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This is my second blog of a Filbert puzzle in six days. I am getting on to Filbert’s wavelength a bit more now.
Tuesday is theme day in the Independent cryptic puzzle series and today we have numerous thematic allusions in both the clues and the grid.
The theme is based around the four words spelled out by the unchecked letters in the outside columns of the grid where we can see THE WINE-DARK SEA. This is a phrase used quite often (in Greek) by Homer who features three times in the clues. It is also the title of a book by Patrick O’Brian in his Aubrey-Maturin series. These novels are set during the Napoleonic Wars which explains the many French and Bonaparte references in the clues.
Captain Jack Aubrey also features in the clues. Early in his career he was a midshipman. One of the main ships featured in the novel THE WINE-DARK SEA is HMS Surprise which started life a French corvette.
While I was doing some research on the theme, I came across references to a paper written by former Prime Minister, William Gladstone who hypothesised that Greeks of Homer’s time had difficulty detecting colours, particularly blue which might explain the clue leading to EMPYREAN.
Virtually all the clues have a Homer, French or nautical link (including island, shore, bay, storm, naval ranks, bay, shore, anchor, etc etc)
There is so much thematic material in this puzzle that I have almost certainly missed something. Feel free to add to the thematic references.
There were some excellent clues; ones I liked especially were the ones for GEORDIE, INS AND OUTS and NON-VIOLENT. Filbert has a knack of hiding the definitions very well by using words that are not necessarily in the dictionary definition of the entry
NAPOOED was a new word to me. ANNATTO is frequently found in the grids of barred crosswords so I knew that one.
I don’t think I have got the parsing of CRAFT at 7 down completely right, but I reckon I am on the right lines.
All in all, an excellent crossword. Thank you Filbert.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Drink in article on Turkey is one Homer characterised (6) TROJAN (Homer’s two epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey were set towards the end and just after the TROJAN war, so he characterised several TROJANs in his work) OJ (orange juice; drink – abbreviation in the Oxford Dictionary of English) contained in (in) (TR [International Vehicle Registration for Turkey] + AN [indefinite article]) TR (OJ) AN |
| 5 |
Corvette perhaps departs, led by brave Jack? (4,4) FACE CARD (A Jack is a FACE CARD in each of the four suits in a deck of cards) FACE (to brave) + CAR (a corvette is a model of CAR) manufactured at some time by at least two major companies + D (departs) FACE CAR D |
| 9 |
Bay that has dhow looking for shelter (4) HOWL (to bark or bay) HOWL (hidden word in [has … for shelter] DHOW LOOKING) HOWL |
| 10 |
Iffy messages coming from shore, and received by commander (10) PROPAGANDA (organized spreading of doctrine, true or false information, opinions, etc, especially to bring about change or reform; iffy messages) PROP (shore [up]) + (AND contained in [received by] AGA [Turkish commander]) PROP AG (AND) A |
| 11 |
Midshipman marshalled tide so gently! (4,4,2) EASY DOES IT (slowly and carefully; gently) EASY (reference Midshipman EASY from an 1836 novel by Frederick Marryat [1782 – 1848]) + an anagram of (marshalled) TIDE SO EASY DOES IT* |
| 12 |
A little salt water sailor swallows back in Folkestone (4) TEAR (TEARs that fall from the eye are salty; a little salt water) TAR (sailor) containing (swallows) E (last letter of [back in] FOLKESTONE) T (E) AR |
| 13 |
Northerner suggesting case of Grenache is worth the ultimate sacrifice? (7) GEORDIE (native of Tyneside in the North East of England; northerner) GE (first and last letters of [case of] GRENACHE + OR (linking two options) + DIE (make the ultimate sacrifice) Read as whole GE OR DIE implies ‘that given the choice of a case of Grenache; or ‘death’,then the case is probably worth it. GE OR DIE |
| 14 |
Get off bunk, rolling with ship (6) DEBARK (disembark; leave a ship; get off) BED (bunk) reversed (rolling )+ ARK (large floating vessel; ship) DEB< ARK |
| 16 |
Our lot take the helm, losing heart in gale (6) WESTER (west wind or gale) WE (our tem; our lot) + STEER (take the helm) excluding the middle letter (losing heart) E WE STER |
| 18 |
