TJIPETIR: Mysterious Blocks Scattered Around the World

By Abdi, Fikri & Ihsan

Group 1
Mystery blocks of rubber keep washing up on the beach around Western Europe’s coastlines. People
from around Europe had been bumping on these slabs while strolling on the beach since 1980s.
Experts believes that these blocks washed ashore from the wreckage of a Japanese liner.
Peoples from England, France, Spain, and as far as Norway came across these rectangular shaped
blocks while strolling on the beach for at least 30 years already, and some eventually starts collecting
these blocks. One of the collectors of these blocks is Jake Taylor, He said that “I saw something on the
floor and I ignored it cause I thought I’m not pick it up on the beach and I went back, and well it’s
quite interesting and then I pick the block up, and it was rubber and felt weird, and thought something
written on it, and took it out”. But no, its not a rubber, but actually ‘Gutta Percha’ (Getah Perca), a
Perca tree gum or the locals called it Getah Malau found in Malaysia, it was a material popular during
the 19th and 20th centuries. Before modern plastic began to be widely used, the unique compound
found in gutta percha was used as a cover for underwater telegram cables that was so valuable to
connect colonies to its mother country so much so that this tree is endangered because of exploitation,
it also made into such items as golf balls, teddy bear noses, picture frames and jewelry, among many
others.
These blocks has an inscription which reads Tjipetir, of which only one google search away from a
rubber plantation located in West Java, Indonesia. The Gutta Percha rubber plantation is a legacy from
the Dutch East Indies colonial era, the plantation is active since 1921 and its product came to the
European market. The source of these occurrences are still a matter of debate, many people points at
some wreckage. But according to experts, the Japanese liner Miyazaki Maru which built in Kobe, in
1909 as a more likely the origin of these blocks. This 8,520 tones ocean liner ship carries gutta percha
onboard was sank during the first world wars by a German submarine U-88 captained by Walther
Schwieger, during a voyage from Yokohama to London, on 31 May 1917. The wreck is now situated
150 miles West of the Sicily Isles.
Whatever the origins of this blocks, experts believe that these blocks have probably gone around the
world a few times and may still be found on the beaches around the world for centuries to come.
Nonetheless these mysterious blocks is a sensational phenomenon among people in Europe, so much
so that it has its own Facebook page where people share their finds of these blocks. Some people uses
this blocks as chopping board or simply as a decoration for their house. People also assume that the
origin of these blocks is from the legendary Titanic because of the ship cargo manifesto which include
63 cs rubber and 100 bgd Gutta (percha).