[Resources] Gyres and the Hansa Carrier

The Hansa Carrier is freighter that, in 1990, lost 21 cargo containers in the Pacific south of Alaska during a storm. 61,000 Nike shoes (each one with a unique serial number) were in five of the containers and this loss allowed oceanographers and amateur scientists to better understand the oceans, especially the North Pacific Gyre (a gyre is a large system of rotating currents caused by the Coriolis Effect, and the North Pacific Gyre is one of five oceanic gyres in the world).

The shoes allowed scientists to track the path of currents, as the shoes washed up on shore. 200 of them were spotted on the coast of Washington about six months after the spill. A group of them floated to Queen Charlotte Sound in March of 1991, with more sightings off the coast of Oregon in May.

This is really cool and would make a great event in a modern setting, especially if the action involved the PCs sinking a ship that had a similar cargo and seeking after something that went missing on the boat.