Wreck-divers and their families who enjoy Lego might like to take in a visit to Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent this year to see its “Brickwrecks: Sunken Ships in Lego Bricks” display.
More than 170,000 bricks and 1,336 hours of work went into creating the exhibition, which was originally mounted in Australia. It will run at Chatham from 8 March to 31 August.
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Devised by professional Lego constructor Ryan ‘The Brickman’ McNaught in partnership with the Australian National Maritime Museum, the show explores nine famous shipwrecks from ancient to modern times through detailed models ranging in length from 1-3m.
The oldest represented is the Uluburun from around 1300 BC, discovered off Turkiye and shown both as a wreck and as it would have appeared in life; and from mediaeval times the Chinese vessel now known as the Shinan wreck, which sank in 1323 near islands of that name off South Korea.

Two early 17th-century shipwrecks are the well-preserved Swedish warship Vasa, sunk in Stockholm harbour in 1628, and the Dutch trader Batavia, which met her end off Western Australia the following year.
HMS Pandora was lost in 1791 while pursuing the Bounty mutineers on the Great Barrier Reef and is depicted as half-buried in sand; while Sir John Franklin's expedition ships HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, which were both fitted out at Chatham, sank in Canada in 1848 while seeking the North-west Passage.

Inevitably, the exhibition also includes RMS Titanic. The luxury liner is seen broken in two and with her funnels detached on her descent to the North Atlantic seabed in 1912.
The only 21st century wreck included is the Liberian container ship Rena, wrecked on New Zealand’s Astrolabe Reef in 2011 to bring about the country's worst maritime environmental disaster as the hazardous materials, heavy fuel oil and marine diesel onboard dispersed.

Shipbuilding competition
Beyond the models and their accompanying background stories, Brickwrecks offers interactive elements and multimedia exhibits that delve into maritime archaeology, shipwreck exploration and their environmental impact.
Visitors of all ages are invited to have a go at various archaeological techniques and learn more about the latest technologies used in underwater discoveries.
They will also be encouraged to build their own Lego creations inspired by the shipwrecks on display, with the efforts judged best to be included in the wider exhibition.
This competition, with Lego bricks and dockyard ticket prizes on offer, has three age categories; 8 and under, 9-17 and 18+, and is launched on “International Lego Day” on Tuesday, 28 January.
The Brickwrecks display is included with annual admission tickets to Chatham Historic Dockyard. These are priced at £28.50 (online) and £18 for children (family tickets cost £77).
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