972Unsolved Historical Ciphers
377̅ 444 116̌ 518 733 498 818 · · ·
N°. 16 · Berlyn 31 January 1801
“dat het bureau, waar in zyn Cyffer was, is geforceerd geworden”

Berlin → The Hague · numerical nomenclator · 31 January 1801

Etienne Bourdeaux to Maarten van der Goes, Berlin 1801

Maarten van der Goes
toMaarten van der Goes

Nationaal Archief, 2.01.08, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken 1796–1810, inv. 257 · DECODE R1944 · dispatch no. 16, two pages, about 110 marked groups · catalogue 228

DECODE records no decipherment and gives the subject as unknown. The ministry’s contemporary clear copy survives on the next folio, imaged under a different record, R1946, and was transcribed here. The code groups were not decoded against it, and the key is not identified. The letter reports a cipher compromised at the Russian court.

Daniel Bourdeau · posted · updated

Method: read from existing decipherment · Extent: complete

Summary. R1944 is the Batavian chargé d’affaires Etienne Bourdeaux’s dispatch no. 16 from Berlin, 31 January 1801, set almost entirely in three-digit groups with superposed marks. The authenticated DECODE scans of R1944 show only the cipher. The third image of the neighbouring record R1946 (Bourdeaux, 7 February 1801) is a clear sheet headed N°. 16, dated Berlyn 31 January 1801 and signed “(get.) Bourdeaux”. The archive’s stamped folio numbers run on: 294 on the cipher and 295 on the clear sheet. The clear text is about 90 words against about 110 code groups, which fits a codebook with whole-word entries. It reports that Rosenkrantz, sent away from St Petersburg, says he does not know why; he supposes a servant took and copied his cipher. The Prussian envoy Lusi says more definitely that the desk holding it had been forced. That is why a Mr Schuer was to have carried a new cipher to Petersburg. The code groups have not been aligned to the text, and the key has not been identified.

01 The document

Bourdeaux wrote to Maarten van der Goes, the Batavian Republic’s agent for foreign relations. The two DECODE images of R1944 carry about 110 numerical groups, each with a bar, tick, wave, dot or cross above the figures, then the closing “à bien respect” and his signature. DECODE records the nomenclator as numerical and “likely devised by S. E. Croiset”, the Dutch ministry’s cipher clerk.

Seven lines of three-digit cipher groups with superposed marks; the Rijksarchief stamp and folio 294
R1944, the cipher leaf stamped fol. 294. Image: Nationaal Archief, The Hague, 2.01.08 inv. 257 fol. 294, via DECODE R1944.

02 The clear copy, filed under R1946

The next dispatch in the volume, of 7 February 1801, is DECODE R1946. Its third image is not part of that letter. It is a clear sheet headed “Van den Chargé d’aff. Bourdeaux” and numbered 16, with the date of R1944. It closes “(get.) Bourdeaux”, the geteekend of a ministry copy, and it carries the stamped folio 295, directly after R1944’s 294.

Handwritten Dutch clear text dated Berlyn 31 January 1801, signed (get.) Bourdeaux, stamped folio 295
The clear copy of no. 16, fol. 295. Image: Nationaal Archief, The Hague, 2.01.08 inv. 257 fol. 295, via DECODE R1946 (image 3).

03 The text

N°. 16. Berlyn 31 January 1801.

De Heer van Rosencrantz verzekert de eigentlyke oorzaak van zyn renvoy te ignoreeren. Hy veronderstelt dat zyn Cyffer door middel van een bediende is genomen, en gecopieerd geworden, waar door dan zyne Gevoelens zyn bekend geworden. — Vry positiever meldt Lusy, dat het bureau, waar in zyn Cyffer was, is geforceerd geworden. — Het is om die reden, dat men den Heer Schuer, in N°. 13 gementionneerd, heeft willen naar Petersburg zenden om een nieuw Cyffer over te brengen.

(get.) Bourdeaux

Translation. Mr van Rosencrantz assures us that he does not know the real cause of his dismissal. He supposes that his cipher was taken by a servant and copied, and that his views became known that way. Lusi reports, much more definitely, that the desk in which his cipher was kept had been forced open. That is why they had wanted to send Mr Schuer, mentioned in no. 13, to Petersburg to carry a new cipher.

The people are identified from context, not from print (grade C). Rosencrantz is most likely the Danish diplomat Niels Rosenkrantz, whom Paul I sent away from St Petersburg at the end of 1800. Lusy is Count Spiridon Lusi, the Prussian envoy there. Schuer is not identified.

04 What remains

05 Sources

Notes: R1944/ in the repository.