I seem to be on a wild goose chase in looking for a name hidden in the grid. I've scanned horizontals, verticals, diagonals in all directions and found nothing that I recognise. I'm beginning to think that the highlighting may simply involve the 15 ships, but that seems pointless to me.
I must admit my interpretation was simply to highlight the 15, given that is uses the word 'comprising'. I have to confess I found the whole thing very contrived and underwhelming, a real slog and not a happy one.
But the preamble says that the substitutions will reveal the LOCATION of a naval force, not just the naval force. I cannot see the function of 'location' if all that is required is to highlight the ships. If the latter is meant, then 'disposition' or 'deployment' would have been better words than 'location'. If solvers have engineered the substitutions so that the correct numbers of each ship appear in the grid, that should be enough. Why highlight them? It seems to be yet another case of a poorly worded and ambiguous preamble.
Thanks Mersault. I had group 4 neatly fitted into 29 down - no wonder I wad struggling to fit group 2 in! Having now shifted group 4 and fitted group 5 all is complete. Thoroughly enjoyed solving what I found to be difficult clues but the end game was a bit weak I thought.
3/4 done and time to give up, having lost the will to live. However, can anyone explain the wordplay for 7, 10, 24, 26 and 32? As it's Christmas week, housework etc must take precedence, there is so much to do.
I wish I could! Same boat as you I suspect with ne corner still to do. I'll have a stab at 32 because I might have that wrong. I have horn. Either side of Hawke is h or e, e is extra add the n from nausea. Surely?