The Wager by David Grann

 

In 1740, Spain and England were once again at war.  An armada was brought together in England and The Wager was one of the warships.  In addition to the war, a side mission was to track down and capture one of the Spanish treasure ships that sent back silver and other treasures to the homeland once or twice a year.  It was believed that the action should take place in the waters off South America and the armada set sail.

One of the ships was The Wager.  It sailed with around 250 men.  Of interest was a midshipman on one of his first voyages, a younger brother of a noble family and one who would become the grandfather of Lord Bryon, the poet.  There were officers and many regular sailors.  It was difficult to man an armada and press gangs were used in addition to recruitment with many of those being sickly.

One of biggest challenges was the voyage around the Cape Horn.  It could take weeks to get around this feature.  The waves are huge having hundreds of miles to build.  The winds are almost always gale force.  The land underneath came up from hundreds of feet deep to only a few hundred.  All of these factors made the Cape an almost unimaginable passage. It could take weeks to get past it with multiple tries.

The Wager ran onto rocks and crashed.  Some of the men were able to make it ashore onto an inhospitable island.  There was no shelter and little food.  The captain was felt by many of the survivors to be making bad decisions and the group split into his supporters and those opposed.  After months, each of these groups managed to put together a vessel and attempt to sail back to civilization.  Of the 250 men who set off, eventually around thirty returned.  There were accusations of murder and of mutiny.  Whose story would be believed?

David Grann is a nonfiction writer and a staff writer at The New Yorker.  His work is known for meticulous research and bringing history to life as his books read as exciting novels do.  In this case, the vanity and social structures of the time resulted in bad decisions that cost many lives.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.