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Red Sea Sharks: Three Englishmen on a raft?

mct16
Member
#1 · Posted: 7 May 2012 16:56
In "Red Sea Sharks", in the original French, Rastapopoulos, as the Marquis, sees Tintin, Haddock and Skut on the raft and tells the captain to ignore them, claiming that they are "ces trois anglais dont tous les journaux ont parle" ("those three Englishmen mentioned in all the newspapers").

He does not specify "Englishmen" in the English edition.

Does anyone know of three Britons crossing the sea in a raft in the early 1950s? After the Kon-Tiki expedition I imagine that there were other similar crossing attempts, but can anyone find a specific event that would match Rastapopoulos' remark?
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 7 May 2012 23:15
The raft alluded to by Rastapopoulos might have been the "Ken-Tooki". See this Pathé news clip.

The crew was made up of four men and a woman (three Americans and two Brits), and the plan was to drift in the Mediterranean with no more specific goal than to study their reactions whilst at sea. The raft was kept buoyant by oil barrels containing thousands of ping-pong balls. I understand they were eventually arrested by the French Navy... serves their right!

As you pointed out, the Kon-Tiki expedition seemed to have inspired a whole 'raft' of copyists. One of the most famous was William Willis, who in 1954 aged 61 sailed single-handedly from South America to Samoa on his home-made raft. He managed 6,700 miles, over 2,000 miles more than the Kon-Tiki managed!

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