Enigmatic Variations No. 1631: Missing by Eclogue

Eclogue presents some (28) clues with MISSING letters – and several thematic items and a place to deduce…

The preamble states that:

“Four answers must be modified before entry to reflect an historic event. In 28 other clues there is a letter MISSING in the definition; in clue order, these letters provide a similarly thematic name (two words) and an object (three words). Once the grid is filled, solvers must draw a line through 12 contiguous cells to loosely indicate the resting place of a thematic name (a block of 15 cells, which must be highlighted). Enumerations and word counts relate to grid entries. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

Quite a long and complicated preamble – meriting a couple of re-reads, before diving in to try and make sense of it all. There are four modified entries, and 28 missing letters, out of 38 clues – so only six ‘normal’ ones. (And after solving this, I would say that clues with missing letters are a level harder than clues/wordplay leading to extra letters!)

After a couple of runs through, I had a couple of possible modified entries – CREWNECK and SCREWTOPS had to fit in spaces that were four short, and the common four letters were CREW, both leaving real words after the CREWs were removed. A missing ‘CREW’ led me immediately to the ‘Marie Celeste‘, which I then subconsciously linked to the ’12 contiguous cells’ in the preamble.

I was also not helped by seeing TRIAN in the third row from the bottom, leading to an expectation of finding the Bermuda Triangle somewhere in the grid.

The rest of the grid gradually filled up, and I eventually realised that MARIE CELESTE was actually part of the missing-letter device, followed by FIVE MAST SCHOONER.

This didn’t help too much, but I pressed on and bravely resisted the temptation to just Go-ogle ‘five mast(ed) schooner missing crew’.

By the end of the Monday, I had the grid filled, but was still none the wiser as to the theme. The preamble refers to a ‘block’ of fifteen cells, so I assumed that this must be a 3×5 or 5×3 block, and spent a lot of grid-staring time trying to find anything that made sense.

I had been solving on a screenshot-ed copy of the puzzle on my iPad, using an iPencil (other electronic tablets and writing devices are available), and I discovered that I could draw an opaque shape over the grid and move it around. So I created a 3×5 rectangle and methodically moved it around from top left to bottom right, one cell at a time. The only space that looked anything remotely like a name or phrase was that starting at 14A CARROty –  CARRO+LLADE+ERING. (Is ‘carrolladeer’ a verb – maybe going from door-to-door singing Christmas carols in Elizabethan times?!). I tried the same process with a 5×3 rectangle as well, with nothing sensible appearing.

At this point, I gave in and Go-ogled, or rather Ecosia’d,  CARROLLADEERING – to discover that the ‘Carroll A Deering‘ was a five-masted schooner which was found abandoned and shipwrecked at CAPE HATTERAS, off the coast of North Carolina in 1921. (Coincidentally and ironically, it had sailed from Rio de Janeiro, via Barbados, and passed safely through the Bermuda TRIANgle…). One website describes it as one of the last wooden schooners built before iron construction took over, and also mentions that, unusually for a cargo ship, it featured a ‘usable lavatory’…which presumably means that most cargo ships before it had had unusable (or no?) lavatories?!… (I once travelled through the waterways of Kerala in the Cochin area in the 1990s, and the loo was just a curtained-off platform with a hole in it at the back of the boat , so I have some sympathy for and empathy with those ancient mariners…)

And there we have it – CAPE HATTERAS forms an approximation of the actual coastline along the cape, the five-masted schooner (5 mini-columns, or masts, of 3 letters) is foundered just touching the Cape, and the CREW are nowhere to be seen!

 

As themes go, I would say this is pretty obscure! I thought I was there with the Marie Celeste and the Bermuda Triangle, subjects that most solvers should be familiar with, but an American coal-carrying cargo ship of the 1920s travelling from Rio to North Carolina probably doesn’t feature on most people’s general knowledge. Thank heavens for internet search engines!

From a solving perspective: the missing letters were quite tough to get my head around, but most of them gradually became easier to spot; and there weren’t too many obscure/new (to me) words – MAZDEAN, TUSCHE, SIRIH and NITRIAN needed some checking.

My thanks to Eclogue for a tough challenge – hopefully most of you made the most of the voyage and didn’t abandon ship before the end…and I hope all is clear above and below…

 

