Adventurer Thor Heyerdahl dead at 87

Sailed the Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer who crossed the Pacific on a balsa-log raft and detailed his harrowing 101-day voyage in the book "Kon-Tiki," died Thursday night. He was 87.
    Heyerdahl stopped taking food, water or medication in early April after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Relatives said he died in his sleep at a hospital near his family retreat at Colla Michari, Italy.
    Experts scoffed at Heyerdahl when he set off to cross the Pacific aboard a balsa raft in 1947, saying it would get water logged and sink within days.
    After 101 days and 4,900 miles, he proved them wrong by reaching Polynesia from Peru, in a bid to prove his theories of human migration.
    His later expeditions included voyages aboard reed rafts, Ra, Ra II and Tigris. His wide-ranging archaeological studies were often controversial and challenged accepted views.
    Heyerdahl maintained a high pace of research, lectures and travel until his sudden illness. He moved to Tenerife in 1990 but kept Colla Michari as a retreat.
    Throughout his life, Heyerdahl continued to challenge accepted scientific beliefs, with expeditions aboard the reed boats Ra, Ra II and Tigris, as well as archaeological studies around the world.
    Despite his advanced years, he remained an active researcher and lecturer until his illness. His wife Jacqueline said he boarded 70 airline flights in 2001.
    Heyerdahl was born Oct. 6, 1914, in the southern Norway town of Larvik. He was the son of a widely traveled banker and a mother with a scientific bent, who he remembered gave him anthropology books instead of children's books to read when he was sick in bed.
    The school in his hometown was renamed the Thor Heyerdahl Secondary School in 1995.
    Heyerdahl was rushed to Santa Conora hospital on the Italian Riviera nearly three weeks ago after becoming ill during a family gathering at Colla Michari.
    At his request, he was released from the hospital and brought back to Colla Michari to spend his final days surrounded by family.
    "He wanted to go there -- to use his words -- because it was time to hang up his oars and ride into the sunset," his oldest son said earlier.
    Thor Heyerdahl Jr. said his father had expressed happiness and satisfaction with his life before slipping into unconsciousness on Tuesday.
    Heyerdahl was a frequent visitor to Norway, where the Kon-Tiki museum in Oslo maintained an apartment for his use.
    He became a national hero in this maritime nation of 4.5 million people that voted him Norwegian of the Century in a 1999 newspaper poll.
    His later studies focused on ancient step pyramids -- including those in Peru and on the island of Tenerife off Africa -- which he believed could show maritime links between ancient civilizations.
    He had nearly drowned twice as a child in Larvik, Norway, and overcame his fear only at age 22, when he fell into a raging river in Tahiti and swam to safety.
    "If you had asked me as a 17-year-old whether I would go to sea on a raft, I would have absolutely denied the possibility. At that time, I suffered from fear of the water," Heyerdahl once said.
    Funeral plans were not immediately announced.