Lesson 25:The Kon-Tiki

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN

y Katrina Van Horn
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Joe LeMonnier
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: Cover Getty Images. 1 (detail) C.3.c.8 f.371 North Carolina, titled ‘Virginiae item et Floridae’,
from the Mercator ‘Atlas...’ of 1606, pub. by Jodocus Hondius, 1619 (hand coloured engraving) (see also 81957, 81958 &
81959),/British Library, London, UK, © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/The Bridgeman Art Library. 2 (l) © Digital
Stock. (r) © Shutterstock. 3 (r) © Digital Stock. (b) (detail) C.3.c.8 f.371 North Carolina, titled ‘Virginiae item et Floridae’,
from the Mercator ‘Atlas...’ of 1606, pub. by Jodocus Hondius, 1619 (hand coloured engraving) (see also 81957, 81958 &
81959), / British Library, London, UK, © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/The Bridgeman Art Library. (4) (l) ©
Digital Stock. 4–5 Mark Downey. 5 (r) © Digital Stock. 6 (l) © Digital Stock. (r) The Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo. 8 (l) © Digital
Stock. (b) The Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo. 9 (r) © Digital Stock. (bottom coconut) Siede Preis. (top coconut) © Shutterstock. 10
( l) © Digital Stock. (b) Hulton Archive/Getty Images. 11 (r) © Digital Stock. (t) Getty Images. 12 (l) © Digital Stock. (t) ©
Flip Nicklin/Minden Pictures. 13 © Digital Stock. 14 (l) © Digital Stock. (b) © Fotoreport Greeë/dpa/Corbis.
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Printed in China
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01974-1
ISBN-10: 0-547-01974-2
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Table of Contents
Introduction 3
An Interesting Idea 4
Building the Kon-Tiki 6
Supplies for the Journey 9
The Kon-Tiki Sails 10
Big Adventures 11
The Journey Ends 13

Introduction
Some people go on trips or journeys to
increase their knowledge about the world. They
may want to learn more about the past, or they
may want to learn about what is happening now.
Other people go on journeys to learn more about
themselves. These people want to find out how
much they can achieve.
Thor Heyerdahl (HAY er dahl) went on
journeys for all these reasons. Thor was an
explorer from Norway, in northern Europe. Thor
spent most of his time planning journeys and
making journeys.
When Thor got the idea to build a raft and sail
across the ocean, no one was surprised. But no one
guessed that this journey would be one of the most
famous adventures ever.

4
An Interesting Idea
Thor wanted to learn about everything. But
one thing interested him most. He wondered how
animals and people first came to live in Polynesia.
Polynesia is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Thor lived in Polynesia for a year during the
1930s. While he was there, Thor studied the
islands’ plants and animals. He saw that they were
a lot like the plants and animals that live in South
America. Thor started to think that these plants
and animals might have floated across the ocean
from South America to Polynesia.
Then Thor had another idea. Maybe the first
people who lived in Polynesia came from South
America, too.
Most scientists thought the first people in
Polynesia had come from Asia, not from South
America. Thor thought they were wrong. Thor
wanted to show that his idea could be right.

Asia
Australia
Antarctica
P O L Y N E S I A
PA C I F I C O C E A N
North
America
Peru
Maybe the first people in Polynesia traveled there
from South America.
Equator
South
America
Thor decided to travel from South America to
Polynesia himself. He would not go on an airplane
or a ship. Thor would travel the same way people
traveled long ago would have—on a raft.
5

6
Building the Kon-Tiki
Thor went to Peru in South America. He took
a crew, or group, of five other men with him. They
started to build a raft. The raft had to be strong
enough to carry them across the Pacific Ocean to
Polynesia. The trip would be 4,300 miles long!
This drawing shows a raft made in South America
hundreds of years ago.
raft

Thor wanted to build a raft exactly like
the rafts people in South America might have
built long ago. Thor looked at old drawings
from hundreds of years ago, when people from
Spain, in Europe, first came to South America.
The drawings showed what rafts from long ago
looked like.
Thor and his crew made their raft from
balsa wood. Balsa is a kind of tree that grows
in South America. The crew tied together nine
balsa trees that they had cut down. This was the
bottom of the raft. The crew put smaller balsa
logs on top of the big trees to make the top of
the raft.

