Bringing this around again because I'd like to try and get closer to a conclusion.
This is kind of a long story so I'm going to dump the facts as they were discussed on /sci/ a little over 3 years ago. As far as I know, no one has really done any more work on this mystery since then. It got 2 threads on /sci/ back in 2013 and we figured out as much as we could. Then I posted it on /x/ last year. They were interested, but not particularly helpful or willing to put in any extra effort into solving the mystery. Plus it's not really on topic over there.
Anyway, what you're looking at is a scrap of paper that an anon found behind the paper backing of a mirror he bought at auction. There is seemingly a code and some other symbols written on it. On /sci/, we decoded the message as best we could and obtained the message. I'm pretty confident that the resulting message we got and the location are correct, however, I'd like to know more about what it could possibly mean, any estimate to the age, and possibly who could have written the message.
I haven't been sure where to post this. The people on /sci/ seemed to have little interest in doing anything with it after we cracked the code, and none of them really knew much about this part of the world or history in general. /pol/ is a little bit crazy and I doubt they'd be interested, and /x/ wasn't that interested either. I feel like you guys would probably have the best chance of figuring this out, and it's really made me curious for a while now. My major isn't history or anything and I never really had time to sit down and do research.
I'm assuming /his/ is a bit of a slow board so I'll post a bit of background info first and some pictures from the thread (unfortunately, I only save the original note picture, none of the mirror). The photos of the mirror are going to be thumbnails, but they should give you an idea of what we're working with.
>>1318173
The first order of business was deciphering the text. Since it was hidden in a mirror, an anon had the brilliant idea that the numbers were actually supposed to be mirrored. Once this was done, the little arrow shown going over 6 spaces was guessed to be indicative of a simple Caesar cipher. Shortly afterwards, this message was posted.
I've got a summary of some other facts which I'll post at the end of this dump, but for the most part this message seems correct, considering the other clues on the note which I'll post next.
>>1318173
It's a formulaic fugue, dumbass. Of course /x/ can't figure it out, because fucking aliens, and /sci/ probably completely overlooked the simplicity of the answer.
>>1318185
Next up, the letters and numbers underneath the arrow. These were solved in a similar manner, although they were not mirrored. So just a simple Caesar cipher and we got Latitude and Longitude coordinates. I'm not exactly sure why they aren't mirrored, but that's the only way they line up reasonably close with any sort of landmass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbxFi3-UO4
>>1318193
The two drawings in the middle left of the page were thought to be sketches of a map. The drawing on the right was guessed to be a "zoomed out" version while the drawing on the right was thought to be a close-up version. Combined with the Lat/Long coordinates, this was what we found.
>>1318206
And this is the guess for the figure on the right, notice it seems to match with the clues as well as the coordinates. No one was sure what the significance of the triangle or dot were on the drawn map. Is that a common method for marking locations in maps? Does it have any sort of meaning?
>>1318214
And finally here are some miscellaneous facts I collected about the OP and the thread. The OP was very interested and contacted the auction house in Sweden where he bought the mirror. Ultimately he tracked down a partial list of owners, with the last one being a senile woman who lived in England. He couldn't get any information out of her and that's about where the trail dropped off.
If you search the picture of the note, you should be able to find the thread that was originally posted on /sci/, but it doesn't have any more info than what's here. The OP seemed sincere, so I don't think that it's all fake, but you never know I guess. It'd be cool if we could unravel this mystery a little bit more, but I don't even know where to start.
Here, dude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnb7EqfykF4
Mystery solved. It's the remedial notes for a JS Bach work on a crank organ.
Do we have any details as to the age of the mirror or what it came with?
My first thought is espionage.
>>1318308
Unfortunately, I didn't think to save images of the mirror. Here's a thumbnail which may or may not help. The thread was posted on April of 2013, here's a link to an archive of the original.
https://warosu.org/sci/thread/5684052#p5689712
But it seems like the best you'll get are thumbnails of the mirror. The OP was also not sure exactly how old it was.
>>1318185
In case you don't know the French text is:
The north coast
The third cap
Westwards
The east coast
With a few spelling mistakes
The J.B. could be Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Who aquired the islands for the french in 1664. Apparently there was a siege by the British that went to shit when they got hammered by a cyclone. In 1666.
A triangle is usually crude depiction of a mountain top or significant hilltop.
>>1318732
Could that roughly translate to the third hilltop on the northcoast then slight west of the east coast?
>>1318732
Interesting, now from what I could find, it seems like they speak some sort of variation of French on those Islands, something like Creole or whatever. Do the spelling mistakes look more like maybe it's a form of informal French, or like maybe the author just made some errors? I don't know that much about the differences.
>>1318810
I didn't think it would be quite that old, but it's possible. It would be weird if the initials weren't coded, though I couldn't figure them out even when they were adjusted for the cipher. Then again, the lat/long coordinates were coded but not mirrored, so maybe this note was compiled at different points, or perhaps different parts were added by different people. The penmanship seems to be the same but I'm no handwriting expert.
Additionally, maybe looking at the handwriting could help us date the note. It's obviously not a ballpoint pen or anything, but is it a fountain pen? A quill? Is the writing style unique in any way?
You all might notice that in the top left, there's some scratching. That's actually bleedthrough from the back where the author wrote a portion of the same code and then scratched it out and started over on the back. To me, that's interesting because it seems to imply he/she didn't want to waste paper, or possible didn't have any extra paper to spare.
Ok here is what I got. First a map of the whole islands.
Then I tried to find 3 hilltops in some sort of line northward.
Northern coast of last pic
I think what you are looking for is just west of pointe de vu.
>>1318854
My guess is it was a battle plan hastily written as to where some troops were to set up a defensive post. The initials wouldnt be coded as to quickly know it was legit. Or could be for the landing of supplies. Nothing terribly secret but most likely in code out of formality
If it were something more important than just a encampent. Say burying wealth in the face of an oncoming invasion. The directions would be less vague. Not just 3rd hill north coast west of east coast.
>>1318883
That theory was brought up before. I suppose it's as reasonable as any, but I'm wondering if the strength of the code is high enough for that use. Honestly it's not a very tough code, and all the clues you need to solve it are on the paper. It seems pretty much anyone who could read and write would be able to solve it relatively easily. Of course, I think the time period it was written in would also affect how easy the code was to break.
If it was just for supplies, why hide or encode the note at all? Not saying I know for sure what it was, but it seems odd to encode a note like that, and not include what supplies should be delivered.
Another issue is that the original OP on /sci/ never mentioned there being any sort of indication on the mirror that there was something hidden inside. So it seems like whoever the note was inteded for would've had to have know it would be in the mirror. It's possible any clues on the mirrors might have been erased by age, but it seems like if the note survived intact, that any writing on the mirror should be a little bit legible still as well.
One thing I think I forgot to mention is that in my research, I found that there was another fort in the area of Iles de Saintes.
>>1318859
On this map there's a little island to the north of the main group of islands called "Iles a Cabrit". That island had a fort on it known as "Fort Josephine".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Elet_%C3%A0_Cabrit
Named after this woman, I believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9phine_de_Beauharnais
I'm not sure if that meant anything, but it could possibly be related to the "J.B." written on the note.
http://www.ciphermysteries.com
Send it to the guy who runs this website. Although as you've already solved it, he may not care. But worth a shot
>>1322130
Might be worth looking into. I was considering taking it to a history professor at my uni, but I'm not sure I have enough info to make it seem worth pursuing. Not only that, but I'd like to give the guy who found it some credit and he seems to have disappeared, or at least never really shown interest in solving the mystery to a greater extent than we have so far.
