Kon-Tiki is the
thrilling account of a group of Norwegians who sailed from Peru across 4,000
miles of ocean on a balsa wood raft, arriving safely in the Polynesian islands after
101 days at sea. They lived almost entirely off of the bounty of the sea and
never wanted for food or water. Because their raft was so low in the water,
less than a foot off the surface, they would often dine on the fish that had been
washed aboard during the night. It was the job of the first person up in the
morning to gather the flying fish that had landed on deck during the night and
fry them up for breakfast. Sometimes they would wake up with fish in their
sleeping bags, and once even a baby octopus.
“The sea contains many
surprises for him who has his floor on a level with the surface and drifts
along slowly and noiselessly. A sportsman who breaks his way through the woods
may come back and say that no wild life is to be seen. Another may sit down on
a stump and wait, and often rustlings and cracklings will begin and curious
eyes peer out. So it is on the sea, too. We usually plow across it with roaring
engines and piston strokes, with the water foaming round our bow. Then we come
back and say that there is nothing to see far out on the ocean.”
If they wanted to eat
something more substantial than flying fish, they could hook a dolphin in a
matter of minutes. Occasionally they would dine on shark meat as well.
“We had not been long
at sea before the fist shark visited us. And sharks soon became an almost daily
occurrence… If there was a high sea, the shark might be lifted up by the waves
high above our own level, and we had a direct side view of the shark as in a
glass case as it swam toward us in a dignified manner with its fussy retinue of
small pilot fish ahead of its jaws. For a few seconds it looks as if both the
shark and its striped companions would swim right on board, but then the raft
would lean over gracefully to leeward, rise over the ridge of the waves, and
descend to the other side.”
Toward the end of their voyage they even became very adept
at catching sharks… with their bare hands! At one point they had nine large
sharks on board their deck and had to be very careful to remember which ones
were fully dead and which ones were just waiting for the men to come a bit
closer before taking their final revenge.
The most intense part of the story was during their second
big storm when one of the crew was accidentally washed overboard by a wave.
Because of the nature of their raft, they could not steer in any direction
other than that in which the wind was blowing. Experience had taught them that
anything caught in their wake was lost forever, and there they stood watching
their companion float away, unable to do a thing about it. I don’t want to ruin
the story, but through an act of unusual courage and sacrifice the man was
saved and all members of the team safely continued their voyage west.
I really got into this book and enjoyed it immensely. Not
only do I believe in the truth of Heyerdahl’s theory (see the Book of Mormon)
but I found the unique nature of their voyage fascinating and felt myself
longing to chop down some trees and give it a try. These words by the author
sum up for me some of the true majesty of the experience.
“Coal-black seas
towered up on all sides, and a glittering myriad of tropical stars drew a faint
reflection from plankton on the water. The world was simple—stars in the
darkness. Whether it was 1947 B.C. or A.D. suddenly became of no significance.
We lived, and that we felt with alert intensity. We realized that life had been
full for men before the technical age also—in fact, fuller and richer in many
ways than the life of modern man. Time and evolution somehow ceased to exist;
all that was real and that mattered were the same today as they had always been
and would always be.”
My rating: 9 out of 10
