Mystery of the deep

One of the squares, which are stamped with the word ‘Tjipetir’, the name of a populated part of West Java, was found by JEP finance director Mark Oliver and his partner, Fiona Mesney, while they were walking on Portelet beach on New Year’s Day.

Another was found on the beach at La Carrière, St Ouen, on Christmas Day by Katie Le Ruez, who was walking with her husband, Philip, younger brother Tom and a family dog.

The tiles are made from gutta-percha, a latex material made from the sap of the gutta-percha tree. The ‘Tjipetir’ units were made at a Dutch-owned plantation created to satisfy the demand for rubber and latex products in the early 1900s.

Over the last three months similar tiles have been found on beaches in northern France and on the south coast of England leading some, including the European Rubber Journal, to suggest that a sunken ship carrying the material is deteriorating and giving up its cargo.

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