June
10
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The Wager by David Grann
Steady yourself for this true story of ships, storms, starvation and survival.
Written by American journalist and author David Grann (who also wrote Killers of the Flower Moon), and with a biggest bibliography I ever did see, The Wager is a stunning re-telling of a doomed British naval voyage that took place in 1741.
The voyage involved a squadron of six ships on an Empire building mission to sail towards South America to intercept the Spanish. Nearly 2,000 men and boys set sail (many of them against their will) and less than 700 returned.
The Wager was one of the six ships but an important one. Not only was it one of the faster and more agile “man of wars” in the squadron, but it also carried the ammunition for the others.
Sadly, its voyage was doomed from the start with delays, relentless storms, lice and then typhoid. As the wild weather continued, scurvy took hold of the remaining crew, including the captain.
Almost a year after leaving port, and after a series of bad decisions in unimaginable conditions, the Wager lost sight of its sister ships and crashed against rocks on the South coast of Chile. This left a handful of desperate sailors marooned on a desolate island in the middle of a Patagonian winter.
Nine months later, when everyone had given them up for dead, a boat of skeletal survivors washed up in Mexico. They told (and sold) their stories and were hailed as heroes. That was until a second boat, of even skinnier sailors, appeared in Chile with an altogether version of events.
Yes, this really happened.
Referencing official naval records and original testimonies, spliced with sea-faring trivia, folklore and poetry, Grann shares the conflicting horror stories of what happened on that bleak, and entirely snack free, island off Patagonia. With mutiny, murder, depravity and even cannibalism – it is a miracle that any of them lived at all.
I absolutely loved this New York Times bestseller which, just like Killers of the Flower Moon, will no doubt make it to the big screen in time as well. If you see it at the airport, grab it.
And that’s my 2 cents worth.
Readhead 