“In A DROP IN THE OCEAN, six solutions, when entered correctly, have spaces into which solvers must appropriately move a thematic item which, carrying 19 and 22, ran into trouble at 25 and broke 36, finally settling on the 47. The wordplay in each across clue leads to the answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; these letters give a further instruction. Initial and final grids, ignoring empty cells, contain only real words.”
The puzzle’s title and preamble give a broad hint that we might be looking for a sunken ship, and that turns out to be the case. 19ac turns out to be BANKNOTES, and a brave guess gives WHISKY for 22ac. That certainly narrows down the possible ships…
25dn must therefore be ERISKAY, while 36ac and 47ac could be guessed even earlier as IN TWO and SEAFLOOR – that’s where wrecks tend to end up, after all!
The additional letters in give the following instruction: SHADE NOVEL AND FILMS’* TITLE.
Although 22ac is WHISKY, I believe we are to shade a long diagonal running NE-SW from the second last letter on the first row to the first letter on the penultimate row and, of course, reading WHISKY GALORE.
Finally (and this took me rather a long time to work out), POLLY (an affectionate rendering of SS POLITICIAN, the real name of the ship that sank, which is called SS CABINET MINISTER in the novel, etc.) is to be moved from the top row into the gap on the penultimate row.
*There are two films.
I’m unsure about the anagram indicator in 43ac or the use of ‘on’ in 11dn, but these are minor quibbles.
Notation
(xxx) = definition
[xxx] = (anagram/homophone/container/etc.) indicator
XXX* = anagram
< = reversal
Please post a comment if the explanations are not clear.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 1 | DEED POLL | Individual’s legal act [wrongly] DEPOSED*, [restricting] LL (lines) (8, two words) |
| H | 8 | TAWA | Griddle‘s THAW (melting) [on] A (PLATE[‘s centre]) (4) |
| A | 11 | ORLON | ORAL (Spoken examination) ON (concerning) fibre (5) |
| D | 13 | ERHU | ERHD ([Occasionally] SEARCHED) U (university) for fiddle (4) |
| E | 14 | ABAMPERES | A BEAM (shaft of light) PER (through) ES ([heart of] PRE-SET) measures (9) |
| N | 15 | INTI | Former currency IN (consisting of) TIN (silvery-white metal) (4) |
| O | 16 | AGEIST | [Rabid] {EGOIST A (AND, [primarily])}*, bigot (6) |
| V | 17 | MHO | MOV (MOVE [endlessly]) [about] H (hospital) unit once (3) |
| E | 18 | LAIC | Lay LACE (fabric) [round] I ([middle of] PETTICOAT) (4) |
| L | 24 | MANURE | MAN (Fellow) with LURE (means of gathering cattle) to enrich soil (6) |
| A | 26 | MID-LEG | Centre part of limb AMID (encircled by) LEG ([stages in] ALLERGY) (6) |
| N | 27 | INLIER | Old outcrop IN (by) LINER (large passenger ship) (6) |
| D | 29 | PTISAN | Medicinal drink of [eccentric] PANDITS* (6) |
| F | 31 | SLAYED | Violently slaughtered, spread-eagled initially with skin stripped off (6) |
| I | 32 | SHELL-SAND | [When crushed], {HILL ENDS AS}* loose granular material (9) |
| L | 35 | RITS | Montgomerie’s scores < STIL (STILL [mostly]) [returned] [after] R (run) (4) |
| M | 38 | ADO | MAD (Crazy) O (over) trouble (3) |
| S | 39 | OMASAL | MASS (Service) [taken by] OAL (ORACLE [regularly]) relating to what’s inside? (6) |
| T | 42 | GROG | GROT (Disgusting thing), G (good) rum mixed with water (4) |
| I | 43 | AGALACTIA | A GAL (young woman), AIATIC* (ASIATIC, [eliminating S (second)]) nursing problem (9) |
| T | 44 | A LA | In the manner of ATLAS (giant) [abandoned by] S (society) (3, two words) |
