Hello. My name is Professor Gomez from the Coluba Museum and Historical Society. I know You are vacationing on our beautiful island, but I was wondering if You might be willing to help us anyway.
Rumor has it You are the world’s greatest codebreaker. That is just what we need.
First let me tell You a story. Over two hundred years ago this small Caribbean island served as a base for the notorious pirate Blackbrow. He was an evil man who robbed ships of wealth and killed many helpless seamen. Blackbrow’s fortune in pirated riches was vast. Yet he would have little time to enjoy his ill-gotten gains. In the late 1780’s, Blackbrow’s ship was destroyed in a monsterous hurricane, and all those aboard lost. It was presumed that Blackbrow himself drowned in the sea along with his band of ruffians. But five years later Blackbrow’s remains were found on a tiny uninhabited atoll. The body was brought back to Coluba for burial. Blackbrow’s enormous treasure was never recovered. Many believe it is still hidden somewhere here on Coluba.
Last year we unearthed some documents from that long ago era and discovered a startling fact. Blackbrow had a secret compartment in his peg leg. According to one paper, Blackbrow kept valuable information hidden in his peg. We also learned that the pirate’s leg had gone to the grave with him. Imagine our excitement!
We had Blackbrow’s body exhumed last December, and the wooden leg was examined. To our wonder we found a coded message inside the leg. Our theory is that this note was meant for Blackbrow’s true love, a local prostitute known only as “Marie”. If Marie had been alive when the pirate’s body was returned to Coluba, she most certainly would have discovered the note. She likely knew the secret of the code. But this was not to be. Alas, when Marie first heard of the pirate’s death at sea, she threw herself off the high cliffs of Northern Coluba. The message from the dastardly pirate to his lover would never be received.
Now, over two centuries later, all we have is this coded communication. Our experts have tried for months to get the solution. Perhaps it is impossible. Then we heard You were vacationing on our island. You could help us discover the meaning of this strange code. Please…
MY IASVITKWI PGSMBKG,
I GINE OZSEMH PCSOOOGG VPOO A GGTERUGG KTLAOF CGTFT WXTWIWKQK A WGNPFUW OF WGSRICNH QDIOIUWGI. I EBNNPV MIVF MONH. I AM FGSTBKQ ZOV UIAMN UGNEMCGU UHIT EZPHFT SO I OOX UBFEMA DAO UELM YIESG PNF NAZ UGDOWGU BLM MY UUOLFP TWAH. A JRTHOUVHR URAQ EOOS GYISUU EGOEBVK EPLUCC PLIITHPWVI. GKHGJPJ A CIU XILM XPDOWGU IT. XHAU HXFRYPPH UFELU UGTIEGV VIESG. I EBRSA MY SCTSJQQ GOS UHEF TO MY FFAUJ!
ENBCLKH
Can You crack the code and locate the pirate treasure?
Interesting cryptogram. Cyphertext word 7, “PCSOOOGG”, does not match any letter pattern I’m familiar with. So this is not a simple substitution cypher.
My guess is this is some kind of polyalphabetic cypher. I need to pull out the heavier tools for this one.
There has been a most extraordinary development. We had a conference this past weekend for seaside town museum directors. I was at a Saturday morning “Meet & Greet” breakfast, and discussed the Blackbrow mystery with a Professor Gunther from the Okracola Museum. Okracola is a tiny island off the American Carolina coast. When I described the code to Professor Gunther, she got very excited.
Professor Gunther tells me that in 1906, a coded message in a bottle washed up on the shores of Okracola. No one could understand the code, but it was saved because it was determined that the message in the bottle was quite old. The professor told me that both message and bottle are still on display in her museum. From the description she gave of the Okracola code, it sounded to me a lot like our Blackbrow code --what with all the strange letter patterns and one and two letter words seemingly in plaintext. Gunther promised to fax me a copy of the Okracola code when she got home. I received it today. While the handwriting is certainly different from the note found in Blackbrow’s leg, I believe it to be another example of the same strange cypher. I have brought it to You in hopes that this might help finally to solve our historical mystery.
MY EGMOWGG DSOWFF XADUIBUDMOIW,
VPDBA I ISIEWG JBVIOI JFASF OF UHZ FFAUJ EGOEBVK VIETG ESUFN DVMANUKF YBTESU. IOX DAO I FQOTIOWH ZKUHPWW UHEF? EPUMF I CUU IEAS A URUAXM OF UHZ RBRRPV, XASI PNCF CHAJP UHZ HAFPAUEK, OR RPLITJ UHZ YPODFP MEH PNCF NORF. I UUIMN DAO IEAS ZOV AKKTPESKQK “BRRS” OR “UIIVFT ME WKNBFTV” IN MY FBINUA FAS.
