In all, that day in 1997, exactly 4,756,940 pieces of Lego sank to the bottom of the sea. But they didn't stay submerged. Or, at least, they didn't all stay submerged. One container opened; its contents billowed out into the Atlantic. "No one knows exactly what happened next," reporter Mario Cacciottolo notes, "or even what was in the other 61 containers, but shortly after that some of those Lego pieces began washing up in both the north and south coasts of Cornwall." And: "They're still coming in today."

For most sea debris, the trip from Land's End to Florida takes, all told, about three years. Given that it's been nearly two decades since the wave hit the Tokio Express, and given as well that Legos make for light travelers, you'd think that some of the ship's plastic booty would have made it to the U.S. "But," Cacciottolo writes, "there isn't any proof that it has arrived as yet."

It hasn't arrived anywhere, that is, but Cornwall. There's something about that stretch of coast, and about the waters that lead to it, that make it a popular end point for the man-made objects that sail the seas. More than 20 years ago, there was another container spill in the area, this one involving cigarette lighters. And those lighters are still washing up on the Cornish coast. Which is a reminder that the ocean's currents can be as mysterious as they are powerful. "Tracking currents is like tracking ghosts—you can't see them," the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer told Cacciottolo. "You can only see where flotsam started and where it ended up."

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