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The Wager Review by Steve (Retired Bookseller)
A thrilling read, more so as it is based on fact and some of the crew or their descendants latter became historical figures.This is a story of the shipwreck of a His Majesty’s Ship the “Wager” which left England in the 1740’s as part of Commodore Anson’s fleet. On a secret mission to round Cape Horn taking, sinking, burning, or otherwise destroying enemy ships and weakening Spanish holdings in the Pacific.
The Squadron was engulfed by a hurricane and the Wagner believed to have sunk with all hands. Most of the officers and crew had perished, but miraculously 81 survivors had set out in a makeshift boat.
Three and a half months and 3000 miles later 30 men arrived in Brazil. One of the longest castaway voyages recorded.
The Wager had been wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. Six months later another boat (a wooden dugout) washed ashore off the southwestern coast of Chile with 3 additional survivors. After these men had recovered and returned to England, they levelled shocking allegations against their companions who had surfaced in Brazil.
In the ensuring shipwreck and aftermath everyone became guilty of some naval code infraction from murder to mutiny, to treason, and cannibalism, the miraculous return of the long presumed dead witnesses with differing accounts, and the judges that had to deal with the fallout.David Grant has written an easy read and well researched book of what happened to the vessel and crew.
From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.
On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's ship The Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, The Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death-for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
Historical ; Maritime history
David Grann
Paperback / softback Trade paperback (UK) 352pp h234mm x w153mm x s23mm 2x8pp colour