Knut Haugland’s diary from Kon-Tiki given to the museum
The Kon-Tiki Museum has received a new and exciting source of knowledge about the Kon-Tiki Expedition. Knut Magne Haugland’s private diary from the famous voyage has been donated to the museum by his family.
During the expedition in 1947, Thor Heyerdahl wrote an official diary on behalf of the entire crew. He wrote it in English and later used it as the basis for his world-famous book The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas published in 1948. The diary was never officially published. For a time, there were rumors that the crew had agreed not to make its contents public because it supposedly contained private information. At the same time, it has always been available to biographers and other interested researchers. One can read many of Heyerdahl’s beautiful descriptions of life at sea, but there is no secret or private information. The diary has now been published in full on the Kon-Tiki Museum’s archive portal: https://kontiki.pastperfectonline.com/.
Now the family has donated Knut Haugland’s personal diary from the voyage to the museum, and it will be available to biographers and other researchers. It contains Knut’s personal observations and experiences and gives us a new and fascinating insight into what happened during the expedition. The diary begins on Sunday, May 11, which is already 15 days into the voyage. During the first days Knut was knocked out by seasickness, and the weather was bad, but then things improved:
“During the night before Sunday it was decided not to keep watch. … Herman was the cook and had a really good breakfast ready at 07:30. Chicken and vegetables are too tempting to remain lying down.”
Knut H. Haugland’s son, Torfinn Haugland, donated the diary to the Kon-Tiki Museum on behalf of the Haugland family in 2026. He is pictured with curator Reidar Solsvik.
Food was important on the expedition, and Sunday dinner also receives a detailed description:“Dinner was wonderfully good. It consisted of canned eggs and bacon with freshly boiled potatoes. Dessert was a mixture of pineapple with our last mandarins. We had brought along a large crate of mandarins that we had been tricked into taking. We had ordered lemons which look the same. I learned to appreciate the mandarins; they are sweet but do not have much flavor to speak of.”
Knut Magne Haugland would apparently have preferred lemons instead of mandarins.
He was also impressed by the nature he experienced. On Tuesday, May 13, he wrote: “Watch from 02:00–04:00. It feels unpleasant at first to be woken from one’s sweetest sleep, but that soon passes. There is something fascinating about standing there alone under a sky full of stars and a sea with waves constantly washing over the logs that lie very low in the water behind. The phosphorescence is wonderful, like thousands of tiny sparks crackling around the logs. … I managed to tie the steering oar firmly enough that it kept a straight course most of the time, so I could sit comfortably in the cabin doorway and read the latest issue of Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning. Bengt has brought a whole stack, and we receive one issue a day. This issue was dated February 12, but it was just as welcome. The newspaper is unanimously recognized by all of us as exceptionally good.”
Knut Magne Haugland served as the expedition’s radio operator together with Torstein Raaby. Naturally, it was not easy to keep a balsa raft floating at wave height in contact with the outside world. One problem was battery consumption: “Took stock of the battery supply and found that with the same usage as so far, we will have power for about five more weeks. The receiver uses far too much electricity.”
The diary also contains several letters, menus, and other memorabilia from the expedition.
One thing never previously mentioned about the expedition is that in 1947 they also observed early signs of environmental problems:“It is also strange that all day we have seen oil slicks on the water.”It seems the crew assumed it came from a shipwreck, yet no ship was observed during the entire voyage.
Norway’s Constitution Day, May 17, was properly celebrated with the resources available: “Breakfast was extra good in honor of May 17, and a small Lysholmer beer was granted. The Norwegian flag waved from the aft mast, and later the other flags were also hoisted. At the top flew the Explorers Club flag along with the French one, and on the sides the Swedish, English, and American flags. Dinner was extra good - rice porridge and a tin of pineapple per man. It tasted excellent. … In the evening, we tried to raise the spirits properly. After dinner we had coffee with the most delicious liqueur. When darkness fell Erik took out his guitar and we revived all the old May 17 songs. The singing carried far out to sea. I suppose the swarm of fish that has followed us enjoyed the concert as well.”
Knut Magne Haugland was a crew member on the Kon-Tiki Expedition in 1947.
The expedition seems to have proceeded quite orderly, and there are no major secrets in the material. However, a diary entry from their time in New York shows the men could also get into some mischief: “Torstein, Hoer and I together with Ingeborg + two Canadian girls. Much fun at the Canadians’ place and good cocktails! Afterwards we went dancing, but it almost went wrong. The Canadians got drunk, and we also had a bit too much to drink, but we nevertheless upheld Norway’s honor.”
Knut Magne Haugland together with Thor Heyerdahl in Washington, 1946–47.