Beachcomber finds rare Lego octopus lost at sea in Cornwall storm

A beachcomber hit the jackpot after finding a rare Lego piece that fell from a cargo ship into the sea during a storm in 1997.

The teenage treasure hunter found almost 800 Lego pieces that ended up in the sea after the accident.

Thirteen-year-old Liutauras Cemolonskas searched for the octopus piece for two years before finally spotting it among washed-up mess on a beach in Marazion, Cornwall.

He told PA he was “happy” to have discovered the small toy – one of almost 5,000,000 Lego pieces that were dumped into the sea in the “Great Lego Disaster” in 1997, after a wild wave hit a cargo ship near the Cornish coast .

In addition to the Lego, other plastic also ended up in the sea, including 352,000 pairs of flippers, 97,500 diving bottles and 92,400 swords.

However, the Kraken are the most valuable items, as there were only 4,200 on board the ship.

Liutauras, who lives in Cornwall, said he regularly visits local beaches with his parents to look for the rare Lego.

He collected 789 Lego bricks and fossils from the beach in just two years.

Father Vytautas Cemolonskas, 36, said: “We have been looking for this octopus for two years, it is not easy to find.”

“We didn’t expect to find it at all because it’s very rare.”

“I was interested in archeology since I was a child, and Liutauras started doing it later.” [beachcombing] So we always just did it together as a family.”

His next goal is to find one of the 33,941 kites that were in the 62 shipping containers that fell into the sea in the accident 20 miles off Land’s End.

Lego lost at sea

Other beachgoers and visitors continue to search for Lego on area beaches.

One of them is Tracey Williams, who created the Lego Lost At Sea project, which has spent years trying to find the toys since the accident.

She told PA it was “pretty exciting” that a second Lego octopus was found in Porthleven two days after Liutauras’ discovery.

She explained: “I think it’s because we had a very high spring tide, coupled with strong onshore winds, and when the two collide, the waves eat into the dunes, which then release a lot of plastic that has washed up.”

“I think there’s something really magical about the octopuses.”

“They are often considered the holy grail of finds from this shipping container.”

Tracey collected this Shortly after the accident, she discovered Lego bricks near her parents’ house and “forgot about the story” until she moved to Cornwall in 2010 and rediscovered them.

She said: “I found an octopus in 1997 and haven’t found another for 18 years.”

“I think people love finding a piece of Lego when they do a beach clean-up and many see it as a reward for all the work they have put into cleaning up the beaches.”

Tracey has worked on research related to the cargo accident and has written a book about the accident entitled Adrift: The Strange Story of Lego Lost at Sea.

She also runs popular social media accounts highlighting toy collectors’ finds.

“I’m mapping where everything washes up, so we’re working on a map that will be part of a scientific paper to show how far plastic is removed from a spilled cargo and what happens to it over time,” she said.

“We want to know whether these containers still exist or whether they have long since rusted away.”

“I mean, it’s fascinating to know what happened to all the others.” Lego We’ve never seen that before.

“So many cargoes are spilled every year, but you very rarely hear about what happens to the goods inside, and what we know from Lego history is that 27-year-old plastic that was in that shipping container is still being found becomes.”

She said the cargo accident was “part bizarre, part disastrous.”

Collecting the Lego pieces “started out as fun and gradually opened my eyes to how much plastic was in the ocean,” she added.

Lego is designed to last and research suggests it could survive in the sea for up to 1,300 years.

MORE: Couple bought £1,500,000 mansion only to find seller had ripped out these key features

MORE: Five-year-old boy killed after being hit by car

MORE: Lego Despicable Me 4 sets include a brick-built Gru and lots of Minions

This website is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.