From tea to ewe: How to crack GCHQ puzzle
LATERAL thinking, languages and a serviceable knowledge of the phonetic alphabet are all needed to crack GCHQ’S latest puzzle.
Britain’s security intelligence agencies have a long history of cryptography and encryption, and new recruits are now being scouted on Linkedin for the first time.
A single piece of artwork was designed by GCHQ in collaboration with the Manchester-based artist Justin Eagleton and contains 13 clues which, when gathered, spell the hidden message: “Journey to GCHQ.” It features signposts to Bude, Scarborough, Manchester and Cheltenham – all places with GCHQ bases – as well as a variety of items, including a row of buildings, cars, a sheep and a woman playing golf.
Yesterday, GCHQ published the solution to 13 clues, each corresponding to a letter and hidden in the picture.
The phonetic alphabet, beloved by military and spies alike, accounts for five answers, with Shakespeare’s starcrossed lovers also helping find two of them. Romeo (R) and Juliet (J) are in the photo alongside hotel (H), golf (G) and November (N). A 30-day month in 2024 starting on a Friday betrays November while the “vacancies” signs is the clue for hotel.
Other languages, however, are also useful. Braille, for example, provides one answer. A television being haphazardly carried by a helicopter shows five red dots in a reverse-c pattern. The pattern appears to be on a British Bombe machine, a likely nod to Alan Turing, who floats in the sky like an ethereal cryptological deity, and in Braille the arrangement is the letter Y.
There are two other forms of non-verbal communication hidden in the artwork. One is sign language, and the other is Morse code. There are four hands on the top left of the image, and the three on the far left, including one sporting a rainbow band, are red herrings. The fourth, however, is a right index finger pointing to the left index finger, British Sign Language for E.
Morse code can be applied to the three white dashes on the road, which translates to the letter O. The bizarre Sherlock Holmes-esque character is another distraction likely designed to confuse, and is of no use except to point out that the road surface markings may be of interest. Communication, then, accounts for eight of the 13 clues.
Lateral thinking is a necessary trait for a spy and is also a critical component of this puzzle. A sheep in the road, for example, is hornless and therefore most likely female: a ewe (U) is another clue.
The traffic jam at the red lights is also deliberate, and a jam, or line, is also called a queue (Q). The beach, sandcastles and beach shop are of no use, but the water at the bottom of the image is not an ocean or river but the sea (C).
The three lateral thinking answers take the tally to 11, and this can be bumped to 12 if lateral thinking is combined with language skills and applied to the enormous water bottle. The bottle, which is on its side and pouring water into the sea in the bottom right hand corner of the image, also has a French flag on it – or “eau” (O)?
The last of the baker’s dozen clues was hidden in plain sight: next to the beach shop is a little cafe, and on its window is perhaps the most British of all images and stereotypes: a cup of tea. T is the 13th letter and completes the jumble: E, Y, R, J, O, G, H, N, U, Q, C, O and T.
A moment to unscramble the recruitment gimmick’s anagram and the solution becomes clear: “Journey to GCHQ”.
Anne Keast-butler, GCHQ’S director, said the organisation wants to recruit “people with different backgrounds, different experience, different insights, different knowledge ... creating a team where all of us can play our part”.