Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean in a self-built raft constructed from balsa wood and other native materials. The raft was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name.