This week, the image of three young people at the helm of a moving ship, desperately trying to emigrate to the Canary Islands from Nigeria after 11 days at sea, shocked the world and begged a single question: how did they survive? such a long, cruel and dangerous journey?

The answer lies in a few factors. But one thing above all: happiness.

In an insane crossing of this nature, exposed to the elements of nature at sea (waves, wind, humidity, cold, etc.), the chances of survival are minimal if not nonexistent depending on the weather conditions during the crossing.

Despite this, the three survived, although they arrived in the Canary Islands very weak and dehydrated and one of them remains in the hospital.

But how did they pull off such a feat?

above the rudder

First of all, it must be clarified that the three Nigerians did not sail exactly at the helm throughout the voyage, as can be seen in the photo that has gone around the world, but in the “hole” that exists above it, called the rudder box a partially enclosed cabin that houses the shaft that moves the equipment.

It was there all the time, crouched, as the height of said box is usually less than five feet (less still on smaller ships like the oil tanker Althini II, with which they were embarked clandestinely in the port of Lagos, the capital of Nigeria), that the three of them spent most of the trip mainly at night to rest a little albeit in a very critical situation, because the space in the rudder box is narrow, unhealthy and very dangerous.

Image: Sea rescue in Spain

“Inverted Water Tank”

“A ship’s rudder box is like an inverted water tank,” explains practical Fabio Fontes, the elder at the port of Santos who has been ferrying ships to and from the country’s largest port for over 40 years.

“It’s partially open at the bottom to allow passage for the rudder stock, which is about the diameter of a rod, but is hermetically sealed at the top, forming a kind of box with a hole in the bottom. It is used for access by maintenance teams when they are checking the operation of the rudder,” explains Fontes.

“The Nigerians found shelter there. Not on top of the rudder as the photo suggests. Nevertheless, it is a hideous situation in terms of safety and comfort,” says the practitioner, who, despite his experience of more than four decades On ships, was also impressed by the image of the three young men sitting at the helm of a moving oil tanker.

The photo was taken by Orlando Ramos Alayón, captain of the Salvamar Nunk, a Coast Guard boat that rescued them.

Image: Sea rescue in Spain

If they fell into the sea, they would die.

According to Fontes, the rudder of a ship of this type, although gigantic in size and weighing around 30 tons, usually takes less than 30 seconds to make the full sidetoside movement to steer the ship.

When this happened while underway without warning to them the Nigerians had to be quick and take cover in the box or hold on to the rudder (which isn’t easy as it’s a nonmanufactured piece of equipment to have someone on top) to avoid being thrown into the water.

If that happened falling into the water while the ship was moving it would mean certain death from exhaustion and subsequent drowning.

If none of them survived, no one would know of the three young people’s deaths because they were traveling as stowaways.

would they lie

On Friday, the three young Nigerians, aged between 23 and 27, whose names have not yet been released, made their first statement to the Canary Islands Police.

In it, they said that just before leaving Lagos port, they climbed into the helm of the ship with the help of a man in a small boat who would have been willing to help them.

But police suspect they may have “contracted” the trip to groups that specialize in bringing immigrants to Europe illegally, because there were two crucial points for a successful crossing: The ship had to go from Nigeria to the Canary Islands Islands go, European area closest to Africa so the voyage doesn’t become too long, and it needs to be lightly loaded so the rudder box doesn’t get submerged, which happens when a ship is loaded to the waterline of the hull.

“If more cargo entered the port or the ship changed course, they would die,” guarantees the experienced pilot at the port of Santos.

Only a high degree of desperation would cause someone to embark like that,” the specialist concluded.

They lost some of the water they had

In their testimony, the young people also said that each carried a backpack of groceries — biscuits, basically — on their backs, but that one of the backpacks fell into the sea as they climbed onto the wheel, and they lost much of the water they had for travel.

This made them thirsty, they even drank some sea water and were very dehydrated when they were found, as salt water dries out the organism even more.

other torments

In addition to hunger, thirst and total malaise, the three Nigerians endured other torments during the ordeal that lasted more than a dozen days.

One of them was the cold because they also spent most of their time wet.

“However, when the ship is empty, the rudder box is a reasonably protected place because it is above the water, the sea is constantly lapping and it is impossible to stay completely dry,” explains pilot Fabio Fontes. “And the human body quickly loses temperature when wet,” he guarantees.

When they were rescued, in addition to weakness and dehydration, the three Nigerians also suffered from hypothermia, which is the condition in which the human body loses more temperature than it can generate due to prolonged exposure to cold.

barnacles

Another torment was barnacles, sea creatures that stick to the submerged surfaces of ships and become real razors.

