On January 10, 1992 a cargo ship was en route from Hong Kong to Tacoma, Washington, when a severe storm struck. At the international date line, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, 12 containers fell overboard - one full of packages of plastic ducks and other toys.
By Thanksgiving 1992, loose floating ducks had turned up at Sitka, Alaska. The toys then went north. Two scientists, W. James Ingraham and Curtis Ebbesmeyer, using computer models of ocean currents, theorize that some ducks are now frozen in the Bering Sea.
Those ducks are expected to drift into the Arctic Ocean, over the North Pole and straight on to London. They may also reach Norway, France, Ireland, the northeastern United States and elsewhere in the North Atlantic between the years 2000 and 2005.
To help the scientists gather data and better understand ocean currents, anyone finding a yellow plastic duck with "The First Years" on its chest is invited to write to Ingraham and Ebbesmeyer at Evans-Hamilton Incorporated, 731 North Northlake Way, Suite 201, Seattle, Washington, 98103.
Duck Odyssey Illustration : David Sheldon
Odyssey of the Ducks first appeared in The New York Times Magazine on Sunday, December 18, 1994 and is copyright 1994 by The New York Times.
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