“Nearly two decades ago,” writes National Public Radio, “a massive wave struck the Tokio Express, a container ship that had nearly 5 million Legos onboard. The colorful toy building blocks poured into the ocean. Today, they are still washing up on shores in England.
“Tracey Williams and her children first happened upon the Tokio Express Legos in the late 1990s. Since then, she’s created a Facebook page called — Lego Lost At Sea — where other collectors show off their findings.
“Williams, who lives in Cornwall, tells NPR’s Scott Simon that among the many small, colorful and ironically nautical-themed Lego bits are flowers, swords, life vests, scuba tanks and even Lego octopi. …
” ‘I thought it would be quite interesting, from a scientific point of view, to monitor where it was all turning up, what was turning up and in what quantities and who found it,’ Williams says.” Read more here.
I note a variation on a theme in Pen Pal (which tells what happens when a child on the Gulf Coast throws a message in a bottle into the sea and ends up with a political-prisoner pen pal across the world). Francesca Forrest, author of Pen Pal, records true stories about messages in bottles at her website about the novel, here. Like the stories of Legos washed up near England, some of the message-in-a-bottle stories are pretty intriguing.
Photo: Tracey Williams/Lego Lost at Sea
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
My son said: “Cool beans!”
I just went and looked up another story from a few years ago. Remember hearing about the rubber-duck cargo that got dumped in the Pacific and how they ended up teaching scientists about ocean currents? http://www.npr.org/2011/03/29/134923863/moby-duck-when-28-800-bath-toys-are-lost-at-sea — And hi to your son.
🙂 Hi back. Well, he’s sleeping now (I hope), but he would be very excited to hear about ocean currents and rubber ducks. LOL
🙂
I like that one of the legos is an octopus–that just feels right ^_^ (and thanks for the shoutout!)
And I like how people with common interests can so easily connect with social media. I suppose that before the Internet, the family would have paid for an ad in a paper but would have had a hard time knowing what paper would reach the right people.
I love this! Did you find any LEGO pieces yourself? x
No, and to tell the truth, how would I know if they came from that shipment? But if I find any Legos on the beach, you can bet I’ll want to believe they came from there.