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5.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Tale.
(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } “As a tale gets passed from one person to another, it ripples out until it is as wide and mythic as the sea.”The annals of British naval history abound with great and small adventures alike. None, however, captivates like the extraordinary tale of the HMS Wager. And no one can better recount such a hair-raising series of events than David Grann. With "The Wager," Grann tops his previous works of narrative nonfiction with this harrowing story of inconceivable hardship and the machinations of desperate men. To be sure, no incident contained in this book is without ample evidence proving it occurred.It is hard to imagine a more horrifying set of survival conditions than those faced by Wager's crew, and capturing those conditions accurately based on aging historical records and biased published accounts was undoubtedly tricky. Yet, Grann does yeoman's work on this story of the ill-fated Wager, part of a British squadron ordered to sea in August 1740 against the Spanish in the apocryphal “War of Jenkins’ Ear." Commanding Wager and at the center of Grann's book is Captain David Cheap, a deeply flawed and complicated skipper.Like Grann's other books, "The Wager" nearly requires one to suspend disbelief. The author carefully and patiently reveals the story's events, shocking the reader in the process. Moreover, upon completing Grann's 257-page account of Wager's exploits and those of its sister ship, HMS Centurion, the reader better understands the ruthlessness and cunning demonstrated by the British Royal Navy as it navigated the high seas in quest of Empire. Indeed, British imperial ambitions are fully displayed in "The Wager."Based mainly on seamen’s logbooks and trial records, many of which are over 250 years old, Grann pieces together the seemingly doomed Wager’s calamities while providing ample historical context. The author, for example, details the multitudinous threats facing British ships as they pursued the Empire's aims in the mid-18th century. He also describes shipboard conditions on a British man-of-war sailing the world's oceans during this era.Wager meets its fate while searching for a Spanish galleon laden with treasure and attempting to negotiate the treacherous seas off Cape Horn at the tip of the South American continent. The crew, already decimated by storms, scurvy, and sundry other trials, finds its ship dashed on the rocks off the coast of Patagonia, Argentina. Marooned in May 1741 with little hope of rescue, the men struggle to survive on a scabrous spit of land subsequently named Wager Island.Malnourished and desperate, Wager’s surviving company suffers a complete breakdown in discipline and decorum. Having lost confidence in the ailing and unpredictable Cheap, still in command, the castaways defy British naval law and flout regulations. A fulminant Cheap, for his part, opposes the indiscipline and enforces his authority at the end of a pistol. A mutiny takes shape, and eventually, a breakaway faction, led by Gunner's Mate John Bulkeley, abandons Cheap and his loyalists, leaving them to fend for themselves on Wager Island. By this time, subsisting on the meagerest of diets harvested from terrain that barely sustains life while withstanding storm after storm, Cheap and crew somehow endure.Sailing a small transport boat reinforced with scrap lumber harvested from Wager and equipped with makeshift sails and rigging, Bulkeley and his charges successfully navigate the Strait of Magellan to Brazil. Meanwhile, Cheap and the Wager Island stragglers experience an equally implausible outcome. Sailing on an eighteen-foot yawl salvaged from the Wager, they set off to reach the Chilean coast. Surviving their respective ordeals, the two parties return to London, providing their lurid accounts of mutiny, betrayal, abandonment, and murder to an incredulous British Admiralty and fascinated public. They alternately face scorn and approbation and, eventually, court-martial.It is the Wager leadership’s trial for which Grann saves his best narration and jaw-dropping, surprise ending."The Wager" asks which of the stories is harder to believe: the death-defying travails and travels of these indomitable seamen or the unanticipated result as the British Admiralty adjudicates their fate. Yet, Grann provides the reader with all the evidence necessary to confirm these events happened irrefutably. Relying on an abundance of journals, logs, diaries, and even letters, Grann demonstrates again his seemingly unquenchable thirst for the truth to inform his audience. His single-spaced bibliography alone exceeds 13 pages.Without question, "The Wager" is an astonishing naval story reminiscent of Charles Nordhoff’s and James Norman Hall’s “Mutiny on the Bounty.” Considering the inglorious actions of the Wager's crew, Grann's book is worth reading and rereading to comprehend the motives of desperate men. Experiencing the audacity and might of the 18th century British Royal Navy, particularly exemplified by Centurion as she squares off with the Spanish man-of-war Our Lady of Covadonga off the Philippines, provides immensely satisfying adventure reading. Grann's spellbinding account of the naval gunfight puts the reader in the crow's nest as though he is viewing the fight aboard the Centurion from the very mast top!"The Wager" offers an incredible piece of storytelling suitable for any devotee of narrative nonfiction or lover of naval lore.An extraordinary tale.
