DeVere Baker; Sailed Ocean on Rafts to Back Mormon Doctrine

DeVere Baker, a Mormon who sought to establish the authenticity of his church’s views on the first peoples to visit American shores by making a series of daring raft trips over a 30-year period, has died.

The Daily Breeze, a Torrance-based newspaper, reported that Baker was 75 when he died Dec. 5 of what was described as a long illness.

Baker was best known for his sea adventures on a series of rafts he named Lehi. From 1952 to 1979, he sailed--sometimes successfully, sometimes not--in an attempt to show that the Book of Mormon is correct and that members of some of the Lost Tribes of Israel had crossed the sea to North America.

Unlike primitive rafts, Baker’s were equipped with electronic navigation gear and could be propelled by outboard motors.

On Lehi IV in 1958, he managed to successfully drift to Hawaii from California to prove that crossing oceans by raft was an ancient probability. Lehi V had been built for what was to have been a six-year around-the-world trip in 1963, but it was damaged by rough seas.

He funded the initial voyages from money he had earned in the sale of two shipyards that had proved successful during World War II. More recently, he had been soliciting funds from friends and businesses.

Plans for another Lehi voyage were shelved when Baker’s health began to fail several years ago. He suffered a heart attack in 1964.

Baker wrote a series of books on his faith and his adventures, many of which ended in Coast Guard rescues. In 1980, he made a brief bid for the nation’s presidency as a world peace candidate, but withdrew after a loss in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire.

“The other candidates are all millionaires,� he said at the time. “At least I will give the people a choice--someone who is broke.�

His survivors include his wife, Nola, of San Pedro.