Tokio Express

Last updated
Tokio Express
Tokio Express.jpg
Tokio Express off Calshot in 1988
History
Name
  • Tokio Express (1973–1984)
  • Scandutch Edo (1984–1986)
  • Tokio Express (1986–2000)
Operator Hapag-Lloyd [1]
Port of registry Flag of Germany.svg   Hamburg [1]
Builder Blohm + Voss, Hamburg [1]
Yard number878 [1]
Laid down12 January 1971 [1]
Launched2 November 1972 [1]
Completed12 April 1973 [1]
In service1973-2000
Identification IMO number:  7232822 [1]
FateScrapped 10 January 2000, Jiangyin, China
General characteristics
Class and typeHamburg Express-Class (1973) Container ship
Tonnage
Length287.6 metres (944 ft) [1]
Beam32.3 metres (106 ft) [1]
Installed power Stal-Laval AP-40 turbo electric steam turbine. Output: 81,131 horsepower (60,499 kW) [1]
Propulsion1 × fixed-pitch propeller [1]
Speed23 kn (43 km/h; 26 mph) [1]

Tokio Express was a container ship, built and registered in Hamburg in 1973 for Hapag-Lloyd. [1] In 1984 she was renamed Scandutch Edo before being acquired by Pol Gulf International in 1993 and restored to her original name. [1] In 1997, she was acquired by Westwind International and in 1999, by Falani, before being broken up for scrap in 2000. [1]

Contents

Tokio Express is best known for being hit by a rogue wave on 13 February 1997 that caused her to lose cargo, including one cargo container loaded with 4.8 million pieces of Lego. Ever since, Lego pieces including octopuses, dragons, flippers and flowers have been washing up on Cornwall beaches and are commonly found after storms. [2] [3]

The ship

Tokio Express was one of four Trio class container ships built for Hapag-Lloyd by Blohm + Voss 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. [4]

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. [5] [6]

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. [7]

Accident

While en route from Rotterdam to New York City on 13 February 1997, Tokio Express was hit by a rogue wave about 20 miles (32 km) off Land's End. She tilted 60 degrees one way, then 40 degrees back, losing 62 containers overboard. She put in at Southampton for attention after the accident. [2] [8]

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, [9] in lines including Lego Pirates and Lego Aquazone. Among the pieces were 418,000 swimming flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, 26,600 life preservers, 13,000 spear guns, and 4,200 octopuses. [10] Sea grass, cutlasses and dragons were also well-represented. [2]

As late as 2024, [11] 27 years after the accident sometimes known as the Great Lego Spill, [12] [13] people in England, Belgium, and Ireland were still finding octopuses, dragons, diver flippers, and other plastic pieces washed ashore and caught in fishermen's nets. [14] [2] 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. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hapag-Lloyd</span> German international shipping company

Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company, the 4th biggest in the world. It was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and Norddeutscher Lloyd.

Tokio may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation</span> Taiwanese container shipping company

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation is a Taiwanese container shipping company based in Keelung, Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamburg America Line</span> German ocean shipping line (1847–1970)

The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citizens such as Albert Ballin, Adolph Godeffroy, Ferdinand Laeisz, Carl Woermann, August Bolten, and others, and its main financial backers were Berenberg Bank and H. J. Merck & Co. It soon developed into the largest German, and at times the world's largest, shipping company, serving the market created by German immigration to the United States and later, immigration from Eastern Europe. On 1 September 1970, after 123 years of independent existence, HAPAG merged with the Bremen-based North German Lloyd to form Hapag-Lloyd AG.

MV <i>Cita</i>

On 26 March 1997, the 300-ft merchant vessel MV Cita pierced its hull when running aground on rocks off the south coast of the Isles of Scilly in gale-force winds en route from Southampton to Belfast. The incident happened just after 3 am when the German-owned, Antiguan-registered 3,000 tonne vessel hit Newfoundland Point, St Mary's.

MV <i>Colombo Express</i> German container ship

Colombo Express was one of the largest container ships in the world. When launched in 2005, she was claimed by her owner to be the world's largest container ship, a title she held until Emma Mærsk was launched in 2006.

<i>Yantian Express</i> Container ship

Yantian Express is a Hapag-Lloyd Hamburg Express-class container ship, delivered in 2002. She was constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea, a measures 320 by 43 m, and delivered under the name Berlin Express but soon renamed Shanghai Express. Her capacity is 7,510 20ft containers and she carries this load at 22.5 knots.