Knowing the ropes, ran and tied knot (7) TRAINED (knowing how to do something; knowing the ropes) Anagram of (knot) RAN and TIED TRAINED* |
| 20 |
Aware of Bonaparte’s refusal, with island ahead (2,2) IN ON (privy to; aware of) I (island) + NON (French [Napoleon] for ‘no’ [a refusal]) I N ON |
| 22 |
Details of where an anchor might lie mysterious to us (3,3,4) INS AND OUTS (complete details of any matter) IN SAND (where an anchor might be on the sea bed) + an anagram of (mysterious) TO US IN S AND OUTS* |
| 24 |
Pacific ocean finally going purple around noon (3-7) NON-VIOLENT (peaceful; pacific) N (last letter of [finally] OCEAN + ON [going] + (VIOLET [purple] containing [around] N [noon]) N ON VIOLE (N) T |
| 25 |
Description of seaman on board losing time (4) ABLE (reference an ABLE seaman) TABLE (board) exclduing (losing) T (time) ABLE |
| 26 |
Many peer at sea, to see the blue (8) EMPYREAN (the highest heaven, where the pure element of fire was supposed to subsist; the heavens; ‘the blue’ is a term for the sky or heavens) Anagram of (at sea) MANY PEER EMPYREAN* |
| 27 |
No singing rule that contributes to Homer talking (6) OMERTA (the Mafia code of honour requiring silence about criminal activities and stressing the disgrace of informing; no singing [informing] rule) OMERTA (hidden word in [that contributed to] HOMER TALKING) OMERTA |
| Down | |
| 2 |
Port Jack Aubrey’s opening is Iberian wine (5) RIOJA (Spanish wine; Iberian wine) RIO (reference the port city of RIO de Janiero) + JA (initials [opening] of JACK AUBREY) RIO JA |
| 3 |
Very black bit of porridge in vessel that serves the ship (9) JOLLYBOAT (small boat kept hoisted at the stern of a ship, used to ferry crew to and from the boat sometimes with supplies; vessel that serves the ship) JOLLY (informal word for ‘very’) + B (black when describing pencil lead) + OAT (ingredient of [bit of] porridge) JOLLY B OAT |
| 4 |
Dictionary bears only half of Bonaparte’s name, rubbed out in the war (7) NAPOOED (World War 1 term for killing; rubbed out in the war) NAPO (first four letters [half] of NAPOleon Bonaparte’s forename) + OED (Oxford English Dictionary) NAPO OED |
| 5 |
French meet storms, not surprisingly, throughout (4,4,2,5) FROM STEM TO STERN (throughout) FR (French) + an anagram of (surprisingly)a MEET STORMS NOT FR OM STEM TO STERN* |
| 6 |
Did cruise end in Antarctica, having priced to include that? (7) COASTED (proceeded with minimum effort; cruised) COSTED (priced) containing (include) A (last letter of [end in) ANTARCTICA) CO (A) STED |
| 7 |
Vessel’s brace that starts creaking 5D (5) CRAFT (vessel) CR (first two letters of [brace hat starts] CREAKING) + AFT (STERN, last word in the entry at 5 down [FROM STEM TO STERN) – I am not sure how the FROM STEM bit of 5 down applies to this clue) CR AFT |
| 8 |
Flaming above that might make head drier (3-6) RED-HAIRED (flaming above [on the head]) Anagram of (might make) HEAD DRIER RED-HAIRED* |
| 13 |
Callow raised anchor where Callow might have rested (9) GREENROOM (in a theatre, a room for actors to relax; Simon Callow [born 1949] is an actor ) GREEN (inexperienced; callow) + MOOR (anchor) reversed (raised; down entry) GREEN ROOM< |
| 15 |
Lad stows aboard Victory with time for quayside farewell (3,6) BON VOYAGE (may you have a good journey; farewell to someone travelling on a ship; quayside farewell) BOY (lad) containing (stows) (ON [aboard] + V [victory], as in VE day, Victory in Europe day) + AGE (time) B (ON V) OY AGE |
| 17 |
Underground stock disposed Homer to drink fizz regularly (7) RHIZOME (a rootstock, an underground stem producing roots and leafy shoots) Anagram of (disposed) HOMER containing (to drink) IZ (letters 2 and 4 [regularly] of FIZZ) RH (IZ) OME* |
| 19 |
Sand having removed coating, bronze turned to an orange colour (7) ANNATTO (bright orange colouring matter) AN (letters remaining in SAND when the first and last letters [outer coating] are removed) + TAN (bronze) reversed (turned) + TO AN NAT< TO |
| 21 |
Labourer against boarding ships (5) NAVVY (labourer) V (versus; against) contained in (boarding) NAVY (ships) NA (V) VY or NAV (V) Y |
| 23 |
Sailor’s head, not one available for a boarder? (2,3) TO LET (available for someone seeking lodgings [boarder] to rent) TOILET (in maritime slang,the head is the TOILET) excluding (not) I (Roman numeral for one) I TO LET |
In 7D I took aft as meaning ‘toward the stern’ as in I’m going from stem to stern could be said as I’m going aft.
