Toy ship inspired by Scottish boys adventure begins journey around Caribbean

Adventures inspired by a toy pirate ship that crossed the Atlantic are continuing with the launch of another Playmobil boat near where the last one disappeared.

Brothers Ollie, 11, and Harry Ferguson, eight, from Aberdeenshire, made headlines when their toy ship travelled more than 3,700 miles to reach the Caribbean after it was launched around 100 miles off the coast of Mauritania in West Africa in 2017.

The toy ship, called Adventure, was fitted with a tracker to pinpoint its location but has not been heard of since it was last recorded around 30 miles off Barbados in May 2019.

However, a family in Trinidad with three young boys who had heard about the ship’s journey were inspired to continue the adventure by launching another boat.

They contacted the Ferguson family, who sent them a Playmobil ship and chatted with them in video calls to explain how to modify the boat and make it fit to face the open sea.

MacNeill Ferguson said: “We set up video conferencing during lockdown and Ollie and Harry shared their engineering experience from the first boat with the Lewis family.

“We sent a second Playmobil ship, the same model, out to the Lewis family, who then rebuilt Adventure2 in exactly the same way that we had our first version.”

Keith Lewis, father of Jax, seven, Kai, 10, and Fynn, three, works offshore and launched Adventure2 from the offshore support vessel Normand Installer around 74 miles north of Georgetown, Guyana, late on Wednesday.

It is fitted with a tracker donated by the Caribbean Oceanography Aquaculture and Subsea Technology Foundation, of which Mr Lewis is a co-founder and director.

The boat also carries a message asking anyone who finds it to take a photo, contact the families – and launch the vessel back into the sea.

Mr Ferguson said his sons are excited the adventure is starting again.

He said: “Following the original boat was just such a big deal for such a long time and then it just disappeared and they didn’t understand why, and they were a bit deflated because we never found the boat.

“The longer it has gone, the less likely it is that we are going to find it. So they are really pleased someone is doing it with the other boat.”

It is expected that ocean currents will carry Adventure2 towards Trinidad and then on into the Caribbean Sea. The tiny vessel may then be caught up by the Gulf Stream and could possibly float back across the Atlantic towards the UK.