<i>Savannah Express</i>

Savannah Express, is a container ship owned by the Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt company out of Hamburg, Germany. She was completed in 2005. The ship is capable of transporting up to 8401 TEUs at any one time, making her at that time one of the largest container ships in the world. The deadweight tonnage (DWT) is 107,000 metric tons and the maximum speed of this ship is 25 knots. The ship is 332 metres (1,089 ft) long and has a beam of 43.2 metres (142 ft). The engines are capable of outputting 68,520 kilowatts of power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtis Ebbesmeyer</span> American oceanographer (born 1943)

Curtis Charles Ebbesmeyer is an American oceanographer based in Seattle, Washington. In retirement, he has studied the movement of flotsam to track ocean currents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friendly Floatees spill</span> Plastic rubber ducks used in oceanography

Friendly Floatees are plastic bath toys marketed by The First Years and made famous by the work of Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who models ocean currents on the basis of flotsam movements. Ebbesmeyer studied the movements of a consignment of 28,800 Friendly Floatees—yellow ducks, red beavers, blue turtles, and green frogs—that were washed into the Pacific Ocean in 1992. Some of the toys landed along Pacific Ocean shores, such as Hawaii. Others traveled over 27,000 kilometres (17,000 mi), floating over the site where the Titanic sank, and spent years frozen in Arctic ice before reaching the U.S. Eastern Seaboard as well as British and Irish shores, fifteen years later, in 2007.

<i>MSC Napoli</i> 1991–2007 UK-flagged container ship

MSC Napoli was a United Kingdom-flagged container ship that developed a hull breach due to rough seas and slamming in the English Channel on 18 January 2007. She was deliberately run aground at Lyme Bay to avoid an environmental disaster and broken up by salvors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CSAV</span>

CSAV is a Chilean shipping company that is currently the largest company of its type in Latin America and also one of the oldest ones, having been founded in 1872.

MV <i>RMS Mulheim</i> German owned container ship wrecked at Lands End, United Kingdom

The RMS Mülheim was a German cargo ship that was built in Romania and launched in May 1999. It was wrecked on 22 March 2003 at Land's End, United Kingdom.

<i>Rena</i> oil spill

The Rena oil spill occurred off the coast of Tauranga, New Zealand in October 2011. The spill was caused by the grounding of MV Rena on the Astrolabe Reef. The Rena was a container ship and cargo vessel owned by the Greek shipping company Costamare Inc., through one of its subsidiary companies Daina Shipping. The spill has been described as New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster.

Kyoto Express

Kyoto Express is a container ship of the Colombo Express class of ships owned and operated by Hapag-Lloyd AG. Registered in Monrovia, Liberia, the vessel has been in operation since 2005.

<i>Chicago Express</i> (ship)

Chicago Express is a container ship for the Hapag Lloyd Container Line, and is one of eight in the Colombo Express class.

The collision between MV Testbank and MV Seadaniel took place in the Mississippi River – Gulf Outlet Canal (MRGO) on July 22, 1980 when the outbound 485-foot (148 m) German container ship Testbank and inbound 580-foot (180 m) Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier Seadaniel collided near mile 41 of the canal.

<i>MOL Comfort</i> Container ship

MOL Comfort was a 2008-built Bahamian-flagged post-Panamax container ship chartered by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. The vessel was launched in 2008 as APL Russia and sailed under that name until 2012, when the ship was renamed to MOL Comfort. On 17 June 2013, she broke in two about 200 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen. The aft section sank on 27 June and the bow section, after having been destroyed by fire, on 11 July.

<i>Hong Kong Express</i> (ship) Container ship

Hong Kong Express is a fully cellular container ship of the Hamburg Express Class owned and operated by the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd Container Linie.

MV <i>Rotterdam Express</i>

MV Rotterdam Express is a container ship built in 2000 and in the Hapag-Lloyd fleet as of 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 "TOKIO EXPRESS – 1973 – IMO 7232822". 7seasvessels.com. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Cacciottolo, Mario. "The Cornish beaches where Lego keeps washing up". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  3. Ebbesmeyer, Curtis (1997). Beachcombers' Alert. 2 (2).{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "FairPlay International Shipping Weekly", Financial Times,1980, p. 9.
  5. Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering International, Whitehall Press, 1982, p. 87
  6. Shipcare & Maritime Management, Intec Press, 1983, p. 16.
  7. "Tokyo Express". Hapag-Lloyd Vessels.
  8. Coppock, Trevor. "Tokio Express, Scandutch Edo". www.seapixonline.com. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  9. 1 2 Gallivan, Joseph (22 August 1998). "Life's a beach to comb" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 2022-06-21. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  10. Garber, Megan (21 July 2014). "Why Are All These Legos Washing Up on the Beach?". The Atlantic.
  11. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-68911765
  12. Weisberger, Mindy (2022-02-12). "5 million shipwrecked Legos still washing up 25 years after falling overboard". Live Science.
  13. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/27/teenager-finds-holy-grail-lego-octopus-from-1997-spill-off-cornwall-coast
  14. Dalton, Jane (2023-07-24). "Lego legacy: The 26-year mystery of fantasy worlds lost at sea". The Independent.