''Tokio Express'' was a

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

, built and registered in Hamburg in 1973 for

Hapag-Lloyd Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company. Hapag-Lloyd was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and North German Lloyd. History The company was formed on September 1, 1 ...

. In 1984 she was renamed ''Scandutch Edo'' before being acquired by Pol Gulf International in 1993 and restored to her original name. In 1997, she was acquired by Westwind International and in 1999, by Falani, before being broken up for

scrap Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...

in 2000. ''Tokio Express'' is best known for being hit by a

rogue wave Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to lar ...

on 13 February 1997 that caused her to lose cargo, including one

cargo container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...

loaded with 4.8 million pieces of

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...

. Ever since, Lego pieces including octopuses, dragons, flippers and flowers have been washing up on

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

beaches and are commonly found after storms.

The ship

''Tokio Express'' was one of four ''Trio'' class container ships built for Hapag-Lloyd by

Blohm + Voss Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battle ...

in the early 1970s. These were all 3,000- TEU class ships. The first of these was ''Hamburg Express'', which was followed by ''Bremen Express'', ''Tokio Express'' and finally ''Hongkong Express''. The ships were originally powered by twin-screw. During the 1980s they all underwent a refit that included conversion to single screw propulsion, while retaining one of the turbines. After changing hands several times as Hapag-Lloyd upgraded their fleet, ''Tokio Express'' was eventually scrapped in 2000. The name, with the English spelling, has since been re-used for a similar sized but much more modern container ship, launched in 2000.

Accident

While en route from

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on 13 February 1997, ''Tokio Express'' was hit by a

about off

Land's End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

. She tilted 60 degrees one way, then 40 degrees back, losing 62 containers overboard. She put in at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

for attention after the accident. One of the lost containers held just under 5 million Lego pieces. Coincidentally, a large portion of these were destined for toy kits depicting sea adventures, in lines including

Lego Pirates Pirates was a Lego theme launched in 1989 featuring pirates, soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars, Pacific Islanders, sailing ships, and buried treasure, being influenced by the late Golden Age of Piracy. The theme has been seen in Lego System ( ...

and

Lego Aquazone Aquazone was a Lego theme that was launched by The Lego Group Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic b ...

. Among the pieces were 418,000 swimming flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, 26,600 life preservers, 13,000 spear guns, and 4,200 octopuses. Sea grass,

cutlass A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket-shaped guard. It was a common naval weapon during the early Age of ...

es and dragons were also well-represented. Since the accident, residents in Cornwall have found octopuses, dragons, diver flippers and pieces of sea grass washed ashore. Pieces may have travelled much further; a Dutch shipping clerk started an inventory which now has active participants in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas looking for the arrival of more pieces.

References

External links

Lego Lost at Sea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokio Express Container ships 1972 ships Ships built in Hamburg Merchant ships of Germany Maritime incidents in 1997 Lego

The ship

Accident

See also

References

External links