Inquisitor puzzle by Harribobs … memories of BATS, struggling with the start of the endgame …
Preamble: In some clues, wordplay leads to the answer plus an extra letter; extra letters spell a clue to the surname of a pioneering captain. Answers to across clues represent, in sequence, pages from the captain’s log, each recording directions of any progress made by the ship during the previous fortnight. (Note that sometimes the ship might be becalmed or just move back and forth.) Starting from the silver cell and using straight lines, trace the ship’s positions at the end of each fortnight.
I made moderate but solid progress with this, extra letters popping up here and there. I always find it a bit difficult when two letters in the wordplay are generated from a “short” 4-letter word (dropping the final letter) then one more being superfluous, such as in 19a MOV(e) (“short walk”), and sometimes I’m not completely confident that I’ve backed out the correct 4-letter word until the phrase generated by the extra letters is complete. So it goes. 
Nevertheless, near the end of the session I had DISCOVERER ADOPTS …E TO THE SOUTH with 3 (or maybe 2, maybe 4) letters before the E – just to make it harder, we aren’t told how many clues generate extra letters.
I pushed on with solving/resolving the last few reluctant clues (4d, 5d, 7d, 8d) and concluded that the word ending in E was LIRNE. Nothing immediately sprang to mind and it was quite late – not a good idea to “start from the silver cell and use straight lines” when this tired, so I called it a day.
I had some free time after lunch the next day, and returned to the puzzle. I thought I’d remembered the preamble, so I started tracing S, then S, then W, then S, S, N, N, W, and so on, then ‘joined the dots’ to create a rather blocky shape … of a state (of some union), or an island possibly. So I reread the preamble & realised my mistake; I shouldn’t join each direction, but the end of each across row‘s set of directions – this resulted in an even worse shape. I pondered. After rereading the preamble properly I joined the end of each clue‘s set of directions and created a more sensible outline … which still meant very little.
Back to the clue from the extra letters: DISCOVERER ADOPTS LIRNE TO THE SOUTH. OK. DISCOVERER = FINDER, around L(ire) with S(outh) at the end. FLINDERS. Who he? Well, he circumnavigated Australia, the first to do so, in the early 1800’s. And the shape I’d sketched was a fair representation of that island continent.
I’m not sure of the relevance of “each fortnight” – did the circumnavigation take 46 weeks (=23 clues × 2 weeks each)? Whatever. Thanks to Harribobs for a moderate workout, and leading me to my own discovery of Captain Flinders.
Note correction to 8d after comment @3 (& others).
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Answer | Extra letter |
Wordplay |
| 4 | Convict and playwright on board ship craft pieces of carved ivory (10) | SCRIMSHAWS | CRIM (convict) SHAW (playwright) in SS (on board ship) | |
| 11 | Disdainful minister (past it) disturbed by saint and gospeller (7) | MAS-JOHN | D | MAD (disturbed) S(aint) JOHN (gospeller) |
| 12 | Melody inspired by uncapped magic mushroom (6) | AGARIC | I | AIR (melody) in (m)AGIC |
| 13 | Accepted cocaine, enough for a poet (4) | ANOW | S | A(ccepted) SNOW (cocaine) |
| 14 | Rice originally found in Carolina, dispersing, is now rice grown in Italy (9) | CARNAROLI | R(ice) in [CAROLINA]* | |
| 15 | Vessel’s fathom down in rising current (6) | UPFLOW | C | CUP(vessel) F(athom) LOW (down) |
| 17 | Once a drone with tools for boring drones (6) | DRAWLS | O | DOR (drone, obs) AWLS (tools for boring) |
| 19 | After short walk, bellicose politician gets a haircut (6) | MOHAWK | V | MOV(e) (walk) HAWK (bellicose politician) |
| 21 | Seabirds from Skye, perhaps, glided smoothly on the way back (4) | MAWS | SWAM< (glided smoothly) | |
| 23 | Airman recruit in World War One, cut down, is not one to make women bereft (9, 2 words) | WAR WIDOWS | AR (airman recruit) in WWI (World War One) DOW(n) IS − I (one) | |
| 27 | Does better than certain soft fools (9) | SURPASSES | E | SURE (certain) P (soft) ASSES (fools) |
