Rubber tablets found on beach from WW1 liner
A JAPANESE liner, which was sunk during the First World War, is believed to be the source of dozens of rubber tablets, which have been washed up across Europe, including on Channel Islands shores.
The Tjipetir blocks are made of an Indonesian tree gum called gutta-percha and are more than 100 years old.
Despite many being found, their source has been a mystery until now, with theories including that they came from the Titanic.
Tracey Williams has spearheaded a Facebook group that has been collating information and pictures of the blocks, after she discovered one at a beach near her home in Newquay, Cornwall.
Now she and the UK's Receiver of Wreck, Alison Kentuck, have both said that the
tablets came from the Miyazaki Maru.
In May 1917, the vessel was travelling from Yokohama to London when it was sunk by a German U-boat. It now lies 150 miles west of the Scilly Isles.