WE NUSU XALL UHIT RMAOM OF FFAUJ WQHETIGU. I GO TO KOIO UHEF IN GGFPFUW FFPTIU OF UHIT COGSA QDEBP. IF MY UQIRJV EBNNPV GINE UHEF, I UIAMN IOPF TOMF QBUUERJQXW RPWFT OF UHIT OJGHUA TEB UIAMN HMOBV MY PGTSBIH TO UHEF, BNE UHUT ZOV UIAMN LNOX MY GGWOUGG MOVF YQDPUOFHH.
I haven’t come close to solving it, but my guess is that there’s some rule about the substitutions getting more complicated the longer the word is. Notice how 1 and two letter words aren’t affected at all and then you have words like PCSOOOGG and GGTERUGG which can’t be any word known to an English speaking person.
Just from a quick reading, here’s a bit that might help someone. And mostly just thinking out loud.
In the first message, the phrase:
I EBRSA MY SCTSJQQ GOS UHEF TO MY FFAUJ!
probably ends with “to my grave!” Which makes “FFAUG” the coding for “GRAVE”.
This occurs in the second message too, in the phrase:
WE NUSU XALL UHIT RMAOM OF FFAUJ WQHETIGU.
I read that last bit as “of grave concern”, though maybe that’s a stretch.
Assuming “FFAUJ” is “GRAVE”, maybe one rule is that for words with an odd number of letters, the middle letter is unchanged (which also covers your single letter words). For words with an even number of letters, the middle two letters are unchanged. This covers your two letter words, as well as a bunch of four letter words that look close (NUSU for MUST, UHIT for THIS, etc.)
In both of those, it looks like if you shift the first letter up by one, then you shift the last letter down by one. (N->M means U->T). So could be there’s something there.
Interesting idea, ebb, and I tried to apply it to FAS, assuming the middle A was fixed and the first letter would get shifted up or down through the alphabet by the same number of steps as the last letter. If the directrions are opposite (i.e. if F goes up to G and S goes down to R), possible solutions (assuming common words) are EAT and RAG. If directions can be the same (and the alphabet wraps around), I get CAP, EAR, JAW and TAG, assuming I’ve made no mistakes.
For a case like FFAUJ, the first F and the U may get shifted one forward (to G and V), but I can’t comparably reconcile the other F and the J to R and E, respectively.
my exquisite mermaid,
i find myself marooned upon a deserted island after surviving a tempest of terrible magnitude.
Using the same algorithm, the second message opens:
my beloved browed swashbuckler,
And it closes:
forever thine,
“mar”-maid
At this point determining the rest of the two messages is trivial.
The algorithm, with much thanks to ebb:
The middle letter (odd length) or middle two letters (even length) is shifted by zero. The next letters to the outside are shifted by 1; plaintext a -> cyphertext B. The next letters are shifted by 2. For a nine letter word, the pattern is 432101234.
Damn you! I just finished deciphering it and when I go to post, I see you solved it.
Anywhere, here’s the first message for those interested:
[spoiler]My exquisite mermaid,
I find myself marooned upon a deserted island after surviving a tempest of terrible magnitude. I cannot live long. I am certain you shall remember this cypher so I now safely can tell where one may recover all my stolen swag. A forgotten trap door exists beneath Coluba Lighthouse. Digging a bit will uncover it. What everyone seeks resides there. I carry my passion for thee to my death!
I can’t thank you enough for helping to decode the Blackbrow code! We have recovered treasure chests full of jewels, coins, and other valuables. This will be such a boon to Coluba. Tourists will flock to Coluba. Soon we shall have miniature golf, giant water slides, outlet malls, and an abundance of seafood restaurants. Perhaps there will even be a Blackbrow’s Casino.
I have written to Marianne—I mean Professor Gunther— and she is very excited as well to have been part of the solution. I shall fly to Okracola next week to thank her in person. Indeed I must say I have fallen in love with Professor Gunther. Could it be that she is the reincarnation of Marie, and I Blackbrow? Perhaps those notes of love from so long ago have finally brought the two together?
Anyway, I congratulate you (Scuba Ben, ebb, Bryan Ekers and the rest)! Your brilliant reputation is obviously well-earned.