8
Then Thor and his crew made a mast and a sail
for the raft. The sail would catch the power of the
wind to move the raft. The crew made a giant oar,
so they could row the raft when there was no wind
blowing into the sail.
Finally, the crew built a cabin in the back
section, or part, of the raft. The men could go in
the cabin when there was bad weather.
Thor named the raft Kon-Tiki. It was the name
of a leader in Peru who used a balsa raft to escape
from his enemies, hundreds of years ago.
the bottom of the Kon-Tiki
The crew made the bottom of the Kon-Tiki from trees.

Supplies for the Journey
Thor and his crew took many supplies with
them on their journey. Fresh water was most
important. The crew couldn’t stay alive for long
without water to drink. They used hollow pieces
of wood as tanks to hold the water. The crew also
brought fruit, sweet potatoes, and some foods
in metal cans. They knew they could catch fish
during the journey.
The crew had two kinds of modern equipment:
a radio and watches. They could use the radio
to call people on land if they needed help. They
could use the watches to tell time. One member of
the crew knew how to navigate by looking at the
sun, moon, and stars. To navigate means to know
the correct way to go.
coconuts
9

10
The Kon-Tiki Sails
On April 28, 1947, the Kon-Tiki left South
America and started sailing toward Polynesia.
After the Kon-Tiki got far out in the ocean, the raft
was carried by a strong current. Currents are parts
of the ocean that move faster than other parts.
Thor knew that this current was the same one that
carried plants and animals from South America to
Polynesia long ago.
A crew member
climbed near the
Kon-Tiki’s sail.
sail

cabin
mast
The Kon-Tiki and its crew sailed across the ocean.
sail
Big Adventures
One day when the Kon-Tiki was far out in the
ocean, the crew saw a whale shark. Then the shark
went under the raft. The crew saw the slopes of
the whale’s back on both sides of the raft! It was
a huge and dangerous animal. If the shark moved
suddenly, it could make a huge wave. The wave
could hit the raft like a giant avalanche of water.
A big wave could break the raft and knock the crew
into the water!
11

12
whale shark
A whale shark like this one almost stopped the Kon-Tiki’s
journey!
The shark started to swim around the raft.
The raft had to come to a halt, or stop. It couldn’t
move until the shark swam away. Luckily, the
shark never hurt the raft or the crew. Maybe that
giant shark was just being friendly!

The Journey Ends
Thor and his crew sailed on the raft for three
months. Then one day, they saw birds flying at
high altitudes in the sky. That was a clue that land
was near. And on July 30, the crew saw land. It
was Polynesia!
When the Kon-Tiki approached the islands,
people came in boats to meet Thor. The people
looked at the raft. The people asked, “Where’s the
engine?” The crew told them that there was no
engine. The people were amazed that the Kon-Tiki
had traveled so far without an engine!
People around the world heard about the
journey. Thor wrote a popular book about his
journey. But did Thor succeed in proving what
Thor wanted to prove? Did he show that the first
people in Polynesia came from South America?
13

Well, no. Thor did not really prove his idea
was true. Most scientists still thought Thor’s idea
was wrong. Scientists still believed people first
traveled to Polynesia all the way from Asia, not
from South America.
But today everyone agrees about one
thing. The Kon-Tiki’s journey was an incredible
adventure, and Thor Heyerdahl was a brave and
daring explorer.
Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl stood in front of the Kon-Tiki years after
his journey.
14

Responding
TARGET SKILL Text and Graphic
Features How did text and graphic
features help you understand this story?
Copy the chart below. Complete the chart
by writing the purpose of the other two
features in this book.
Maps Drawings Headings
Help me see
where the
story takes
place.
? ?
Write About It
Text to Self Imagine you are a crew
member on the Kon-Tiki. Write a fictional
story telling what it was like to sail to
Polynesia. Use descriptive words to help
readers picture what happens on the raft.
15

16
altitude
approached
avalanche
equipment
halt
TARGET VOCABULARY
increase
section
slopes
succeed
tanks
TARGET SKILL Text and Graphic Features
Tell how words, photos, and art work together.
TARGET STRATEGY Infer/Predict Use clues to
figure out more about the selection.
GENRE Informational text gives factual
information about a topic.

Level: O
DRA: 38
Genre:
Informational Text
Strategy:
Infer/Predict
Skill:
Text and Graphic Features
Word Count: 1,201
3.5.25
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Online Leveled Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-547-01974-1
ISBN-10: 0-547-01974-2
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