languages he simply wrote his own new version of Ancient Peruvian History, made-up a tale using an unknown God who he called "Con-Tiki Viracocha", and then tried to spin an intricate web-of-lies around his claims. Being scolded at every angle in the academic community and shunned by some Peruvians themselves, the Kon Tiki Expedition into Polynesia was funded either to prove there might have been a percentage of truth, to sell books through a campaign, or to keep from being laughed at as an author.

"It would make more horse sense to start by finding out where Norwegians and Caucasians come from, before trying to claim knowing the origins of another people. This logic though never settled within Thor's character. He most likely never wanted people to wonder the origins of Caucasian people, which is around the Caucasus (Caspian Sea region including Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Armenia) of Eurasia. The Caucasian people are an admixture of light brown, tanned, and fair skinned North Indians (including Muslims) and light brown and fair skinned West and Central Asians, a Northern Indus-Asian while Polynesians are a Southern Indus-Asian (Southeast Indus-Asian and East Asian).

Some Caucasus people have more Indus features with curly brown and dark brown hair, some people have more west and central Asiatic like features with straight hair. The pure-blooded White Race Theory is as fictional as a comic book. Thor was truly an author it seems on a quest, but maybe he was on the wrong quest"

The Caucasus Regions: Migration Flow and Origins

A Web of false Academics and Marketing 

After claiming a first false White Peruvian History that a white Aryan race had built the pyramids and left them to homeless Indians, Thor Heyerdahl began supporting another false History of Navigation which included the regions of Polynesia, attempting to create a link or build up new corroborative research. If Thor could somehow connect a single dot with the Inca and Pacific cultures, disregarding any Linguistic or Archaeological evidence, he thought he might be able sway favor of his critics.

"It is possible that he knew very well what he was doing which was to use the power of aggressive repetition, to repeat his version of history over, and over, and over, until ears and eyes pay attention"

Kon Tiki's list of Modifications

In order to prove that a South American Balsa wood raft could withstand the Pacific waters a "Traditional Balsa Design" would first have to be used, to maintain that Peruvian culture had advanced in seafaring tech all those hundreds of years ago. A seafaring South American design was never found or claimed to be in use that could sail, or even had a sail. It was apparent that Native South American river rafts were not engineered to handle the wind pressure of a sail. Far too frail a vessel to withstand even a launch from the beach shores which is why Thor always launched from a bay area. A Polynesian academic of recent times pointed out that a Hawaiian surfboard from the 1800's is more well designed for the ocean than a traditional Balsa wood raft. Thor Heyerdahl then designed his own vessel, in effect by modifying the design to the degree of which he did, to fit his own theory, he himself was inadvertently the greatest proof that his own works were fanatical writings of racial fiction.

• Frontal Wave-breaking Design: On Thor's sail vessel, the modified design has been fixed with a wave breaker in the front (sharply added support in the front). The job of the breaker is to cut through waves. A traditional Meso-Native American Balsa wood raft does not have this, and is cut with a flat-head or simply left unfixed. Thor Heyerdahl mounted the Kon Tiki with a breaker, changing the design, already proving that a Balsa Raft was not built for the open-seas and was not capable of launching off a beach. 

• Layered foundry: A Meso-Native American traditional Balsa wood raft does not have a layered foundry to keep afloat. It is a single layer of wood between the rower and the water. The Kon Tiki Vessel added several extra layers to keep afloat after other failed attempts.

• Size using whole Tree trunks: It was pointed out quite often that the size of Thor's Kon Tiki vessel was a complete overhaul in design. Nothing, not even the size of the Kon Tiki was matching a Balsa wood raft. To survive at sea, the Kon Tiki used whole tree trucks.

• Modern Ropes: The ropes used to secure the Kon Tiki were modern ropes. Even if modern ropes were allowed, the way they were used in his design, wrapped around a log (which is seen in traditional Balsa wood rafts) became a huge problem during his voyage.

• Sailing Mast materials: In Polynesia, the Tapa cloth (canvas like material - thick paper) has quite a long history, not only used in ceremony dress, but was also the traditional Polynesian material used to produce the Sailing Mast that caught the wind. The very durable Tapa cloth was layered and sewn. The Kon Tiki used fabric from an unknown source. 

Thor Heyerdahl's interpretation of a Balsa River raft with a built in 

wave-breaker at the nose of the vessel. His design was far more 

Polynesian than Native South American.

Community building a typical Native South American Balsa Wood River raft. These River rafts shown here are what a Balsa wood raft would look like without the many modifications Thor made to the design.

Flaws of Construction

During the Kon Tiki voyage, the Expedition crew was in danger for over half the time it set sail. It was found that Balsa wood trunks absorb water. The un-crafted wood in it's natural state becomes spongy. The Thor vessel's lashing itself (modern ropes), loses strength (being soaked in salt water) and while being tugged at by ocean currents. 

False Reports of status to the Mainlands

Radio reports to mainlands were falsified to maintain the image of success. At the expense of the Kon Tiki crew, Thor Heyerdahl kept the voyaging problems secret for some time. There is only speculation how much more he kept from reports so it would all seem legitimate.

A dramatic author's life until the end
The legacy of Mr. Heyerdahl has yet to fade, his work is still used to sell a story to tourists, and continues to make true the saying "There's a sucker born every minute" by P.T. Barnum. All-in-all he was a very active man and lived a grand life of travel, not an angry or bitter person, one that can be respected for his tenacity. He visited quite a few other regions of the world looking for Step-Pyramid Empires, it would seem, trying to find the source of the ancient genius. He wrote 15 books before he passed away in Italy 2002.

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