A compelling new exhibition using LEGO® bricks plunges enthusiasts into the stories behind eight of the world’s most fascinating shipwrecks.

A partnership between Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught, the Western Australian Museum, and the Australian National Maritime Museum brings Brickwrecks: Sunken ships in LEGO® bricks! to the WA Maritime Museum from Sunday, 27 June.

WA Museum CEO Alec Coles said the exhibition is an extraordinary experience where maritime archaeology, technology, and creativity – not to mention meticulous planning and patience – merge to interpret the ships, their stories, and the wreck sites – their final resting places.

“Research by maritime archaeologists provides a unique record of human endeavour, engineering, and a spirit of adventure inspired by trade, exploration, global politics, and pursuit of maritime superiority.

“These incredible large-scale models, multi-media exhibits, and real objects from the wrecks will both delight and inspire,” Mr Coles said.

Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught, a LEGO® Certified Professional, and one of only 14 in the world and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere, said that collaborating on this project reignited his childhood interest in shipwrecks.

“I remember visiting the remains of the Vasa wreck in Stockholm with my parents and was filled with awe. This opportunity to work with specialists from the Western Australian Museum and Australian National Maritime Museum reignited my passion,” Mr McNaught said.

“The models in Brickwrecks are built in so many different scales that it kept the team and me on our toes. Visitors even get to turn one of our models upside-down, which is something we’ve never done before!

“We really enjoyed finding out the actual stories behind these wrecks as well – we’ve found the more research we do, the better our LEGO® builds will be.

“All up, the team spent over 1600 hours, used over 153,000 LEGO® bricks, and had a tonne of fun bringing these models to life with lots of minifig details, hidden Easter eggs, as well as historical facts. We hope visitors have just as much fun exploring them as we did building them,” Mr McNaught said.

The wrecks featured in the exhibition are between 1 - 3 metres in length and include:
• The oldest known shipwreck which sank off Uluburun, Turkey, around 1300 BCE;
• A Chinese ship that sank in 1323 near the Shinan islands, South Korea;
• Vasa, a Swedish warship that sank in 1628 in the Stockholm harbour;
• Batavia, a Dutch trading vessel that sank in 1629 off the Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia;
• HMS Pandora which wrecked in 1791 in the Great Barrier Reef whilst on its way to hunt down the Bounty mutineers;
• HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, both wrecked in 1848 off King William Island, Canada, whilst searching for the North West Passage;
• RMS Titanic, the luxury steamship that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912; and
• MV Rena, the Liberian-flagged container ship that sank at Astrolabe Reef, New Zealand, in 2011.

Brickwrecks: Sunken ships in LEGO® bricks! is on display at the WA Maritime Museum from 27 June 2021 to 30 January 2022.

Tickets on sale now museum.wa.gov.au/maritime/brickwrecks

 

Media Contact:
Flora Perrella
Wetern Australian Museum
flora.perrella@museum.wa.gov.au

 

 

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