Kon-Tiki expedition in the Kon-Tiki Museum at Bygdøy in Oslo. "Kon-Tiki" had a six-man crew, all of whom were Norwegian except for Bengt Danielsson, a Swede. The expedition also carried a pet parrot named Lorita. The main body of the float was composed of nine balsa tree trunks up to long, in diameter, lashed together with hemp ropes. Cross-pieces of balsa logs long and in diameter were lashed across the logs at intervals to give lateral support. Pine splashboards clad the bow, and lengths of pine thick and wide were wedged between the balsa logs and used as centreboards. The main mast
Kon-Tiki expedition mounting the "Kon-Tiki" expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so. Although the expedition carried some modern equipment, such as a radio, watches, charts, sextant, and metal knives, Heyerdahl argued they were incidental to the purpose of proving that the raft itself could make the journey. The "Kon-Tiki" expedition was funded by private loans, along with donations of equipment from the United States Army. Heyerdahl and a small team went to Peru, where, with the help of