Across
Clue No	Missing Letter	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing
1		CORKSCREW / CORKS	Bung wages for spiral device (5) CORK (bung) + SCREW (wages, slang)
6	M	ESPIED	Did ark of old get directions confused? (6) ES (East and South, directions) + PIED (confused) [did mark (or notice)]
11	A	HAILING	Prising trouble being surrounded by asafoetida (7) H_ING (asafoetida) around (surrounding) AIL (trouble) [praising]
12	R	AGAR	Maine source of jelly one newspaper recalled (4) A + Gar (rag, newspaper, recalled) [marine]
13		ASPS	Are some poisonous snakes primarily these? (4) primary, or initial, letters of Are Some Poisonous Snakes
14	I	CARROTY	Describing red plus corrupt Tory tailing vehicle (7) CAR (vehicle) plus (tailed by) ROTY (anag, i.e. corrupt, of TORY) [describing red pilus (hair)]
15	E	OEILLADES	Elizabethan peps sole ideal vigorously (9) anag, i.e. vigorously, of SOLE IDEAL [peeps]
16		TUSCHE	Tooth mostly on revolutionary drawing substance (6) TUS(K) (tooth, mostly) + CHE (Che Guevara, revolutionary)
17	C	RING UP	Arena success for all (6, two words) RING (arena) + UP (success) [call]
18	E	OUTLEAP	Get higher than in jet perhaps, as in ordinary plane (not new, but ramshackle) (7) O (ordinary) + UT (Latin, as) + LEAP (subtractive anag, i.e. ramshackle, of PLA(N)E, not N – new) [get higher than in jete]
26	L	RETRACT	Recall ruing touching region (7) RE (touching, regarding) + TRACT (region) [recall ruling]
26	E	COACTS	Behaves as on account in beds (6) CO_TS (beds) around AC (account) [as one]
27		ZSA ZSA	Hungarian actress twice making a comeback when unknown (6, two words) AS (when) + Z (unknown quantity, e.g. in maths), twice and making a comeback = ZSA ZSA (Gabor)!
29	S	NIELLATED	Cored then filled with black line dealt askew (9) anag, i.e. askew, of LINE DEALT [scored then…]
31	T	NITRIAN	Elderly Egyptian canon’s reviewing Indian people with money (7) NAIR (Indian people, specifically Keralan) + TIN (money, slang), all reviewed, or reversed = NITRIAN [Egyptian canton’s]
32		CREWNECK / NECK	Jersey man having audacity (4) CREW (man) + NECK (audacity)
33	E	ETAT	Stat in France starts to eventually tell a tale (4) initial letters, or starts, of ‘Eventually Tell A Tale’ [State in France…]
34	F	AT PEACE	Ray having abated, quiet ensues a bit of a kip (7, two words) AT (monetary unit of Laos, 100th of a kip) + PEACE (quiet) [Fray having abated]
35	I	DOSAGE	Measure for patent denial of service on time (6) DOS (internet, Denial Of Service attack) + AGE (time) [measure for patient]
36	V	SYNOD	Poetic Dian involved in busy nodding (5) hidden word in, i.e. involved in, ‘buSY NODding’ [poetic divan (assembly, or synod)]
Down
Clue No	Missing Letter	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing
1	E	CHANTOR	Part of pips to sing to troops (7) CHANT (sing) + OR (Other Ranks, troops) [part of pipes]
2	M	OAST	Key processor of alt perhaps often annoys struggling typists initially (4) initial letters of ‘Often Annoys Struggling Typists’ [processor of malt]
3	A	RIPOSTE	Blend it with prose for rection (7) anag, i.e. blend, of IT + PROSE [reaction]
4	S	SIRIH	What may rout mildly in his flying across Ireland (5) S_IH (his, flying upwards, in a Down clue) around (across) IR (Ireland). Could equally be H_IS around IR, all flying up? [what may roust…]
5	T	UNCLEAR	No certain revolutionary can rule (7) anag, i.e. revolutionary, of CAN RULE [not certain]
7	S	SPRAINT	Riverside cat to twist over time (7) SPRAIN (twist) + T (time) [riverside cast (otter dung)]
8	C	PARDNER	It’s standard to split up Texan hum (7) PAR (standard) + DNER (rend, or splt, up) [Texan chum]
9	H	EATS UP	Local channel puts out and cops the lot (6, two words) EA (Fenland drainage channel) + TS_UP (anag, i.e. out, of PUTS) [chops the lot]
10	O	DRY UP	Do this having been tasted with no alcohol on high (5, two words) DRY (with no alcohol) + UP (on high) [having been toasted]
19		LACERTA	A number of stars upset ale cart (7) anag, i.e. upset, of ALE CART [Lacerta being the Lizard constellation]
20	O	ETTLING	In ban, intending growing calm, but not succeeding at first (7) (S)ETTLING (growing calm, without S – succeeding – at first) [in Oban]
21	N	PEZANTS	They once worked on the lad, unknown one in sulks (7) PE_TS (sulks) around Z (unknown quantity, maths) + AN (one) [on the land]
22		MAZDEAN	Old religion’s made off with number around Arizona (7) M_DEA (anag, i.e. off, of MADE) + N (number), around AZ (Arizona)
23	E	STACKED	Poet’s reputed to have consumed food made into Pils (7) S_ED (Miltonic, i.e. poetic, for said, or reputed) around (consuming) TACK (food) [made into piles]
24		BONITO	Food-fish is good for Pierre having Italian over (6) BON (good in French, i.e. for Pierre) + IT (Italian) + O (over, cricket scoring)
26		CONCREWED / CONED	Tory boasted to journalist, having once grown together (5) CON (Conservative) + CREW (boasted, past tense of crow) + ED (editor, journalist)
28		SCREWTOPS / STOPS	Ground corps wets bottles (5) anag, i.e. ground, of CORPS WET
30	R	ECCO	It is said to resound for thee in Rome (4) homophone, i.e. it is said – ECCO (there, Latin, i.e. in Rome) can sound like ECHO (resound) [there in Rome]