The Pirate Ship

The brig Black Gannet · a foggy cove · the change of the watch · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

The brig Black Gannet lies at anchor in a foggy cove, waiting for the tide. At the change of the watch the captain, Vasco, is found dead on the bed of his cabin. Eight people were aboard besides him: three officers, four crew and the merchant they had captured a week before. One of them is the killer. Read every statement, find everyone’s square on the deck plan and unmask the murderer – alone with Vasco in the Captain’s Cabin.

Rules

1. Every part of the ship was occupied: each of the six areas held at least one person.
2. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
3. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (cannons, barrels, crates, the mast, the wheel…) cannot be occupied; the bed, the stool and the hammocks can.
4. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row south of her was a man” = the person in the row directly below is a man, in any column.
5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Augustus (first mate): He was on the Quarterdeck.
• Belinda (quartermaster): She was lying in a hammock.
• Cornelius (navigator): He was beside the coil of rope.
• Dolores (bosun): She was on the Main Deck.
• Ezra (cook): Exactly one row north of him was a woman.
• Frances (gunner): She was beside a cannon.
• Gideon (cabin boy): There was a woman in his area.
• Hester (captured merchant): Exactly one row south of her was a man.
• Vasco (captain): The victim. He was found on the bed of the Captain’s Cabin – alone with the murderer.

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