gjb
Sr. Member
- #1
Thread Owner
Like so many potential clues as to what may have taken place on Oak Island, the La Formule cipher is generally ignored, being considered fake, which is to say that nobody knows for sure whether it is but this view is widely-held simply because it’s a safe thing to say. It seems not to matter that being safe may equate to being wrong.
The upshot is that nobody is prepared to consider what the person offering La Formule, be they faker or depositor, was intending to convey and how they went about presenting the information. However, this is part of Oak Island lore, and deserves to be investigated thoroughly even should it be fake.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that we’re not being presented here with an original document. It’s a copy, or purports to be. This means that there would have been an original cipher document and, no doubt, an original plaintext such as.
HALTE NE TERRER PAS CREUSER A
QUARANTE PIED AVEC A ANGLE QUARAN
TE CINQ DEGRE LA HAMPE A CINQ CENT
VINGT DEUS PIED A VOUS ENTRE LE C
ORREIDOR A UN MIL SOISSANTE CINQ PIED
ATTEINTE LA CHAMBRE
However, the way the cipher is laid out may provide a clue as to how the plaintext might have looked originally since two of the lines (the 2nd and 4th) end in words that are truncated and continue on the following line. However, we also have the content of the plaintext to consider. The gist appears to be:
"[Go a 'certain distance' and] Stop. Don’t actually dig, but were you to do so to a depth of 40 feet at 45 degrees this would end up 522 feet from the chamber entrance. The overall distance to the treasure from the start point is 1065 feet."
I imagine that the last sentence may well belong at the beginning. We could therefore work out roughly what the ‘certain distance’ is by calculation, that is: 1065 feet - 522 - 40 = 503 feet. This would include the distance between the chamber’s entrance and the assumed treasure, which I’m just guessing here might be 8 feet. Thus, deducting this might provide: 503 feet - 8 = 495 feet or 30 rods.
Were this the case, there would presumably be a line missing from the top of the cipher and possibly the first word of the next line before ‘stop’. I’m suggesting that the following may have been close to how the plaintext read. Note that the lines become much the same length when written.
From this one might deduce that the faker or depositor may have been suggesting that the ‘corridor’ likely starts in the swamp and ends in the high ground northeast of the Money Pit. The main takeaway would be that the treasure is absolutely not in the Money Pit.
My feeling is that we may actually be able to figure out where the faker or depositor is suggesting we should look, irrespective of whether or not there was actually a deposit. Such may have been planned but was never put into operation.
The ‘corridor’, which may simply be a line with a right-angled dog-leg and not actually a tunnel (a good reason not to dig), would appear to begin in the swamp some 374 feet southwards from both the Head Stone and Cone D of Nolan’s Cross and would thus start about 190 feet southeast of the Eye of the Swamp which would lie some 60 rods (990 feet) from the Money Pit.
However, we don’t know where the Money Pit was located, but the end spot could be determined from one of the two drilled rocks, except that these are no longer in situ. The distance and bearing from either of the two stone triangles might also be calculated except that they’ve been destroyed as well.
Thus, it’s a sad fact that the people professing most to want to locate the treasure may have been ignoring the clues and destroying the ground markers that were provided in order to find it! Fortunately, there are other ways to locate the spot with accuracy should anybody care to test the suggestion posted here.
My current thought, based on La Formule cipher, is that the planned location of the deposit may lie 160.6 feet east of the Money Pit and 293.1 feet north and would thus be 334.2 feet from it.
The upshot is that nobody is prepared to consider what the person offering La Formule, be they faker or depositor, was intending to convey and how they went about presenting the information. However, this is part of Oak Island lore, and deserves to be investigated thoroughly even should it be fake.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that we’re not being presented here with an original document. It’s a copy, or purports to be. This means that there would have been an original cipher document and, no doubt, an original plaintext such as.
HALTE NE TERRER PAS CREUSER A
QUARANTE PIED AVEC A ANGLE QUARAN
TE CINQ DEGRE LA HAMPE A CINQ CENT
VINGT DEUS PIED A VOUS ENTRE LE C
ORREIDOR A UN MIL SOISSANTE CINQ PIED
ATTEINTE LA CHAMBRE
However, the way the cipher is laid out may provide a clue as to how the plaintext might have looked originally since two of the lines (the 2nd and 4th) end in words that are truncated and continue on the following line. However, we also have the content of the plaintext to consider. The gist appears to be:
"[Go a 'certain distance' and] Stop. Don’t actually dig, but were you to do so to a depth of 40 feet at 45 degrees this would end up 522 feet from the chamber entrance. The overall distance to the treasure from the start point is 1065 feet."
I imagine that the last sentence may well belong at the beginning. We could therefore work out roughly what the ‘certain distance’ is by calculation, that is: 1065 feet - 522 - 40 = 503 feet. This would include the distance between the chamber’s entrance and the assumed treasure, which I’m just guessing here might be 8 feet. Thus, deducting this might provide: 503 feet - 8 = 495 feet or 30 rods.
Were this the case, there would presumably be a line missing from the top of the cipher and possibly the first word of the next line before ‘stop’. I’m suggesting that the following may have been close to how the plaintext read. Note that the lines become much the same length when written.
From this one might deduce that the faker or depositor may have been suggesting that the ‘corridor’ likely starts in the swamp and ends in the high ground northeast of the Money Pit. The main takeaway would be that the treasure is absolutely not in the Money Pit.
My feeling is that we may actually be able to figure out where the faker or depositor is suggesting we should look, irrespective of whether or not there was actually a deposit. Such may have been planned but was never put into operation.
The ‘corridor’, which may simply be a line with a right-angled dog-leg and not actually a tunnel (a good reason not to dig), would appear to begin in the swamp some 374 feet southwards from both the Head Stone and Cone D of Nolan’s Cross and would thus start about 190 feet southeast of the Eye of the Swamp which would lie some 60 rods (990 feet) from the Money Pit.
However, we don’t know where the Money Pit was located, but the end spot could be determined from one of the two drilled rocks, except that these are no longer in situ. The distance and bearing from either of the two stone triangles might also be calculated except that they’ve been destroyed as well.
Thus, it’s a sad fact that the people professing most to want to locate the treasure may have been ignoring the clues and destroying the ground markers that were provided in order to find it! Fortunately, there are other ways to locate the spot with accuracy should anybody care to test the suggestion posted here.
My current thought, based on La Formule cipher, is that the planned location of the deposit may lie 160.6 feet east of the Money Pit and 293.1 feet north and would thus be 334.2 feet from it.
Last edited:
