Titanic, MV Rena, HMS Pandora and Uluburun immortalised in Lego bricks for Brickwrecks exhibition at Historic Dockyard Chatham, opening this March

The sinking of the Titanic has been recreated in many forms over the years. But now its plunge to the dark, icy bed of the Atlantic Ocean has been recreated in Lego bricks.

Forming part of a series of famous shipwrecks recreated with the classic building blocks, the Titanic model forms part of a showcase of recreated, sunken, vessels going on show at the Historic Dockyard Chatham during its Brickwrecks exhibition starting on March 8 and running until the end of August.

The Titanic model - which, somewhat morbidly some might say, captures the stricken liner after it had broken in two and was nosediving its way to the ocean bed, its funnels tumbling through the water with it - comprises of a remarkable 12,847 Lego bricks and took 113 hours to complete.

It was the creation of Australian Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught who is a ‘certified Lego professional’. The exhibition started in Australia and is now making the long journey to the UK.

The Titanic model, though, in terms of the number of bricks used, is rather a baby compared to the Uluburun - the world’s oldest known shipwreck discovered off the coast of Turkey, recreated here both in life and death - dating from around the late Bronze Age (the wreck, that is, not the Lego model).

The wreck for that consumed an eye-watering 26,563 bricks and a further 20,659 for the scene in which it is set. Combined, it alone took more than 250 hours to construct.

Nick Ball, collections, galleries and interpretation manager at the dockyard, explained: “It’s not just historical wrecks that are recreated, the recent environmental disaster in 2011 caused by the wrecking of the cargo ship Rena, features in the exhibition. The retelling of the story gave the team the chance to explain the oil spill, the wrecked cargo and share New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental disaster.”

The Rena had been carrying 1,368 containers, eight of which contained hazardous materials, as well as 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 200 tonnes of marine diesel when it ran aground on a reef, before breaking up and sinking. It continues to be monitored today.

Lead builder on the Lego version of the Rena, Luke Cini, said: “To begin any Lego build, the first step is to research and gather images and inspiration for the project. It is important to have sufficient knowledge of what the subject matter is before beginning any design work.

“We had a flat piece of aluminium that we began the build on. This allowed us to start with a nice, solid, robust base. We mapped out where the Rena would sit and what pieces would work well with the angle we wanted the ship at. We found that having the ship on an angle of 75 degrees would fit perfectly with the factory Lego wedge plates, allowing us to neatly finish the edges of the ship into the water.

“We had a lot of fun adding in the small details once the main components of the build were complete. We included a block of cheese, which had fallen from the ship and which we had seen in a video.”

Paul Barnard, deputy chief executive at the dockyard, added: “We are thrilled to bring this internationally renowned exhibition to Chatham in 2025.

“Brickwrecks brilliantly combines creativity, maritime archaeology, and engineering, to bring the stories of eight legendary shipwrecks to life. Particularly relevant to the Historic Dockyard are the stories of HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, which were refitted here at Chatham before joining the Ross Expedition in 1839 and later embarking on the fateful Franklin Expedition in 1845.”

Another shipwreck built for the exhibition is that of HMS Pandora, which was commissioned at Chatham under Captain Edward Edwards to pursue HMS Bounty following its infamous mutiny where Fletcher Christian stole command of the ship for Lieutenant William Bligh.

Adds Paul Barnard: “The Pandora set off to find the mutineers in 1790, captured 14 of them, but sadly sunk a year later, wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef.”

Brickman model-maker Darren Pallingall was tasked with working on the Lego model of the vessel.

He added: “A lot of the Pandora wreck is hidden beneath the sand, so only fragments of the actual ship needed to be made.”