David GrannNon-Fiction · History·b. 1967
The Wager
The Wager
- Pages
- 432
- Published
- 2023
- Language
- English
Synopsis
In 1741 the Royal Navy warship HMS Wager, one of the vessels in Commodore George Anson's squadron, is wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew survive the loss of the ship but not the loss of order, and the men divide into factions.
One group follows the gunner John Bulkeley. They take to the boats and eventually reach Brazil. Captain David Cheap leads another party, which includes the midshipman John Byron. These men work their way along the Chilean coast, are held by the Spanish, and finally return home.
Once the survivors are back in Britain, their versions of events on the island do not agree. Each side accuses the other of mutiny and murder. A court martial opens in 1746, and the verdict depends on which account the Admiralty chooses to believe.
This is narrative non-fiction. David Grann rebuilds the voyage, the wreck and the trial from the survivors' journals and other historical records. Throughout, he asks how far any of those accounts can be trusted, and the answer decides who was guilty.
How it reads
Prose complexity 7/10
Content warnings (2)
ViolenceTrauma