| 29 | Never seen discomposed around tee for penultimate hole (9) | SEVENTEEN | R | [NEVER SEEN]* around T(ee) |
| 32 | Scandinavian work needed metal at equal intervals (4) | EDDA | E | (n)E(e)D(e)D (m)E(t)A(l) |
| 35 | Formerly held wild desires (6) | SEISED | R | [DESIRES]* |
| 36 | Russian ready to agitate is beheaded (6) | ROUBLE | (t)ROUBLE (agitate) | |
| 38 | National legislative body convened when Spain and Germany are overrun by retiring foreigners (6) | SENEDD | A | E (Spain) + D (Germany) in DANES< (foreigners) |
| 41 | Hurried back, to keep connected to the internet. It’s not 9dn (9) | NON-LINEAR | RAN< (hurried) around ON-LINE (connected to the internet) {normally, I really don’t like clues referring to other answers, but this one serves to misdirect in the clue for 25d} |
|
| 42 | Ordered not to leave improper donation for temples (4) | NAOI | D | [DONATION]* − [NOT]* |
| 43 | Northward, then westward, then forward toward residential part of US city (6) | UPTOWN | O | UP (northward) TO W (westward) ON (forward) |
| 44 | Foolishly wrong to cuff boxer who guarded the streets long ago? (7, 2 words) | RUG GOWN | P | [WRONG]* around PUG (boxer) |
| 45 | Slalom facilitator may these days number inside of poles (10, 2 words) | SNOW CANNON | NOW (these days) CAN (may) NO (number) in S+N (poles) | |
| Down | No. | Clue | Answer | Extra letter |
Wordplay |
| 1 | Muslim leaders in the last month left final demands (6) | IMAUMS | T | ULIMATUMS (final demands) − ULT (in the last month) |
| 2 | Workforce crumbles, losing heart, under pillar of rock (8) | MANPOWER | S | POW(d)ERS (crumbles) after MAN (pillar of rock) |
| 3 | From amateur orchestra to festival’s principal (4, 2 words) | AS OF | L | A(mateur) LSO (orchestra) F(estival) |
| 5 | Captain raised only child, one growing up in the tropics (4) | COCO | CO (captain) OC< (only child) | |
| 6 | Arranged raid on … raid on enemy territory (6) | INROAD | [RAID ON]* | |
| 7 | Group of West Africans sees ship sink … (5) | MANDE | I | MAN (ship) DIE (sink) |
| 8 | … Arabian ship similarly capsizing at entrance to harbour outlawed by Muslims (5) | HARAM | N |
AR(abian) AR(abian) MAN< (ship) after H(arbour) |
| 9 | Lined up, about to use the oars (4) | AROW | A(bout) ROW (use oars) | |
| 10 | Innovatively, I cross sea – short cut (7) | SCISSOR | E | [I CROSS SE(a)]* |
| 16 | Group of gulls observed in half of Latvia and Russia (5) | LARUS | T | LAT(via) RUS(sia) |
| 18 | Squabbles resulting when weapon with no tip is raised (4) | ROWS | SWOR(d)< (weapon) | |
| 20 | Pious Jew holds one party (5) | HASID | O | HAS (holds) I (one) DO (party) |
| 22 | A priest sets places for the clergy to sit (5) | APSES | T | A P(riest) SETS |
| 24 | Celebrate arrival of that woman accompanied by a German (5, 2 words) | SEE IN | H | SHE (that woman) EIN (a, Ger) |
| 25 | Moderate temperature having 1dn (8, 2 words) | TONE DOWN | T(emperature) ONE DOWN (1dn) {not a reference to the answer to 1dn – see 41a} |
|
| 26 | Wide streets on either side of river leading to abyss (7) | AVERNUS | E | AVENUES around R(iver) |
| 28 | Old coins found in Cadiz are authentic (4) | REAL | S | REALS (old [Spanish] coins) |
| 30 | Out-patient’s armpit dressed by nurse (6) | EXTERN | O | OXTER (armpit) in EN ([enrolled] nurse) |
| 31 | Summing up, American dessert lacks a bit of punch (6) | ADDING | U | A(merican) PUDDING (dessert) − P(unch) |
| 33 | Tossed by the wind, sailor’s downcast (5) | ABLOW | AB (sailor) LOW (downcast) | |
| 34 | And so to the Netherlands Antilles, to get dyestuff (5) | HENNA | T | THEN (and so) NA (Netherlands Antilles) |
| 37 | In days of yore, to search for source of Orinoco (4) | UNTO | H | HUNT (search for) O(rinoco) |
| 39 | Thus, monster observed from below (4) | ERGO | OGRE< (monster) | |
| 40 | Leaving extreme part of Atlantic Ocean will be troublesome unless stated differently (4) | EAON | [OCEAN − (Atlanti)C]* | |
|
|
||||
Well, I managed to fill the grid, but couldn’t work out all the extra letters. Only got TO THE SOUTH, and was looking for Captain Scott and map of the Antarctic. Meaning my quest was as futile as his – but, obviously, not as noble.
