Pacifique

21 pages, including a full-page sketch map. Plus black and white plates. Original condition with blue wrappers, titles to front, and containing all the ads. This is a complete issue, seldom found in such good and original condition. This is a most amazing and compelling account of a fearless, treacherous, and seemingly unreasonably optimistic Pacific Ocean voyage of 101 days on a most precarious raft. Guided by the early Spanish records, supplemented by native Ecuadorian advice, the expedition members with Herman Watzinger as their architect, built a 40-foot replica of the old balsa raft, intended for the crossing of the magnificent Pacific Ocean, using balsa logs from the Ecuadorian jungle lashed together side by side with hemp rode, absolutely no metal fixings nor a single nail, and complete with a small thatched bamboo hut and two mangroves sails! The seaworthiness of the seemingly clumsy raft, which held Heyerdahl and five companions for a 4,300-mile voyage to the Polynesian islands, surpassed the boldest expectations. Upon their inconcievable return, Heyerdahl proudly reports that the buoyant logs rode the crest of breaking seas like rock. The use of rope instead of nails or pegs permitted independent movement between the separate pieces of wood and bamboo, and gave the craft an amazing toughness and resiliency at sea and on the reef. Whether the South Pacific water-span was ever bridged by preshistoric craft is a question by no means new to anthropology. The Polynesian race, its origin and its migrations have been the subject of more attention among scientists than any other living branch of the human family. Heyerdahl’s theory was that the original Polynesians had come by sea from South America, on rafts such as the one he and his companions built. The first voyage ended in failure after 47 days. The second voyage of 4300 miles and 101 days facing dangerous storms and all the elements of the sea, did in fact establish the feasability of his claim. They set out from Callao in Peru and ended with the wreck of the Kon-Tiki on a coral reef off Raroia in the Tuamoto Archipelago, part of French Polynesia. From the actual building of the raft to their crash landing on the island, the Kon-Tiki expedition has been hailed as one of the great scientific as well as maritime feats of all time! Kon-Tiki was the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Kon-Tiki is also the name of the popular book that Heyerdahl wrote about his adventures. The book was a best-seller, and a documentary motion picture of the expedition won an Academy Award in 1951.