In 1997 a container with 4.8 million Lego pieces went overboard off Cornwall. I simulated where the sea took them over five years.

On 13 February 1997 a wave hit the container ship Tokio Express about 20 miles off Land’s End and 62 containers went over the side. One held 4,756,940 Lego pieces, a lot of them sea-themed: octopuses, dragons, flippers, life rings, spear guns. About half of them float, and they’re still washing up on Cornish beaches. This is a drift simulation of the floating half: 240,000 virtual pieces, each standing for 10 real ones, carried by the daily surface current plus a bit of wind, for five years....