The Secret of Pirate's Hill is one of those three way splits, in which the Original version is the best with a slightly edited down version for the UK and a much revised edit put out later on, when the books were updated in the mid 60's.
It's not a bad story TBH. The boys are attacked whilst scuba diving off Pirates Hill, and when they get back to town, a geezer by the name of Bowden has a job for them. Looking for an old cannon, supposedly to form part of a parade down in Florida.
There are a lot about cannons in this book and you will get to hear the word demiculverin over and over by the time you're done. It's not just Bowden after the cannon, there is an ex con called Latsky who also wants it and another guy called Tim Gorman who also wants the cannon for his own ends.
There is a nice exchange up on the Napoli, Tony Prito's boat, where Frank and Joe's unconvincing girlfriends. Iola Morton and Callie Shaw, take a shine to Tim much to the boys chagrin. This maybe cut for space in later editions.
Also the boys actually do some sleuthing, making a plaster cast of a facial impression in the sand. It's not all dumb luck and such.
Anyway you can read them here.
Well here is an odd postscript. There is a TV show that is tangentially related to Pirates Hill. Watching Expedition Unknown over dinner, episode 6 from series 7, specifically, is about the search Jose Gaspar's treasure, and has details of the Gasparilla pirate parade mentioned in the books. Mostly correct, except it's down in Florida instead of off the coast of New Jersey.
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