| L | 45 | AWNY | LAWNY (Made of fine linen) with hair-like appendages (4) |
| E | 46 | SWAN | SEW (Attach with wire) A N (northern) bird (4) |
| Down | |||
| 2 | ERBIA | ER BI (Elements 68 and 83) with A compound of one of them (5) | |
| 3 | E-LA-MI | [Garbled] E-MAIL* note (5) | |
| 4 | DOMICIL | Abode of DOM (Portuguese nobleman) [on] ICIL ([interior of] SICILY (Italian island)) (7) | |
| 5 | OMEGA | Conclusion, type of fatty acid (5) | |
| 6 | LURE | Enticement, L (Latin) URE (practice no longer used) (4) | |
| 7 | YES’S | ESSAY* [rewritten] A (before) [missing] supporting votes (4) | |
| 8 | TRITON | IT (Sex) [in centre of] TRON (marketplace) for sailor (6) | |
| 9 | WUTHERED | WU (Chinese dialect group) THERE (in that place), D ([finally] RECORDED), roared (8) | |
| 10 | ADIOS | ADOS (Difficulties) [involving] I (Italy)’s farewell remark (5) | |
| 11 | OAK LUMP | Lichen P (PROLIFERATING [principally]) [on] OAK (timber) and LUM (chimney) (7, two words) | |
| 12 | REIK | Out-of-date prank [cut short] REIKI (form of Japanese natural therapy) (4) | |
| 20 | NYSSA | Tree [turning up in] grASSY Niches (5) | |
| 21 | NANA | [Peeled] ANANAS (fruit) for fool (4) | |
| 22 | WITHDRAW | Retire WITH (accompanied by) < [upset] WARD (minor in one’s charge) (8) | |
| 23 | SEAL | Tie up willow (4) | |
| 28 | LYRICAL | Expressive L (student) [moved] RACILY* (7) | |
| 30 | SLOGAN | SLOG (Strenuous spell of work) [on] AN advertising catchphrase (6) | |
| 32 | SAGES | Wise men‘s USAGES (customary practices] [when leaving U (university)] (5) | |
| 33 | SAG | < GAS (Airy substance) [rising] in sink (3) | |
| 34 | NALA | Drain [in] persoNAL Allowance (4) | |
| 37 | TAINO | TAI (Language used in SE Asia) [by] NO (number) of ancient people (5) | |
| 40 | MAS | < {S (Sun) AM (in the morning)} [over] French farmhouse (3) | |
| 41 | SAE | Prepaid envelope, so Scottish (3) | |
Hmmm…I highlighted 12A WHISKY and then GALORE in the reverse diagonal – didn’t spot the straight line…hope that didn’t disqualify my entry, as I had fulfilled the instructions and highlighted the thematic title – as they didn’t specify it had to be linear?…
A lovely puzzle – I vaguely remember seeing a similar device a few years ago, maybe in an Inquisitor(?), where a ship disappeared from the top row and sank down to the bottom.
I agree that it isn’t obvious where the anagram is indicated in 43A – I think I had enough crossers to make it clear that it had to be an anagram from the letters of A(S)IATIC…maybe ‘problem’ is doing double duty?
And in 11D, I think the ‘on’ indicates that the P is added ‘on’ to the end of OAK + LUM.
It’s just occurred to me that perhaps one was meant to highlight the non-linear WHISKY GALORE. Perhaps it represents the two parts of the sunken ship?
I think that neither Chris, the editor, nor I had considered that anyone might highlight the non-linear WHISKY GALORE I don’t think the Polly, as it is affectionately called in the Outer Hebrides where people still claim to have bottles of the original booty, did actually break in half. (I have one of the empty bottles!) Setters, of course, have nothing to do with editorial decisions about who wins the Telegraph pen but I would imagine a ‘bent’ WHISKY GALORE will go into the draw. Yes, I used the affectionate name as it would have been a nightmare to sink the entire POLITICIAN in the grid maintaining all real words both before and after. Thank you, as always, Mister Sting.