French industrialist Fernand Navarra claimed to have located Noah's Ark in his 1956 book "J'ai Trouvé l'Arche de Noé". According to Navarra, he was inspired to search for the ship in 1937, after listening to an Armenian friend describe the legends his grandfather had told him in 1920. In 1952, he was invited to join an Ararat expedition with Jean de Riquer and Sehap Atalay, which reported no sign of the Ark. However, Navarra would later claim that, while alone, he sighted a large, dark mass that he said could only be the Ark. Since he could not reach this object or provide and proof for its existence, he decided not to reveal his discovery until he could return.