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Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships Hints
How do I solve the sundial puzzle?
1 of 6: Your goal here is to set the sundials so they give the date the Atocha sank. as George told you --
2 of 6: -- that was September 6, 1622, which is 6-9-1622. So you want to set the sundials to 691622, from left to right. Read to the end of the hint for step-by-step directions to do this.
3 of 6: You might think you could just turn the dials to those numbers and have done, but it's not as easy as that -- when you turn one dial, one or more of the other dials also turns. (Nancy comes across this kind of puzzle at least once in almost every case she solves, oddly.)
4 of 6: The strategy that works the best with puzzles like this is to first figure out which dials turn which dials. Start by setting the dial that turns the most other dials, then do the one that sets the next most, and so on, ending with any dials that don't affect any other dials at all.
5 of 6: For example, in the junior version of this puzzle, A1 (the first letter) changes itself and A2 (the last letter); T changes only itself; O changes A1 and H; C changes T and H; H changes A2; and A2 changes T. So you probably want to start by setting the O and end with T. See?
6 of 6: If you don't see, read on for one way to get the dials correctly set. But remember, this won't work until George tells you the date the Atocha sank.
