The RA Expeditions by Thor Heyerdahl

The RA Expeditions

by Thor Heyerdahl

Translated by Patricia Crampton

George Allen & Unwin, 1971, [Second Impression], ISBN 0045720207, colour photographic plates, black and white illustrations, hardcover, dustjacket with Mylar sleeve

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, Mylar protected dustjacket, dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear (see photographs)

“This book is about the two Ra expeditions.  Thor Heyerdahl wanted to test the controversial theory that the ancient Egyptians could have reached the Americas thousands of years before Columbus.
To do so, he had to build a boat from the materials that would have been available to the Egyptians.  The vessel Heyerdahl made was fifteen paces long, constructed of papyrus reeds – ‘a paper boat’ – a craft not seen on the oceans of the world for centuries.
Scientific experts said it would disintegrate and sink if it ever left calm river waters.
On the first expedition, Ra, after sailing 2,700 miles, was battered by a tremendous storm, waterlogged, hemmed in by man-eating sharks, and finally abandoned by its seven-man crew.
The second, triumphant, expedition in Ra II – undertaken within a year of the first – left Morocco, travelled along the coast of Africa, rounded the Canary Isles, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean, and, 57 days and 3,270 miles after leaving North Africa, made first landfall at Bridgetown, Barbados, only 300 miles off the coast of South America.”