The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder was written by David Grann. The book should be labeled as historical fiction, but given the research done by Grann and the wealth of information he had to read, it should essentially be considered nonfiction, except of course for the dialogue that was created to help the story along. In 1740, a large flotilla of ships left England and headed for the Caribbean to do battle with Spanish ships, but five of those ships were on a secret mission. Five of them peeled off from the flotilla and headed south. Their assignment was to steal whatever they could from Spanish ships, especially one that was loaded with gold and silver as it returned from robbing the Incas and Aztecs. They were to find their way through the Straits of Magellan, enter the Pacific, and perhaps eventually complete a circumnavigation. The Wager was the main warship in this secret group. Things went well until they got to the Straits of Magellan and were in the neighborhood of Cape Horn. They encountered hurricane force conditions and simply could not pierce through the horrible weather. They were lost and initially did not know they had actually entered the Pacific. Given the fierce weather, they had been unable to take bearings for weeks. Many lives were lost in the process, especially as the sailors began to suffer from scurvy and typhus. 

It turns out they got gotten through the Straits and were beached on a Chilean island which they named after their ship. As indicated by the subtitle, as the result of their debilitation and starvation, some of the crew mutinied against the officers, and those officers were abandoned on shore. A portion of the crew did eventually make it back to England, but the survivors told different stories about the cruelty of the officers. It was less than 80 men who survived from a crew that started with about 500 men. The officers were generally forgiven for their actions, and some of the sailors were hung as a penalty for mutiny.

 

I’ve always been fascinated by stories of sailing during the Age of Exploration, and this one meets that criteria. It’s hard today to imagine the suffering that the sailors incurred. Added to the issue of exploration was the colonization that was occurring especially by Spain, England, and Portugal. This was a very good story and I immediately downloaded another book by Grann which will be reviewed next.