Well, today was the day that I, the solo captain of the sloop the Dawn Caller, unknowingly claimed victory over a reaper galley.
I logged on for a short session, just to knock out some easy dailies without bothering to raise my emissary, especially seeing as a reaper was on the board.
As my daily task revolved around retrieving buried treasure, I dug up some nice ashen gold hoarder loot at smuggler's bay before deciding to check out the new world event, keeping an eye on the reaper.
Not much later I traded a few passing shots with the ghost ships before I noticed something interesting in the water.
In the whirlpool was a chest of legends and an ashen winds skull.
At first I thought it must be a glitch, that the rewards for the world event spawned prematurely and I could cash out before going to report it.
On the way back I noticed the reaper (a galley) closing in on the world event, as well as a sloop. I kept my distance and fortunately they ignored me and continued on their way, none the wiser.
Then, after putting safe distance between myself and the world event, I arrived at sanctuary outpost and safely sold all the loot, until I noticed something else in the mix that the new harpoon mechanic allowed me to miss.
A galleon logbook.
I never caught the name of the reaper galley as it passed, but I feel it's safe to say that the crew didn't find what the were returning for.