Reddit mentions of Treasure Hunter: A Memoir of Caches, Curses, and Confrontations

Don't be embarrassed to ask! Treasure hunting has been a thing in the American West for hundreds of years. And rightfully so, because there really are still lots of places where Spanish gold and silver is hidden throughout the desert. W.C. Jameson made a living from it; his books are fascinating.

So that's what this ship did. They heard there was treasure in the mountain, and they wanted to find it the easy way, and just sail there. I imagined it being something like The Lost Dutchman's gold.

The "souvenir" is what the modern explorers and tourists are given when they try to visit the ship and find its treasure. They don't care enough about it to ask the resident ghosts what happened and if the treasure is safe to take; they just want a piece of gold or some of those perfectly-round pearls. Because that's all tourists want, right? They don't want history; they want a souvenir.

But it's cursed, so maybe that wasn't so smart.