The Danger ( PDFDrive.com )

Privateers were sponsored by governments, but they were basically just
pirates. Their mission was to raid, loot, and sink the shipping of their countries’
enemies.
If the Griffin had met up with Nuestra Señora de la Luz on the high seas, it
would have attacked. And if they were successful, the privateers would have
stolen every single coin on board.
What, then, if the hurricane of 1665 had destroyed both vessels? One, a
Spanish galleon with an empty hold, foundered on the reef. And the other, an
English barque, packed to the gunwales with plunder, sank not far away in the
deeper water just off the shoal.
“Way to go, Payton!” she cheered aloud.
It was an amazing theory, a brilliant theory. It explained everything — why
there was no treasure to be found in the Nuestra Señora site, and why all
evidence pointed to the existence of that treasure in the second, deeper wreck.
It was perfect, Adriana reflected, but it was just a theory. There was still no
proof that the other ship really was the Griffin, or that she had ever had any
contact with Nuestra Señora. Adriana felt herself deflating as the elation
deserted her. Payton’s logic was inspired; it was probably even correct. But it
was incomplete.
She was just about to close her computer’s Internet browser when she saw it
— a small detail on the British Web site.
According to the records, the Griffin had been under the command of
Captain James Octavius Blade.
James Blade.
J.B.