BRITAIN: The British High Court judge at the centre of the Great Da Vinci Code Judgment Mystery revealed all yesterday.
Mr Justice Peter Smith released a press statement explaining how he constructed the hidden message in his ruling over The Da Vinci Code case.
And far from being an arcane guide in the quest for the Holy Grail, it turned out to be a tribute to the judge's great hero - Admiral John "Jackie" Fisher.
The 53-year-old judge, whose recreations include military history, said the code took him 40 minutes to devise and 40 minutes to insert in the 71-page judgment which ruled that Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, had not copied from The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, as alleged by the authors.
He said he had inserted the code for his own amusement. After a hint from the judge that the Fibonacci Sequence should be applied to the letters, the code has been solved to read: "Smithy Code Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought."
The admiral revolutionised sea warfare by introducing the first modern battleship, HMS Dreadnought.
In his press statement, headed "Da Vinci Code hints", he said: "It is revealed by spotting that certain random letters appear to be different in form from the majority of the text.
"Applying that to the judgment reveals the following highlighted letters: 'smithycodejaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzvz' (the first part reveals there is a message)."
The code could be cracked by using the Fibonacci Sequence: "The correct sequence up to 21 is: 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21. The code is created by letter substitution . . . A message ought then be revealed (there is a deliberate typo to create further confusion).