HMNZS Achilles was a Leander class cruiser whose distinguished career remains inextricably linked with the formation of the Royal New Zealand Navy, and it’s participation in World War II. The Achilles was built for the Royal Navy and commissioned as HMS Achilles. She served with a largely New Zealand crew in the NZ division of the Royal Navy from 1937 up to the creation of the RNZN in 1941 into which she was transferred and renamed HMNZS Achilles.
The Achilles is most famous for her role in the Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval battle of WWII. At the outbreak of the war the Royal Navy assigned a total of 25 battleships organized into 8 separate squadrons to search for the German heavy cruiser, the Admiral Graff Spee. Perhaps the most vulnerable group, all outgunned by the Graff Spee, was force G consisting of the Achilles along with HMS Ajax and Exeter. On the morning of 13 December1939 whilst on patrol on the west coast of South America they spotted the Graf Spee and a fierce battle ensued. The Exeter was badly damaged and withdrew from the fight. With serious damage to her boiler room the Graf Spee broke off the engagement and headed for the neutral harbour of Montevideo Uruguay.
Under the Hague Convention the Graff Spee was obliged to leave port within 24 hours. Diplomatic manoeuvreing on the part of the British deliberately delayed this for 72 hours whilst at the same time spreading propaganda about the vast fleet of British warships converging on the area. At 6:15pm on 17 December 1939, the German warship left Montevideo harbour, with the Ajax, Achilles, and Cumberland waiting nearby in international waters. However, to avoid risking the crew in what Captain Langsdorff expected to be a losing battle he sailed the Graff Spee just outside the harbour, and scuttled the vessel in the estuary. The Graff Spee remains there to this day with just the tip of the mast showing above the water.
HMNZS Achilles continued to serve with distinction for the duration of WWII and was returned to the Royal Navy in 1946, and then sold to India to be renamed INS Delhi. In 1956 she played herself in the film The Battle of the River Plate. Scrapped in 1978 her Y turret was removed and is now on display at the entrance to the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland. The ships bell is on display in the Auckland Museum.
And now, full steam ahead to the puzzle.
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The cache is not located at the published co-ordinates but it is a good place to park.. To find the location of the cache you will need to solve the above puzzle.
The black squares represent lighthouses. The white number in each black square is the total number of ship segments "illuminated" in both the row and column corresponding to the lighthouse. e.g. 4 might mean 3 segments in the corresponding column plus 1 in the corresponding row. Place the ships in the grid to achieve this, some segments plus one submarine position are already given. All vessels lie either horizontally or vertically in the grid and do not touch even in a diagonal direction. Likewise vessels do not touch the lighthouses, even in a diagonal direction.
Now, count the number of ship segments in each row to obtain the actual cache co-ordinates.
The cache can be found at S 41deg 10.(H+J)(D+E)(C+J) E 174deg 48.(A+J)(E+H)(A+C+G) .
The cache is approx. 2m off to the side of the track. Unfortunately GPS reception is very poor in the area of the cache and a high sesnsitivity GPSr is recommended. .
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.