thanks for the name rixasha, did some looking round for the game and found this wonderful pdf to original us manual of the game, the interesting bit was the background information on the cruise liner itself.


will give the game a go

the pdf can be found at museum of computer adventure games

mcoagh.org


mocagh.org/miscgame/murderatlantic-alt-manual.pdf

First of all - the German sentence is messed up (A Empfangstag Botschaft Tante doesn't make any sense).

However, here's the translation:

Das Paket wird um 21 GMT umladen werden:
The package will be transfered at 21:00 O'clock.

Empfangstag:
Day of reception

Botschaft:
Message (or Embassy - depends on the context)

Tante:
Aunt

It's a secret note from one spy to another, connected to the telegram saying "Aunt is ill", ambiguity is to be expected. It's probably just indicating that a signal was received from 'Aunt' to start the operation, giving the time and the day.

I need to pick one post for the solution and Tyrrhia gave a really good one for my original question, so I'll go with that. Big thanks to everyone for all the input, though!