On ships, barnacles accumulate in abundance on all parts that are in direct contact with the sea, especially submerged ones such as rudders.

During the entire journey, the three suffered painful cuts and bruises caused by the barnacles on the rudder.

Waves could wash them into the sea

In addition, helm stations are plagued by the intense noise from proximity to the ship’s engine and the constant vibration of the rudder, making a good night’s sleep impossible in addition to the lack of space, they sleep three people as they are typically around 1.50 x 1.50 measure, not counting the thickness of the axis it crosses.

And there was still the danger always latent that a wave during the crossing would completely cover the rudder, inundating the box and tearing it out to sea which the Nigerians were very fortunate to avoid.

Others had already done so.

Although chilling, it wasn’t the first time this type of suicidal crossing had been carried out on the increasingly busy migratory route between Africa and the Canary Islands, which, as part of Spain, have been transformed into a gateway of sorts to Europe by African immigrants.

In the last two years alone, five other Nigerians have done the same, also at the helm of two different ships. And they survived too, spurring the group spotted this week to copy them.

Can you stay in Spain?

Sensitized by the struggles and suffering of the three young Nigerians, human rights NGOs are now fighting for a legal right to stay in Spain, which at least initially works.

Two of the three Nigerians who should have been returned to the ship and deported from the Canary Islands under Spanish immigration laws have applied for asylum and are staying on the islands, at least for the time being including the third, still in hospital.

The hope is that they can get permission from Spain to stay in Europe, the group’s main objective as they embark on this desperate journey of nearly 4,500 kilometers on the open sea at the helm of a moving ship.

If that happens, the story of three brave Nigerian migrants will finally have a happy ending after so much suffering.

A stowaway who did well

But it won’t be the first time that stowaways hiding aboard ships have been rewarded instead of penalized.

One of the most famous cases occurred almost a century ago, in September 1928, and involved a 17yearold American boy named Billy Gawronski.

An unconditional admirer of the famous American explorer Richard Byrd, one of the pioneers in Antarctica, Billy had no doubts: when he learned that the idol’s boat was anchored in his city’s harbor, he tried three times to break into it in in all of them he was discovered and arrested.

But, learning of the boy’s stubbornness, Byrd sent for him and after a long conversation was convinced by Billy himself to have him as a crew member on his boat, which would then embark on another expedition to Antarctica.

Not only did Billy embark on this reckless voyage as a volunteer seaman, years later he became one of America’s most famous polar voyage captains click here to read this interesting story.

The boy who wanted to go into a frenzy knew very well what he wanted.

Also the three young Nigerians who took the helm of a ship.

But they suffered terror in pursuit.

Reading this I said to myself: “Well no, it can’t be, not in the situation they are in, not with such a small number of Francophones that they choose, it’s impossible, they don’t have it done dare! »

Well, they dared.

The PLQ said that François Legault disrespected Quebec’s English-speaking community because he did not say a word in English during his inaugural address.

THE EARTH CALLS THE PLQ

A few years ago I went down the Red River in an inflatable canoe.

I was thrown overboard while crossing rapids.

Panicked (I hate having my head under water) and disoriented somehow, I tried to get back up to the surface.

To realize – after what felt like an eternity – that I was scratching the bottom of the river!

I didn’t rise, I fell!

I’ve never been so scared in my life, I was sure I was going to drown…

Well, that’s exactly what the PLQ does.

Instead of getting out of the hole it buried itself in a few years ago by becoming the Anglos’ official mouthpiece, the PLQ decided to sink even deeper!

To put himself even more in the corner and regret the fact that the Prime Minister of Quebec did not speak to the Anglos in their language!

While there is only one official language in Quebec, French!

And that all indicators show that French is in decline!

No, but… you must be completely separated!

Looks like the Apollo 13 crew!

A PARTY IN LOSS

We figured that interim leader Marc Tanguay would allow the distressed PLQ to find the north.

Well no!

The boat keeps turning in circles in the Lac des Deux-Montagnes!

Instead of saying “Cap sur les francophones!” » Marc Tanguay decided to put on his best Elvis Gratton costume and sing Are You Lonesome Tonight. to the Anglos of the West Island!

It’s Legault laughing in his beard.

The liberals fell head over heels into the clumsy trap he set for them!

Not even damned to see the Prime Minister had put a big green carpet on a hole, no they thought it was real grass and they walked on it and chanted ‘Scandalous! Disrespectful! In English please! »

And now that they are at the bottom of the hole, they turn to the chief and ask him: “Now, chief, what do we do?” And now, boss, what do we do? »

100% BILINGUAL!

