Background
Raaby was born in Dverberg, Vesterålen.
Raaby was born in Dverberg, Vesterålen.
He is known as a crewmember on the Kon-Tiki expedition. During World World War II he became a Secret Intelligence Service officer, having entered training in 1943. He spent ten months in hiding in the village of Alta, sending detailed reports on German warships and their radar installations to England via a hidden radio set surreptitiously connected to the antenna of a German officer
His reports were instrumental helping the Royal Air Force to find and permanently disable the battleship Tirpitz.
Raaby held the rank of Second Lieutenant (Fenrik). In 1947, he took part in Thor Heyerdahl"s "Kon-Tiki" expedition from Peru to Polynesia as a radio operator, exchanging frequent messages with amateur radio enthusiasts in Chile, the United States of America, and even Norway, on a tiny 6-watt transmitter.
After the expedition he returned to northern Norway, until he, again as a radio operator, lived on the remote Bear Island, far north of the Arctic Circle. From 1959 to 1961 he was a station controller of the radio station on the Arctic island of January Mayen.
Raaby died in Canada"s Northwest Territory of a heart condition while en route on an expedition to reach the North Pole on skis.
Torstein Raaby is buried at his birthplace of Dverberg on Andøya.