April 30th, 2014 by Piper Smith
No, they probably didn’t get the name from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. It was actually a merchant ship that was captured in 1762 by the English frigate Caroline. Hermione was carrying a huge trove of treasure that can be estimated into billions of dollars in modern value. In fact, the spoils of this capture were so great that even the seamen were paid handsomely… 485 pounds each, which is about 1.4 million dollars in modern value. Let’s go find a frigate!
Picture caption: 18th century shillings.