You might think it sounds a little bananas, but avocados, plantain and even (yes!) bananas have been washing up on the beaches of West Sussex after 16 shipping containers fell overboard from a cargo ship off the shore of the Isle of Wight recently.
This shipping container slip up in the Solent isn't the only time that goods have fallen overboard and washed up on beaches around the globe. Let's take a look at seven other strange things that have tumbled in with the tide.
1. Garfield phones
Novelty phones were a big thing in the 1980s. From phones shaped like hamburgers to Mickey Mouse and, yes, even ones shaped like bananas. If your phone didn't look like something else in the 80s, was it really even a phone?
One of the most iconic novelty phones looked like the lasagne-loving cartoon cat, Garfield, but the reason they kept washing up on French beaches since the 1980s was a mystery. That was until 2019, when a local farmer discovered a secluded sea cave where a shipping container was somewhat buried. It contained a hoard of the orange feline shaped phones, but as it is hard to access, the phones will continue to wash up on the beach for years to come.
2. Lego lost at sea
When a shipping container tumbled from the Tokio Express off the coast of Lands End in Cornwall in 1997, it spilled almost five million pieces of Lego into the sea. Beachcomber Tracey Williams has been finding pieces of the popular toy along the Cornish coastline ever since. From dragons to daisy flowers, and even the elusive black octopus; only 4,200 of these were in the container (compared to 352,000 Lego flippers!).
Tracey set up a Facebook page called 'Lego Lost at Sea', and has since been contacted by people as far as Brighton in East Sussex, 300 miles away, to say they've found pieces of the toy on their local beach.
3. 109-year-old message in a bottle
Messages in a bottle have been used for years to send love letters, emergency SOS notes, and by ocean scientists to study currents. They have also been romanticised in fiction by authors like Charles Dickens and in music with songs from The Police and Taylor Swift.
But in October 2025, an Australian beachcomber found a message in a bottle on the beach containing notes from two Australian soldiers. The soldiers were on their way to the World War One battlefields in France when they dropped their bottle overboard.
The notes were still legible over a hundred years later, and Deb Brown, who found the messages, was able to track down the descendants of the soldiers who said that they were stunned by the discovery.
4. Rubber ducks stay afloat
Another year, another shipping container tumbling into the sea – they really ought to tie them down better! This time, the container was carrying 28,000 rubber ducks that were heading from China to the USA in 1992, crossing the Pacific Ocean.
However, this potential pollutant has actually had a positive impact on our understanding of the ocean current. Rubber ducks from the incident have turned up in places as far as Scotland, Australia and Japan, helping scientists gain a greater knowledge of how our oceans are connected, and it's all thanks to these little yellow squeakers!
5. Harley-Davidson motorcycle
When the Miyagi prefecture in Japan was hit by a tsunami in March 2011, the powerful wave destroyed many homes in its path causing devastation to the area. Fast forward a year, and some of the debris from the tsunami started to wash up on coasts across Canada.
One of the things that was discovered on a beach was a shipping container containing a rusty Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Upon noticing the number plate was Japanese, the bike was traced back to the original owner who decided to donate it to the Harley-Davidson museum as a permanent reminder of the tsunami.
6. Ambergris aka whale vomit
Forget finding rubber ducks and pieces of lego, if you really want to hit the jackpot you need to find a lump of ambergris, which is a natural byproduct of the sperm whale's digestive system. Ambergris is used in perfume as a fixative – something used to make the fragrance last longer – and is extremely valuable due to its rarity. In 2020, a fisherman in Thailand found a blob of ambergris that weighed 100kg and was worth up to £2.4 million!
As sperm whales live all over the world, Ambergris can be found floating in any ocean or on any shoreline, some was found in Anglesey in Wales in 2015, which sold for £11,000. As it is considered a natural waste product, it is currently legal to collect ambergris from the sea or shore in the UK.
7. World War Two aeroplane
A US Lockheed P-38 Lightning Fighter plane crashed into the sea near Harlech in Wales whilst on a practice mission during World War Two in 1942. The plane was buried two metres beneath the seabed and wasn't spotted again until the 1970s, when the sea conditions were just right to reveal the wreck. The aircraft was spotted next in 2007, and again in 2014.
The exact location of the downed fighter remains a secret, and it was given protection status by Cadw, the Welsh governments historic monuments service, in 2019.
This article was published in December 2025.
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