So well done HG, and thanks for the right directions. And Harribobs for what for me was one of the hardest – but fascinating – this year.
Hmmm, looks like I may have been Trilbied. I’d assumed the four letter word in the middle was ISLE (unsurprisingly I’d not managed to parse the clues to my satisfaction) and so had plumped for Tasman – though I’m not sure he was actually a captain. I’m guessing those few clues were deliberately obscure – I remember being slightly miffed by some uneven cluing, but I now suspect this was a feature, not a bug. Very clever. This seems to be developing into a whole new genre of crosswords.
I thought the method of defining the shape to draw was masterful, both in conception and execution.
Thanks to Harribobs for a challenge that was even more impressive than I’d at first thought, and to HolyGhost for making everything clear!
I had 8d producing an L giving LINE.
MAN (reversed) after H and AR.
Great puzzle though FLINDERS took ages to work out, having been convinced that we were looking for COOK or TASMAN.
Thanks to S’er and B’er.
I looked out my Trilby and Wellington Boots early on when the coincidence that Capt. James Cook made his first landfall on the Oz mainland at Botany Bay on 29 April 1770 became apparent. Fortunately ‘Cook’ was never in the frame as a solution to the name.
Oh! AND,
I revealed the shape by painstakingly following every compass direction in each across answer. So, for example:
SCRIMSHAWS gave South, South, West, South.
It certainly looked like OZ except for a rogue sticky-up line through most of HARAMS.
I think the capsized ship in HARAM is MAN giving you a surplus N and the rather more appropriate LINE in the clue to FLINDERS.
Remarkable grid.
One of the best of the year for me. Also had COOK as the clue answer, justified vaguely as adopts = care off = CO & OK (Fine) … and with the to the south bit kinda just ignored! So had Oz in my head and was expecting that to be the shape. However I did also end up drawing lines for every compass point in every answer, but the preamble is sufficiently clear for that to be avoided. Only when googling “coastline of Australia” to confirm the shape did I come across FLiNDERS and realise the earlier error. Great stuff nonetheless!
Well, I filled the grid, felt pretty pleased with myself when I got the extra letters and the captain’s name, proceeded to draw a map of Australia across the grid, and completely ignored the last bit of the preamble so that my map ended up looking distinctly blocky, and pretty useless for navigational purposes I suspect. Close, but not close enough. Gah. Enjoyable anyway, and an object lesson in taking more notice next time. I also had LINE rather than LIRE from the extra letters, but I wouldn’t take my word for anything. 🙂
Yeah, sorry. Having re-read the instructions, I now understand the “fortnight” business. And H___G____’s lines are far better than I ended up with.
Puzzle has now gone up further in my rating 😀
Sorry, HG, but I’m being a bit obtuse here. I still don’t understand how to draw the lines. I note that you “joined the end of each clue‘s set of directions” but how does that tell you that from the A in the grey square, you have to go to the A in MAWS?
I’m another that fell at the final hurdle. I completed the grid and drew the map but failed to work out the message beyond most of the letters in DISCOVERER and then ‘TO THE SOUTH’. The outline looked like Australia (although I see now that I also drew the blocky version like Jon @8 so probably would have failed there too) so I blindly assumed that COOK would be the appropriate captain.
Many thanks to Harribobs for another ingenious puzzle (rapidly becoming one of my favourite setters thanks to this, the Halloween one and the Morse Code listener) and HG for the blog.
Correction to wordplay & superfluous letter in 8d now made – thanks to kenmac @3 and others (some of whom don’t seem to have bothered to read previous comments); LINE is far superior to my LIRE. Actually Ken, your comment refers to the L instead of the R, but that’s a minor typo.
