Book: The Ra Expeditions

Overview

Thor Heyerdahl’s The Ra Expeditions recounts two bold attempts, in 1969 and 1970, to cross the Atlantic Ocean on boats built of bundled reeds, modeled after ancient Egyptian depictions. Part adventure narrative, part experimental archaeology, the book follows a small, multinational crew as they test whether Stone Age shipbuilding techniques and ocean currents could have enabled contact between the Old and New Worlds long before Columbus.

Origins and Purpose

Having earlier sailed the balsa raft Kon-Tiki across the Pacific to argue for prehistoric voyaging capability, Heyerdahl turns to the Atlantic and the images of papyrus craft on Nile tomb walls. His premise is not to prove that Egyptians reached America, but to demonstrate that they could have. He grounds the project in observed continuity of reed-boat traditions from Africa to the Andes and in the westward drift of the Canary Current and trade winds, which together promise a natural conveyor belt from North Africa toward the Caribbean.

Building Ra I

For the first attempt, Heyerdahl gathers master boatmen from Lake Chad, where papyrus craft are still made, and ships vast bundles of reed to the Moroccan port of Safi. The builders lash the boat in the old way: thick bundles forming a raised prow and stern, a broad, flexible hull, and a square sail. The crew, drawn from several countries and professions, adopts simple navigational tools, relying on wind, current, and seamanship, with radio kept for emergencies. From the outset, the project blends ethnography and experiment, as the builders’ tactile knowledge guides design decisions that no modern blueprint could capture.

The First Atlantic Attempt

Ra I slips south into the trades and westward into blue water. Days sweep by under a heavy, sweet smelling deck; fish are caught, sails trimmed, and watches kept. The crew encounters calms and squalls, and the Atlantic offers signs both ancient and modern: drifting Sargassum mats and tar balls from oil pollution. Gradually, structural troubles accumulate. Synthetic ropes bite into the dampening reed, the stern begins to settle under trailing gear, and waterlogging accelerates. After weeks and thousands of miles, the boat’s spine flexes ominously; despite heroic bailing and repairs, Ra I becomes unmanageable. Near the Caribbean, they send a distress call and abandon the craft, chastened but undeterred.

Building Ra II

Heyerdahl rethinks everything. He consults Aymara reed-boat masters from Lake Titicaca, whose totora boats have more pronounced, rigid end bundles and different lashings. Demetrio and Juan Limachi lead the new build, again in Safi, using techniques honed at high altitude and adjusted for ocean use. The hull is fuller, the lashings more forgiving, the stern protection improved, and trailed lines are minimized. The crew returns with lessons learned and renewed resolve.

The Successful Crossing

Ra II takes the trades cleanly, the square sail drawing, the reed hull flexing but holding its shape. Storms test the lashings; calms test patience. A medical doctor from the Soviet Union, an American engineer, Europeans and Latin Americans share cramped space and labor, forming a floating microcosm of cooperation during a tense Cold War. After roughly two months at sea, flying a United Nations flag to underscore shared human heritage on the oceans, Ra II makes landfall in Barbados, proving that a well-built reed boat can survive and thrive on a transatlantic passage.

Themes and Aftermath

The book weaves meticulous observation with high-seas drama: the smell and buoyancy of fresh reed, the cadence of watches, the terror of a breaking sea, the quiet triumph of a clean wake at dawn. Heyerdahl uses the voyage to question rigid boundaries in prehistory, to honor indigenous boatbuilding genius, and to warn about oceanic pollution he documents along the route. The final message is measured: possibility, not proof. By showing that ancient materials and methods are equal to the Atlantic, The Ra Expeditions enlarges what can be imagined about early navigation and reminds readers that the ocean, old as humanity and newly imperiled, connects rather than divides.