RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl

Subject: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:34 PM

Rafted all the way off the earth, at age 87. What a late great.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Amos
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:37 PM

Man, the passing of an era!! His description of opening up the mysteries of Easter Island just wowed me.

Wotta mensch that one was.

A

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:40 PM

Sail on Thor!!!

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: SharonA
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:50 PM

Oh, no... Another loss to the world.

Reuters obituary from this site:


Obituary: Thor Heyerdahl – Explorer. Died aged 87.
20.04.2002

A popular hero despite sneers from scholars, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl risked his life sailing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans on flimsy craft to show that prehistoric peoples could have done so too. He died at the Italian resort of Colla Micheri after a long battle against cancer.

A modern-day Viking, Heyerdahl won worldwide acclaim with an epic 101-day voyage in 1947 from South America to Polynesia on the Kon-Tiki balsa raft, defying experts' predictions that he and his crew would drown.

In 1970, he crossed the Atlantic from Morocco to the West Indies on the reed boat Ra II, undeterred by the sinking a year earlier of Ra I just short of Barbados, to show that ancient Egyptians might have beaten Columbus and the Vikings to America.

He sailed in the Middle East and on the Indian Ocean in 1978 on the Tigris reed vessel, following ancient trade routes.

A tall man who remained wiry and athletic well into his 80s, Heyerdahl said his voyages proved the oceans were no barrier to Stone Age mariners. "I feel I have shown it is totally erroneous to look at the world's oceans as a means of isolating people of the past from each other," he said in 1999.

One of the most colourful characters of the 20th century, he wrote more than a dozen books and won an Oscar in 1951 for a documentary about the Kon-Tiki. He even fronted the opening ceremony for the Lillehammer Winter Olympics in Norway in 1994.

Many academics dismissed Heyerdahl, whose single-mindedness and bravery captivated millions, as a real-life Indiana Jones or even a crackpot like Don Quixote. They said his theories were wrong or at best unprovable. Heyerdahl theorised that Aztec pyramids in Mexico, for instance, might have been inspired by pyramids in Egypt. Experts said there was no link and that the first people to cross the Atlantic were the Vikings around 1000AD.

"Many scientists have always viewed me like a daredevil who has gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel," he grumbled. "I was bitter many times. When you are accused of humbug then you are bitter. But not now." He, in turn, was scathing about traditional academics. "If you are a scientist you don't go on a balsa raft. If you are a scientist you sit and quote each other," he said.

Never averse to controversy, Heyerdahl published a book last year saying excavations by the Sea of Azov in southern Russia showed the Viking god Odin may have been a real king who lived in the region 2000 years ago. One Norwegian scientist said his Odin theories were like digging for the Garden of Eden. But although he was given the cold shoulder by some scholars, Heyerdahl was honoured by others, receiving more than 10 honorary doctorates from universities around the world.

Born in 1914, Heyerdahl grew up in the southern Norwegian town of Larvik and did not learn to swim until he was 22. He studied zoology and geography at Oslo university.

He said his proudest exploit was the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, carried out to show that South Americans were the first people to reach Polynesia, challenging the conventional view that settlement spread across the Pacific from Asia.

"The Kon-Tiki introduced me to the ocean and opened my world," he said. Experts were sure the balsa raft would quickly sink beneath Heyerdahl and his crew of six, but it held together for the 6920km, 101-day voyage to Raroia from Peru. A book on the expedition was translated into 66 languages.

Heyerdahl said he was more than ever convinced that his theory that South Americans settled Polynesia was accurate. He cited temple carvings in Peru depicting large vessels in his support, and dismissed genetic DNA evidence of 1998 showing that early settlers on Easter Island came from the West. Heyerdahl argued that the bones studied were from a second wave of settlement and that original settlers from South America cremated their dead, leaving no trace of DNA.

In his later years he lived in Tenerife with his third wife, Jacqueline. Heyerdahl leaves four children, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Asked for advice on how to stay youthful, he said: "Never retire."

