Here is my all-time favourite container story to date, it is just too good!
In February 1997, the day before Valentine's, The Tokio Express container ship was hit by a wave so large that it tilted the ship 60 degrees, spilling 62 containers into the sea 20 miles off Lands End, Cornwall. One of these containers was filled with 4.8 million lego pieces, bound for New York.
The true magic is in the themes of the lego pieces, many of them being nautical. Divers, dragons, pirate ship rigging, flippers, spear guns, air tanks, daisies and seaweed to name a few.
The holy grail however was the octopus as so few have been found, and of course I would love one of these for my collection, especially now so much time has elapsed.
Cargo included:
- Toy kits - Divers, Aquazone, Aquanauts, Police, FrightKnights, WildWest, RoboForce TimeCruisers, Outback, Pirates
- Spear guns (red and yellow) - 13,000 items
- Black octopus - 4,200
- Yellow life preserver - 26,600
- Diver flippers (in pairs: black, blue, red) - 418,000
- Dragons (black and green) - 33,941
- Brown ship rigging net - 26,400
- Daisy flowers (in fours - white, red, yellow) - 353,264
- Scuba and breathing apparatus (grey) - 97,500
- Total of 4,756,940 Lego pieces lost overboard in a single container
- Estimated 3,178,807 may be light enough to have floated
Source: Beachcombers' Alert, vol 2. No 2 1997
Read the original BBC article here