Shouldn’t English speakers be bilingual?

Well, if they’re bilingual, as Radio-Canada and La Presse keep telling us, they all understood Legault’s speech, right?

It doesn’t need to be translated!

As Pauline Marois said: “Don’t worry! »

Any Cryptography fan knows the story of how British intelligence recruited ordinary citizens through puzzles in the Daily Telegraph newspaper in the middle of World War II. For years these unique cryptanalysts battled German ciphers in the shacks of the Government Code and Cipher School in Bletchley Park.

I couldn’t help but think about it when Bernardo Marín asked me to coordinate the launch of a series of cryptographic problems for EL PAÍS to challenge readers’ ingenuity. With the advent of new communications technologies, the need for cryptography experts is no less pressing today than it was in Bletchley’s day. Far from recruiting anyone, our goal was to pose a conundrum while spreading the word: to explain some concepts related to modern cryptography in an accessible way. Several enthusiastic experts came to their senses and designed their challenges based on encrypted messages in various formats, imperfect summaries, cryptocurrencies, secrets in pieces, strategies for calculating odds and even a zero-knowledge proof with poker cards.

Without meaning to, we formed a small virtual crew of readers who took on the ten challenges over the course of almost five months. Some have sent us their ideas, shamelessly shared their frustrations, and occasionally pointed out our mistakes and inaccuracies. The replies received in our email account showed wide variation in style, education and prior knowledge of cryptography. Surprisingly, this diversity was not so when it came to gender. Four of the ten challenges were submitted by women, but the vast majority of responses and comments received were from men. That doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t participate in the challenges, but it does mean they didn’t share their solutions as widely and interacted with the community of readers.

More information

For those of us educated in the pre-inclusive language era, cryptanalysis is written in the feminine form. Traditionally, any cryptographic scheme or protocol was created involving specific legitimate users (Alice, Bob, Charlie…) faced with the adversary action of an intruder (usually named Eve or Tracy). Although the choice of these fictitious names mostly refers to English terms (Eve from eavesdropper, the one who spiones, Tracy from traffic analyst, the one who analyzes communication traffic), other justifications are also possible. I choose to think that “Eva” represents some sort of romantic heroine, using mathematical and computational tools (weapons far more noble and effective than those reserved for male combatants) in the worst of conflicts. Hence my uneasiness to see that Eva was almost always him in our cryptographic challenges.

We end this epilogue by thanking all the teachers who, with their dedication and ingenuity, designed the challenges; to our illustrator Bel Martín, who endowed the challenges with an amazing graphic personality; and especially to the followers of this section for their loyalty and dedication; especially to those who have written to us over the past few months. We have learned and enjoyed tremendously from your messages; Thanks again everyone.

SOLUTION OF THE TENTH CHALLENGE

This week’s challenge was certainly one of the most complicated. Despite this, we received some interesting answers and even an alternative solution to the one we identified.

We propose the following solution: once the voting is complete, the three face-down cards are placed in an envelope in the left half, and the same with the other three cards.

The packs are then shuffled in such a way that none of the voters can tell which is which (this can be achieved, for example, by one voter shuffling while the other has their eyes closed and vice versa).

Then the cards are removed from the envelopes and placed back in their appropriate boxes, maintaining the relative order of each group of three cards. The cards can have stayed the same or been swapped, the three on the left with the three on the right.

The two cards in the top row are then revealed.

The two bottom row cards that are on the heart side of the top row are then revealed. The order of these last two letters provides the result of the protocol.

Finally, it is important to turn over and shuffle all the cards so that the order of the two unturned cards is not known.

This protocol is a recreational example (implemented with physical elements) of what are known in cryptography as multipart computer protocols, which in the real world are algorithms executed on electronic devices with computing power. In this type of protocol, multiple entities aim to compute a function that depends on input or secret input from each of the entities. The goal of the protocol is that, without external intervention, the set of entities is able to compute the output of the function in such a way that each of the entities does not get any information about the inputs of the other beyond the output itself provides. Our example is a two-part protocol in which the output of the AND function or logic operation is calculated.

The key to how the protocol works is to note that for the four possible voting configurations, the two cards in the bottom row that are on the heart side of the top row mark the desired outcome for the protocol. Regarding the confidentiality of the votes, it is clear that revealing the top row does not provide any information, as the two cards may have been swapped or remained as they were. If the two cards in the bottom row match Cut, there is no problem as it is clear that both voters have chosen Cut. On the other hand, if they equal “Forgiveness,” there’s no way of knowing whether those two cards are the ones placed at the beginning or are the voice of the row below. We encourage the reader to find someone to try doing the protocol with real materials, it’s great fun and can even help in shared decision making!