- REUTERS

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:52 PM

Thanks for that obit, I read the one in The Washington Post but didn't post it, not sure what the rules are about that today. What a great human being (or should I say, human been?)!

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: SharonA
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 03:20 PM

No problem, Mrrzy. I don't know what the rules are, either, but I always try to remember to list the source of the article. In this case it was Reuters, but I meant to post a link to the page I got the obit from, and didn't, so here 'tis: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=1592339&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

People often link to an obit but don't reprint it, which becomes frustrating days or weeks after the fact (when the link no longer works because the story's been deleted or archived). So I hope it's okay to copy-and-paste-and-credit-the-source!

By rights, Heyerdahl should get a Viking-style sendoff – his body sent out to sea for a final voyage in a replica of one of his rafts, set ablaze – but I'm sure that there are laws against that sort of thing nowadays.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 03:45 PM

He caught a lot of flak in later years from those who had a thousand reasons and a lot of "book learnin'." But to a 10 year old sailor in 1959 he was an inspiration. And indeed he was more..........But my first read of Kon Tiki was a high and unforgettable point of my young life.

Thank you Mr. Heyerdahl.

Spaw

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 04:06 PM

truly a man who said why not. I read Kon Tiki several times and never tired of it. Fair winds and following seas, Bold explorer! Neil

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Wesley S
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 04:06 PM

I still have my copies of Kon-Tiki and Aku-Aku. I'll have to get them out and read them again. Thanks Thor.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 06:58 PM

Wesley S, I'll be doing the same as you. The man was one of my heroes. Goodbye great Thor.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 06:59 PM

I made a balsa wood model of Kon Tiki when I was little. What an inspiration his deeds and books were. Often think of him when I'm boating.A great man.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Les Jones
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 03:40 AM

I truly great romantic figue. Can I be a complete misery and dare to mention that he was almost certainly wrong about most specific claims.

Easter island was not populated from the East and the Egyptians didn't go to America. Stone Age people certainly travelled the Earth and boring academic research will continue to reveal those amazing events

The most important message from Easter Island is that the people had statue worshipping religions, 'ethnic groups', they cut all the trees down, went into economic collapse and many people died of starvation. Could any message to the rest of us be clearer?

Academic research reveals this story, I am not entirely sure but I don't think Thor helped much.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 03:49 AM

he asked the questions and tried to answer them,providing information, inspiration and fun for the rest of us in the process. He didn't get all the answers, and we never will.Who populated Easter Island? What is the origin of the "word" Planxty? What does "folk" mean.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Les Jones
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 04:15 AM

Easter Island was populated twice by people travelling west. They didn't always get on, they didn't resolve problems, they cut down all the trees hence they could not build boats and leave. A message or what?

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Tweed
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 02:07 PM

When I was eleven or twelve I read KonTiki and immediately made a sail for my canoe. Sail was plastic sheeting and the centerboards were a contraption made from barn wood that straddled the gunwales. I made it about 100 yards and blew up on the rocks. We'll miss you Thor. A much better sailor than I ever was.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: vectis
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 07:53 PM

Another GREAT sailed off into the infinite sunset.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 08:13 PM

Slight drift here...

The message of Easter Island has always been to me, that the image of the "Noble Savage" is a fallacy...

His theorys right or wrong, he had stones, did that man Thor... Great big stones!

.-)

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 09:09 PM

The thing I always remember from the Kon Tiki is about the balsa logs and the grass ropes.

Everybody said the were crazy. There was one lot of experts on logs - said the balsa logs would be far too soft, the cables would cut right through them. There was another lot of experts on cables. They looked at the grass ropes they were planning to use as cables and said they'd never have the strength to hold the logs of the raft together together.

And what happened was the soft logs and the grass ropes worked together, and the two weaknesses compensated for each other and the raft made it across the Pacific.

