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Four South Korean anthropologists died recently while attempting to raft from Posiet in southern Primorye to Korea and Japan.

Their venture, Bokhai-1300, attempted to prove that it could have been feasible to cross the Sea of Japan by raft — the means that may have been used by the Bokhai people, after whom the mission was named.

The expedition, Bokhai-1300, was timed for the 1,300th anniversary of the Bokhaian state. The six-by-12-meter raft — built of wood from the Anuchino area of Primorye — cast off Dec. 31. The expedition, which was supposed to take 23 days, had ample stocks of water and food, a satellite communications system and a home page on the Internet called Bokhai-1300.

As of Jan. 17, the researchers were 180 miles away from Pusan, South Korea and were offered the chance to moor at a nearby port. However, the team decided to sail on to Japan to prove it is possible.

The researchers almost reached their goal. On Jan. 23, they were near Togu Island in the Oki archipelago. But a storm hit that night. Waves reached 10 meters high, the researchers reported in a radio transmission. Reports from Korea and Japan say the raft was thrown against a reef and overturned after 6 a.m. Jan. 24, when the last contact occurred. The weather prevented the Japanese marine police or other rescue services from helping, rescuers reported.

A helicopter found the raft and three bodies the morning of Jan. 24. But when a rescue team got to the scene they found only one headless body. Three others are still missing.

The team had been confident about their expedition and even invited Primorye researchers along. The determined Koreans nearly achieved their goal, but paid the maximum price for their efforts.

Bokhai was a feudal state that spanned from what is now South Korea to Manchuria, along with Primorye. The state was founded in 698 A.D., and collapsed in 1115 after attacks by other tribes and internal feuding weakened the nation.

A memorial service and wreath-laying was held by Vladivostok’s sea terminal Jan. 27.