It’s not all bad news at the beach. In 1997, a cargo ship in a storm lost 62 containers overboard near Cornwall, England. 17 years later, flotsam from one of those containers is still washing ashore.
A quirk of fate meant many of the Lego items were nautical-themed, so locals and tourists alike started finding miniature cutlasses, flippers, spear guns, seagrass and scuba gear as well as the dragons and the daisies.
A very precise inventory was available, showing that 4,756,940 Lego pieces were lost overboard. About two-thirds of those are believed to be light enough to float ashore.
