In 1955, a Frenchman got the crazy idea of sailing a raft from Canada to Europe using the wind and ocean currents. He wanted to duplicate the voyage of the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki was a raft sailed by Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmen from Peru to the Polynesian Islands. He wanted to prove similar rafts could have sailed this way using just the wind before Columbus discovered the New World. The voyage took place in 1947 and lasted 101 days. The raft covered 4,300 miles. The Kon-Tiki became famous. By the way, there was a parrot named Lorita on board. Henri Beaudout was the Frenchman that proposed sailing west to east across the Atlantic Ocean. He made his raft out of cedar logs attached by rope. It had a single sail and a small cabin with a radio to contact ships in an emergency. He named the raft L’Egare which means “Lost One”. He recruited three equally daring crewmen and they set out on June 11, 1955. They did not make it far as the raft sunk in a storm off Newfoundland. The four men survived. Incredibly, Beaudout was not discouraged. He built another raft and Gaston Vanackere agreed to try again. They got two other men to go along, but one of them dropped out early due to seasickness. The new raft was named L’Egare 2. It was 30 feet by 17 feet. Also on board were two kittens. They were named Puce and Guiton. The kittens were not told what they were in for. They were to be mascots and weather forecasters. Beaudout figured the cats would warn them when a storm was coming. Sure enough, when the kittens went to hide in the cabin, a storm was coming. The kittens amused the crew by roaming the ship. They would race up the sail. If they fell overboard, they would just swim make and shake themselves off. They were good for morale which was needed because it was a rough voyage. Besides storms, they also had to deal with sharks. There was often a food shortage because the humans were poor fishermen. They did not catch a fish until a month out. They always shared their food with the kittens, even the sea gulls they caught. After 88 days, on August 21, 1956, the raft reached England. It had covered over 2,500 miles. Newspapers called it the “Atlantic Kon-Tiki” which must have thrilled Beaudout. The kittens were celebrities. Beaudout told reporters “only the kittens kept us sane.” Puce and Guiton were adopted by the Duke of Bedford, cousin to Queen Elizabeth II. He had a replica of the raft built and the cats lived on it on a lake.
https://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/featuring/adv20.html
https://nmmc.co.uk/2021/08/the-arrival-of-the-raft-legare-ii/
https://nmmc.co.uk/object/pictures/a-strange-arrival-in-falmouth-harbour/
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