The article was used as a reference:

Kastner, J., Koch, A., Walzer, S., Miyahara, D., Hayashi, YI, Mizuki, T., & Sone, H. The minimum number of cards in practical card-based protocols. International Conference on Theory and Application of Cryptology and Information Security (pp. 126-155). Springer, Cham. December 2017.

Our reader Salva has suggested a very ingenious solution that involves shuffling the cards of each selected list in addition to the envelopes. This is how he explains it to us:

We encode the cards as R (Ace of Hearts) and N (Ace of Spades). Queen and King choose the order of their cards (RN: “Cut” or NR: “Forgive”) and place them face down. We choose the first card of the queen, the first of the king and the second of the added cards, that is, a card R. We shuffle these three cards and put them in an envelope, and we also take the other three cards ( the second of the queen, the second of the king and a letter N), we shuffle them and put them in another envelope. Later we shuffle the envelopes so you don’t know which envelope contains which group of cards.

If we had chosen the “Cut” option for the Queen and King, i.e. both in RN order, when selecting the cards in the manner indicated, we would have three red cards in one envelope and three black cards in another , so we when opening a pack and looking at three cards of the same type, you would know that the last option is “cut” (but that’s certainly not the case).

In any other case where the end result is forgiveness (1st Queen: RN, King: NR; 2nd Queen: NR, King: RN; 3rd Queen: NR, King: NR) when we play cards on the draw two cards of one type and the other of the other type in one envelope and leave the other on the complementary option, and since we do not know the group of cards chosen for each envelope, it is not possible to know the option that they chose the queen and the king (not even between them), because the only thing that could be known is that one/or (or both) chose “forgive”.

Follow EL PAÍS TECNOLOGÍA on Facebook and Twitter or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.

BEIRUT/ANKARA, December 2 (Portal) – Syria is resisting Russian efforts to negotiate a summit with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, three sources said on Friday, after more than a decade of bitter enmity since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war.

However, two Turkish sources, including a senior official, denied that Damascus was hesitating and said things were on track for an eventual meeting between the leaders.

Erdogan’s government has backed rebel fighters trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and has accused the Syrian leader of state terrorism and said early in the conflict that peace efforts could not continue under his rule.

Assad says it is Turkey that has supported terrorism, backing a number of militants, including Islamist factions, and launching repeated military incursions into northern Syria. Ankara is preparing another possible operation after blaming Syrian Kurdish fighters for a bombing in Istanbul.

Russia helped Assad turn the tide of the war in his favor and says it wants a political end to the conflict and to bring the two leaders together for talks.

Erdogan has signaled readiness for rapprochement.

A week after shaking hands with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last month, after repeatedly saying he could not meet a leader who came to power in a coup, he said Turkey could “get things moving with Syria.”

“There must be no resentment in politics,” he said in a television discussion at the weekend.

However, three sources with knowledge of Syria’s position on possible talks said Assad had rejected a proposal for Erdogan to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Two of the sources said Damascus believes such a meeting could bolster Erdogan ahead of next year’s Turkish elections, especially if it addresses Ankara’s goal of bringing back some of Turkey’s 3.6 million Syrian refugees.

“Why give Erdogan a victory for nothing? There will be no rapprochement before the elections,” said one of the two, adding that Syria had also rejected the idea of ​​a meeting of foreign ministers.

The third source, a diplomat with knowledge of the proposal, said Syria “considers such a meeting useless if it does not bring anything concrete, and what they have been demanding so far is the complete withdrawal of Turkish troops.”

Turkish officials said this week the army would need just days to be ready for a ground incursion into northern Syria, where it has already been conducting artillery and airstrikes.

But the government has also said it is ready for talks with Damascus if they focus on security at the border, where Ankara wants Syrian-Kurdish YPG fighters evicted from the border and refugees moved to “safe zones”. will.

An Assad-Erdogan meeting is possible “in the not too distant future,” said the senior Turkish official.

“Putin is slowly preparing the way for this,” the official said. “It would be the start of a big change in Syria and would have a very positive impact on Turkey. Russia would also benefit from this … as it is overburdened in many areas.”

Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam in Beirut and Orhan Coskun in Ankara; Writing by Dominic Evans, editing by William Maclean and Rosalba O’Brien

Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.