In 1997 a cargo ship lost 4.8 million Lego bits in a storm. They are still washing up today.

In 1997 a cargo ship lost 4.8 million Lego bits in a storm. They are still washing up today.

During stormy weather on February 13, 1997, a Tokio Express container ship was hit by a massive wave about 20 miles from Land's End. The ship tilted more than 45 degrees and lost 62 containers overboard - including one containing 4.8 million pieces of Lego.

Scientists analysed blocks, made of a plastic called acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, that washed up on the coast of southwest England after being lost from a container ship that was hit by a massive wave during a storm in 1997. ... It allowed them to work out the rate at which the plastic was eroding* in the salt water.