A man found a "treasure" in the sea, lost in a shipwreck 27 years ago (5 photos)

During a severe storm on February 13, 1997, the Tokio Express lost 62 shipping containers containing various goods.





Richard West, a 35-year-old fisherman from Plymouth, England, was sailing his trawler off the Cornish coast when he unexpectedly caught the first ever Lego shark toy. The set of plastic figures was being transported in one of 62 containers lost during the shipwreck on February 13, 1997.

Richard contacted Lego Lost at Sea, whose founder Tracy Williams confirmed that the piece was the first ever shark from the 51,800 Lego pieces that disappeared from the Tokio Express cargo ship 27 years ago. A storm swept through the sea 20 miles off Land's End when 62 shipping containers, one of which contained 4,756,940 Lego pieces, most of them marine-themed, fell into the sea.

"I knew straight away it was a shark from a Lego set I had as a kid. It had been 25 years since I had seen one," Mr West recalls.



Tracy Williams confirmed that this is the first toy of this design to be recovered from the lost container. In total, 22,200 dark grey and 29,600 light grey Lego sharks disappeared in the accident.

"I was really excited. This is the best one I've caught this week. It's priceless - a real treasure!" Richard added.







By the way, similar sharks have appeared in several Lego sets since 1997, including Shark Cage Cove, Shark Attack, and Deep Sea Bounty. Williams asked anyone who might also be lucky enough to find the missing pieces to contact the Lego Lost at Sea project so that all the figures can be added to a special map.