May 17, 1970: The Boat Is Seaworthy and, Yes, We Can All Get Along

 "He will attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a boat built of reeds and succeed where the previous expedition aboard Ra I had failed.

Heyerdahl, a Norwegian zoologist, gained international fame for his Pacific Ocean expedition in 1947, when he sailed Kon-Tiki — a boat constructed of native woods from the coast of Peru — on a 101-day, 4,300-mile voyage to Polynesia. The success of Kon-Tiki supported the claims of Spanish conquistadors that similarly constructed Incan rafts made the same voyage.

More than a scientist, perhaps, Heyerdahl was humanist. In assembling the crew for the Ra II passage, he took great care to select seafarers of different nationalities, races and religions. If the stated purpose of this voyage was to demonstrate the seaworthiness of buoyant reeds, an equally important goal was to show that a diverse crew could work together and flourish in a confined space.

The 3,200-mile voyage of Ra II ended successfully 56 days later. It docked at Bridgetown, Barbados, on July 12."
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