The time has come to issue a warning: this entire series of caches will be archived between May 1st and October 31st, 2022.
A Cipher Series
Gifford is the seventh in a series created for those interested in some degree in cryptology. It is recommended that one do these in alphabetical order, the entire series being Alberti (GC3TAT5), Babbage (GC3V0GV), Colossus (GC3VAFW), Doyle (GC3WTWC), Enigma (GC3X6T8), Flowers (GC41DHR), Gifford (GC6B6HE), Hammer (GC6BR6X), Information (GC6CAXY), Jabberwocky (GC6CY2J), Koblitz (GC6DFP0), Lewis (GC6DMYB), Michie (GC6E4GP), Newman (GC6ENZC), Oded (GC6FNDV), Painvin (GC6G245) and Quits (GC6GN8R). Some can be done independent of the others but, in general, information given and skills acquired in one cache will not be repeated in subsequent caches. We hasten to add that there is not necessarily any connection between the name of the cache and the type of cipher used therein.
Gifford, the Person
Gilbert Gifford was born in England in 1560 and, by 1580, had travelled extensively in Europe. During his time there, he was trained as a missionary priest. Shortly after his return to England, he became involved in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and to free Mary Queen of Scots from imprisonment. However, he was a “double agent” working for both Anthony Babington, an ally of Mary, and Sir Francis Walsingham, an ally of Elizabeth.
The plot is long and complicated but during this time, Gifford delivered encrypted letters from Babington to Mary wrapped in leather and placed in a hollow bung used to seal a barrel of beer - beer which was being delivered to Chartley Castle, Mary’s place of imprisonment. Mary had received the key to the code and returned letters using the same method. However, Walsingham received copies of the messages too and, biding his time, was able to determine who Mary’s allies were. In fact, in his book, The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography (1999), Simon Singh points out:
"The cipher of Mary Queen of Scots clearly demonstrates that a weak encryption can be worse than no encryption at all. Both Mary and Babington wrote explicitly about their intentions because they believed that their communications were secure, whereas if they had been communicating openly they would have referred to their plan in a more discreet manner. . . . The correct use of a strong cipher is a clear boon to sender and receiver, but the misuse of a weak cipher can generate a very false sense of security."
Eventually, Babington and his twelve confederates were found guilty and sentenced to horrible fates which we will spare you in this account. Sir Francis Walsingham rewarded Gilbert Gifford for his role in destroying the conspiracy by granting him a pension of £100 upon which he moved to France where, in 1590, he died in prison - only thirty years old.
Gifford, the Cache
The Encryption Process
The first thing we did with the “plain text” was to run all the letters together, divide that string of letters into five-letter segments and then reverse each of them but still leaving all the letters strung together (See Babbage if necessary).
For the next step, we used a grid; you should create one as follows:
1. Draw a neat, six by six grid with about one centimetre separating the lines both horizontally and vertically.
2. Shade in the top left square (or paste your picture in it) because it’s not relevant!
3. Write the numbers from 1 to 5 across what remains of the top row of the grid.
4. Write the numbers from 1 to 5 down what remains of the left column of the grid.
5. In the square below one 1 and beside the other 1, place the letter A and complete that row with the letters B, C, D and E.
6. Complete the grid with the rest of the alphabet row by row in similar left to right fashion using only one square for I/J so that the entire alphabet will fit into the grid. And keep this grid because you'll need it again!
It was using this grid that we encrypted the string of reversed five-letter "words" as in this example.
Suppose we wished to encrypt the word “geocache” using just this grid, without the grouping and reversal referred to above. We would see that G was in row 2 and column 2 so we would encrypt it as 22. We would see that E was in row 1 and column 5 so we would encrypt it as 15. In similar fashion, we would encrypt O as 34, C as 13, A as 11, C as 13, H as 23 and E as 15. We would then place those together in one long string in one of several ways: 22, 15, 34, 13, 11, 13, 23, 15 or 22/15/34/13/11/13/23/15 or 22 15 34 13 11 13 23 15 or 22-15-34-13-11-13-23-15. In this puzzle, we have used the fourth method.
Your job is to reverse these processes to learn the location of the cache. Good luck!
The Message
11-15-25-11-44-44-15-25-24-23-44-42-34-33-34-42-45-34-21-23-34-42-45-34-21-22-24
-15-15-33-24-34-35-44-23-45-34-21-44-33-15-42-23-44-42-11-34-52-44-15-43-31-11-14
-33-44-43-15-52-34-43-34-42-15-55-15-33-15-51-15-44-44-23-22-24-33-15-15-42-23-34
-35-15-33-24-24-33-44-33-24-45-34-21-15-33-15-33-24-33-42.
So you are looking for:
N ___ ___ ° ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___ ' and
W ___ ___ ___ ° ___ ___ . ___ ___ ___ '.
Comments
- Please file the grid for future use;
- Please provide your own writing utensil;
- Please be careful because there seem to be a lot of branches sticking out here;
- You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.