I've always thought that's a very encouraging real life parable.

What they did was show that it would have been possible to make the voyage, and the other voyages as well. Whether it actually hapened in the ancient worls, noone can tell - the fact that it may well be demonstrable that the main immigration was from Asia doesn't prove anything one way and another.

And in the end, it doesn't really matter much anyway what actually happened long ago. The fact that a seemingly harebrained thing like the Kon Tiki could make the trip with a bunch of cheerful characters like that was actually what matterted, and it really gave people in Europe a bit of real encouragement at a time when they badly needed it. And that yacht just looked so beautiful.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 02:21 AM

The scientists of his time deferred the question of the Easter Island statues as a mystery., It tok his adroit combination of PR, science, and human skill to get the local descendants to show him that it was possible for Stone age skills to make those heads -- gigantic carvings from a solid wall of stone -- and lever them up and move them into standing positions over miles. The revelation as they built a ramp, stone by stone, jostling the giant of stone with simple sticks to wedge the stones in, layer by layer, until it could be stood upright, was mind-blowing.

A

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: open mike
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 11:35 AM

In a sort of related story-20 years ago another sailor built a craft designed after St. Brendan's boat from Ireland. Tim Severin, in the style of Thor Heyerdahl, traced the route of ancient Irish monks who sailed to the new world many years before eigther Christopher Columbus or Lief Erikson. In the 6th century, St. Brendan sailed to Newfoundland via Greenland and Iceland in Oxhide boats. Thor's adventures must have inspired Tim to re-create the Brendan Voyage! This was in 1976, I think, or at least the book was written about then. I actually saw a video on t.v. last night of Easter Island with natives in ceremonial dress and canoe paddles or more like kayak double oars dancing and singing--with huge stone heads in the background- Rapa Nui!! My favorite Thor Heyerdahl book is the one i recently read about his honey moon on Fatu-Hiva, an island near the Marquesas group where he took his new wife in the 40's. Back to nature--an early Hippie!!

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 11:39 AM

"traced the route of ancient Irish monks who sailed to the new world"

traced the route of ancient Irish monks who MAY HAVE sailed to the new world

;-)

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: open mike
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 12:27 PM

music content: see St. Brendam's Faire Isle http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5139

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 12:31 PM

For anyone interested in crazy transoceanic rafts, this is the place to read and dream. Especially the story of "Son of Town Hall", the home made raft they sailed from Newfoundland to Ireland a few years ago.

And that was not with any intention of proving that the ancient Irish came from Newfoundland, it was just for the hell of it. But it was inspired by the Kon Tiki, as is true of all the other voyages like that have happened over the past half century.

There was even an episode of Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) inspired by the Kon Tiki.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: open mike
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 12:34 PM

another reference to st. brendan.. http://www.mudcat.org/!!-supersearch99.cfm?MaxHits=1&Command=search&NumLines=4&file=fall99&request=%5BSAINT+BRENDAN'S+VOYAGE%5D sorry-not sure how to do bluer clicky thang.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:43 PM

St Brendan's Isle

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl
From: GUEST,bob
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 02:24 PM

you should do more on lief erikson. peace

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl (Apr 02)
From: EBarnacle
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 05:21 PM

I was one of the people who tipped Son of Town Hall into New York Harbor for her official launch. Regrettably, the Hudson River Park people are a lot less accomodating. Part of what pushed the voyage onward was that Town Hall and the Flying Neutrinos got evicted from the inlet where they were living rent free. Town Hall got broken up but SOTH escaped with a small outboard and proceeded.

How they managed to avoid getting broken up as unseaworthy by current standards, I don't know. Bureaucrats are a lot more hardnosed about people taking their genitals in both hands and jumping than they used to be.

Subject: RE: RIP: The Great Explorer Thor Heyerdahl (Apr 02)
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 06:00 PM

dear 'guest bob'....YOU should say more than that if you reply to a thread that is 3-4 years old! geeeze!