Spycraft: One Life Mystery Cache
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The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. You must solve the puzzle to find the coordinates.
This is the third cache in my Spycraft series, which is based on real-life spy stories from times past. These puzzles will vary in difficulty quite a bit, from very easy to very hard. The primary point of each will be the story behind the puzzle, though, and I hope you enjoy reading about these historical spies (some successful, some not!)
Fans of fictional spies James Bond, Jack Ryan, and George Smiley may be surprised to learn that spying was not always seen as a glamorous, patriotic endeavor. Prior to the 19th century spying on your nation's enemies was seen as, well, downright ungentlemanly.
North
In July 1776, the Continental Army was threatened by one of the largest overseas expeditionary forces in European history. Warships full of thousands of British troops and German mercenaries were preparing to attack General Washington's army in Manhattan.
Forty-three
If only the Americans could know where and when the British would strike.
Four
Washington sent General Clinton with 100 men to find and interrogate a few Tories who might know what the British were doing, but British patrols intercepted them before they could learn anything. There seemed to be only one way to get the information Washington needed. He asked Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton to find a volunteer for an espionage mission to Long Island, where the British were located.
Four hundred thirty-six
Knowlton assembled his officers, briefed them on the situation, and asked for volunteers. At first no one said anything. Finally Lieutenant James Sprague spoke the words they all were thinking:
"I'm willing to fight the British and, if need be, die a soldier's death in battle, but as for going among them in disguise and being taken and hung up like a dog, I'll not do it."
Knowlton made another appeal, and dismissed the meeting when no one volunteered.
West
Among Knowlton's Rangers was a young captain who had just transferred into the new regiment. He had graduated from Yale in 1773, had taught school for 18 months, and was filled with an intense desire for independence from British rule. Although he too felt the role of spy to be disgraceful and dishonorable, he felt that this might be a chance to serve his country in an important way.
Seventy-seven
Captain Nathan Hale went back to Knowlton and volunteered for the assignment.
Thirty
Few recorded details of Hale's mission exist. We know that he left New York on September 12 and arrived on Long Island on September 16. Hale's cover was that of a Tory schoolmaster looking for a job on Long Island. He wore civilian clothes and carried his own Yale diploma to establish his qualifications as a teacher.
Nine hundred ninety-eight
Hale was unfortunately caught quickly by the British and sentenced to death. According to British commander Sir Billy Howe's diary for September 22:
"A spy from the Enemy (by his own full confession) apprehended last night, was this day Executed at 11 o'Clock in front of the Artillery Park."
That is all that would be known with certainty about Hale's fate, if it were not for Captain John Montresor, Aide-de-Camp to General Howe. Montresor was so impressed by Hale's dignified behavior in the face of death that he recorded Hale's final words:
"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Ironically, had Hale not volunteered for his spy mission, he would have had his opportunity to fight the enemy on September 16, when Knowlton's Rangers lost a battle with the Black Watch, an elite British unit.
Where is the puzzle? you ask. The puzzle is a type of steganography that was used in Hale's time. George Washington is known to have used a form of secret writing known as "sympathetic stain" - the use of a pair of chemicals, one an invisible ink for writing the message and one to reveal it. (Of course you will not be using chemicals, but instead the modern tools that are in front of you.)
Washington recommended that agents conceal their reports by using the invisible ink in correspondence: "...write a letter in the Tory stile with some mixture of family matters and between the lines and on the remaining part of the sheet communicate with the stain the intended intelligence."
Note: The cache is hidden a few feet from a mowed Town of Pittsford walking path. There is a small amount of poison ivy in the general vicinity but it is easily avoided, and there is no poison ivy where the cache is hidden. Please obey the No Trespassing signs and stay out of the cornfield. This little-known green space has grassy trails and some nice wooded ones too, so bring your geodogs and take a nice walk!
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
Congratulations to FTS and FTF spooko13! I thought that was your car I saw when driving home from Wegmans!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Jrfg bs gur perrx.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
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