Thanks Duncan and Filbert.
Blah@1
That sounds plausible.
Thanks, Filbert and duncanshiell!
Had 7d as Blah. Missed WESTER though. Drat!
I read the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey-Maturin books (admittedly many years ago) so could identify that part of the theme and the Nina. Thanks for explaining CRAFT which I just couldn’t work out. Duncan and Blah @1’s parsing looks right. Didn’t know EMPYREAN but it wasn’t too difficult as an anagram with the crossers, just remembered NAPOOED and had forgotten ANNATTO which had to go in from the not obvious wordplay.
Favourite was the misleading automotive (not nautical) ‘Corvette’ as part of the wordplay for FACE CARD.
Thanks to Duncan and the prolific Filbert
Same parsing of 7d as Blah. This was the toughest Filbert for a while for me, though I thoroughly enjoyed the surface theme and it was nice to see one that, whilst all-pervading, did not lead to any particularly forced clues. I’ve read the Aubrey (and the Hornblower) collections on a couple of occasions (both enjoyable, though I’d put the latter a notch ahead of the fomer) though I cannot pretend to have read Homer. So plenty of the references made sense. Even Midshipman Easy.
FACE CARD, IN ON, INS AND OUTS, EMPYREAN, FROM STEM TO STERN, BON VOYAGE, RHIZOME, TO LET and NAVVY were my favourites. I’m not a huge fan of ‘…ran and tied knot’ in TRAINED but I have committed far worse sins than that!
Thanks Filbert
Duncan, I suspect Jack = J in the parsing of RIOJA as Filbert has used the singular ‘opening’ in the clue. I was surprised to discover that GREENROOM is one word
Excellent but I was clean bowled on CRAFT and missed the nina.
Half a NAPO[leon], plus the definitive dictionary, the OED gave me a Jorum ©Eileen MMXXIII today.
I love the etymology of it – @https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/napoo#English
‘World War I British and ANZAC army slang, probably a corruption of French “il n?y a plus” (“there is no more”).’
Thanks F@d
[il n’y a plus] [F&d]
2 further meanings of DEBARK:
To remove the bark from a LOG &
To remove the bark from a DOG
Crackng stuff, Filbert. I made heavy weather of Propaganda and Craft, but eventually had them parsed as Duncan and Blah, respectively. Loved the theming, but managed to miss the Nina. Favourites Empyrean, Ins and outs & Omerta.
The “Greeks couldn’t distinguish/didn’t have words for some colours” myth has been thoroughly debunked by Peter Gainsford:
https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2020/05/ancient-greek-colours.html
Thanks S & B!
Many thanks to Duncan for the meticulous blog and everyone for comments.
The wine-dark sea was a computer-generated suggestion for a 3,4,4,3 phrase to fit the grid. I had a lovely time reading about Homer, ships, colours and linguistics over Christmas. The suggestion that Greeks were colour-blind or couldn’t describe blue things because of Homer’s description of the sea is funny. For one thing, describing sea as blue in a poem would be a bit naff. For another, as any fule who’s been to Weston super Mare or Great Yarmouth kno, the sea can be not blue.
In the link Mev’s posted there’s another link to an article on the bronze sky. An idea I came across for the use of bronze not mentioned in that article, but that I liked, is that bronze is in fact blue after exposure. That’s why the clue for ANNATTO is written that way.
The Aubrey-Maturin theme was fairly obvious from the start, but not having read the whole series it wasn’t till we saw the nina and googled WINE-DARK SEA that the homeric connection became obvious. What a tour de force for a themed crossword!
Thanks, Filbert and Duncan.