Tony @10: the first across answer is SCRIMSHAWS, so in the first fortnight the ship sailed South, South, West, South, so we move three cells down and one cell left taking us to the O of ROWS (not the A of MAWS – the circumnavigation is anticlockwise); the next fortnight it sailed South then North (from MAS-JOHN) just going back and forth, then it was becalmed (from AGARIC), then North West (from ANOW) to the D of DRAWLS, and so on.
Now I see! Thank you, Mr Ghost.
Was I alone in assuming that this mysterious 4-letter word to the South of Australia was an ISLE?
Was that just coincidence then, or genuinely a deliberate trap which most of you dodged? It seems too neat to be a coincidence. I even considered that the letters which would make up Tasmania, were it added to the outline, almost spell WRONG, but that probably is coincidence – it would be nice if EAOR were a word though!
Somehow, when it comes to drawing lines in the grid, I always fall. This was no exception, but I was happy enough to have discovered Flinders…
Thanks to Harribobs and HolyGhost
A fantastic puzzle and an early contender to be involved in my vote casting at the end of the year. Great fun when the penny dropped with what we had to do with the directions. Though I too drew each stage of the route so I’ve probably shipwrecked my entry. Lovely stuff thank you setter and blogger.
This was the first Inquisitor I have completed and I thought it was great – lots of fun in deciphering the clues and great satisfaction when the map of Australia appeared. Many thanks to setter and blogger – a brilliant puzzle!
Blimey. I did make a start on this, but didn’t progress far enough to work out a theme, and it’s just taken me 2 runs at reading the blog and comments to get my head around the way that the answers give the directions. Now that I get it, I’m in awe. This is in next level clever. A brilliant idea, brilliantly executed. Congrats to Harribobs on a puzzle which will surely be up there in the end of year tally and to HG for the write-up
Thanks to Harribobs for an amazing puzzle and HG for Explication. Somehow I guessed early on that the directions would be N E W S in Across clues, but still had a hard time completing the grid — the obs meaning of RUG GOWN foxed me for ages — and then kept miscounting the directions. But even my early bad attempts looked a little bit like Australia, so I duly expected Cook or Tasman. The nicely unobvious FLINDERS emerged as a possibility if only I could justify a surplus L (previously not seen) in 3D, so I got there by reverse engineering.
A terrific payoff, amply compensating for some hard work. Bravo.
Another failure for us. Like Kippax we drew a rather unconvincing map by following each direction in vertical or horizontal lines, but it looked enough like Australia for the captain to be James Cook and we hadn’t got enough of the message to suggest otherwise. That would have been heresy anyway because as a native of Whitby I was brought up to believe Our Man was the discoverer, never mind Flinders or Dutchmen like Van Diemen and Tasman. In fact he probably got there before the aborigines!
Fedoras off to Harribobs and anybody who cracked this one.
Don’t suppose someone could enlighten me on who/what MAS-JOHN is? Along with RUG GOWN, it was one of the only two I had left, and looking at the answer now, I’m still no wiser as to what the definition refers to.
Mas-John: “A contemptuous name for a Scottish parish minister”.
Jon S you beat us to it.
Rug gown is an old word for a ewtchman according to Chambers.
Apologies for the typo – it should have read old term for watchman!
We got there in the end …. eventually but we also had memories of trilbies and bats!
We thought that the grid construction was amazing and would like to congratulate Harribobs on his superb puzzle.
Thanks HolyGhost for the blog.
Thanks folks – google utterly failed me on these two!
Ryan @ 25 They’re both in my disintegrating 2011 Chambers.
I had a completely filled grid, but no idea how to navigate thereafter !
I encountered many of the above hurdles and managed to clear most, but not all, of them. But no-one has commented on all the double unches – I thought these were forbidden. Clarification, please, Mr Henderson.
Apart from that, a brilliant puzzle. Thanks to H and HG.
Fabulous puzzle! I got this in three sittings, all except Mas-John which defeated me. My grid did not end up looking as neat as HG’s as my ship has taken a few wrong turns before finally tracking the right course. An image of Australia remained just about visible in the resulting mess.
I am astounded at the cleverness of this puzzle. Gila @18 sums it up with “next level clever”.
Thank you all.