From dragons to brooms – the tale of seafaring Lego
WHAT started as a bit of fun – searching for Lego pieces on beaches with her children in the 1990s – has seen Newquay’s Tracey Williams become something of a social media sensation.
Now Tracey’s tales of beachcombing finds is told in a beautiful new book Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea – an exploration of the Lego pieces which fell overboard in 1997 when 62 containers fell off the Tokio Express cargo ship when it was hit by a rogue wave 20 miles off Land’s End.
One of the containers alone held almost five million pieces of Lego, on its way from the toy company’s factory in Denmark to America.
In the days that followed, helicopter pilots reported seeing a “slick of Lego” floating on the sea, which then started washing up all over Cornwall’s beaches.
Tiny lifejackets, spear guns, scuba tanks, flippers, rigging for pirate ships – all sorts of detailed Lego plastic objects started appearing in the sand.
Among the most prized items were the dragons – 33,941 black dragons and 514 green firebreathers, to be precise. There were tales of children filling buckets with dragons and selling them at car boot sales for 10p each.
Even more sought after are black Lego octopuses – there were only 4,200 on board the Tokio Express.
Tracey became intrigued by the tiny invaders, started collecting the Lego items and catalogued them on social media with the help of beachcombers, oceanographers, scientists, maritime archaeologists, divers and the fishing community.
Her Lego Lost At Sea account on Twitter has 42.6k followers and her plastic finds have since been described as a “colourful catalogue of our times”.
But there is also a serious message. Tracey told WMN sister website CornwallLive: “What started as a bit of fun has ultimately opened my eyes to all the rest of the plastic in the sand and sea. I wouldn’t describe myself as an eco-warrior but searching for Lego has made me realise how much plastic is out there; it’s horrific.
“The nice thing about Lego Lost At Sea is that it enables us to talk about plastic pollution in a way that people can appreciate and isn’t too scary.”
She says there is still so much more of the Tokio Express’ Lego to find: “There are still millions of piece at the bottom of the sea. They are now drifting ashore after working their way along the seabed. It travels long distances and scientists are mapping it.”
For example, there are still 50,000 Lego sharks in the briny – not one of the pieces has been found yet. Tracey thinks they are probably all in a box at the bottom of the sea somewhere. “It’s like a huge jigsaw,” she said of trying to account for all the Lego that was lost.
“People travel thousands of miles to search for pieces in Cornwall –
I’ve known beachcombers come from Belgium, Italy and the States. I’ve made really good friends around the world
as a result,” she added. In a weird way it’s created an alternative form of tourism. “There’s something quite magical about finding Lego, rather than buying it on eBay.”
If you want to go hunting, apparently Whitsand Bay is a good place for finding dragons, as are Polkerris and Poldhu, while octopuses have slithered on to the Lizard and brooms have swept up at Perranporth.
As well as capturing the magic of beachcombing, Adrift casts a light on some of the other weird and not so wonderful plastic finds discovered on the shores of Cornwall and beyond. It also contains passages by scientists and ecologists.
Clemo Books hosted an event with Tracey at Newquay Farmers’ Market on Sunday, enabling people to have t h e chance to talk to the
Newquaybased
author about her work, their own beachcombing experiences nd purchase a signed copy of the book signed by Tracey herself.
Jaimie Poyner, bookseller at Clemo Books, said: “People who live or grew up in Newquay will have spent lots of time by the seashore. I can remember finding a Lego piece at Watergate Bay and my parents telling me this tale. I’m so excited to
learn more from Tracey.”