4.0 out of 5 stars Mhmmmmm scurvy….
Top 10 Reasons not to be a Sailor:1. The Food Will Kill You. Wormy biscuits and spoiled meat are just appetizers for scurvy.2. You’ll Never Be Dry Again. Rain, waves, and your own sweat—pick your misery.3. Your Captain Is a Sadist. Disobey orders? Say hello to the lash.4. Your “Bed” Is a Coffin. Sleep crammed in a dank, stinking hole with snoring strangers.5. Storms Will Wreck You. Literally. Hope you enjoy being shipwrecked on a freezing, barren island.6. Starvation Is a Given. Ran out of food? Time to start eyeing your crewmates.7. Mutiny Is a Work Perk. If the weather doesn’t kill you, your shipmates might.8. Nature Wants You Dead. Patagonia’s icy winds and harsh wilderness will finish the job.9. Civilization Is a Distant Dream. Home is thousands of miles away, and you’ll probably never see it again.10. The Job Benefits Are Fatal. Disease, drowning, or cannibalism—choose your ending.Lesson learned? Stay on land.David Grann’s The Wager is a story of human endurance dragged through hellfire and frostbite, a harrowing reminder that the sea is not your friend—it’s a beast that wants to eat you alive. Grann’s prose slices through the romance of 18th-century exploration and gives you the raw, salty truth: life aboard a ship like the HMS Wager was closer to damnation than adventure.Grann drops you straight into the storm, where backbreaking labor, disease, and the lash are constant companions. Then comes the wreck—a splintered ship, a barren Patagonian coast, and a crew hanging on by their fingernails. This is survival stripped to its ugliest: men turning on each other, the cold chewing through their bones, starvation hollowing them into shadows of themselves.What Grann captures so brilliantly is the madness of it all—the unrelenting, gnawing despair of being shipwrecked thousands of miles from home, surrounded by nothing but death in all its brutal forms. These men weren’t just fighting the elements; they were fighting themselves, their worst instincts bubbling up when survival meant leaving humanity behind.The Wager’s story is as relentless as the waves, a grim hymn to the fragility of civilization and the feral core that surfaces when it shatters. If you want a tale that grabs you by the throat and drags you into the cold, dark depths, Grann delivers it with terrifying precision. This isn’t history—it’s horror in disguise.
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! What a story, what an author!
What an amazing story! And it's taken from diaries, correspondence, ships logs, journals, and even a trip by the author to see the area where the shipwreck takes place! An important and almost unbelievable piece of history pulled together by a dedicated and almost unbelievably talented author, David Grann. His opening sentence of the Prologue is: "The only impartial witness was the sun." The opening sentence of chapter one is: "Each man in the squadron carried, along with a sea chest, his own burdensome story." And the whole book continues in this captivating manner. Grann has the gift of putting words together to tell a story based on facts in a way that brings that story to life, as do a few other authors, such as David McCullough. Grann has written a once-in-a-lifetime book that any author would be proud--and grateful--to have produced. But, he's written more! The Lost City of Z, Killers of the Flower Moon, The White Darkness, . . . I could go on! How could one person have created such a remarkable body of work?! More of David Grann's books will be on my upcoming reading list!
Der Mensch in auswegslosen Situationen.
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muy bien
muy bien
Cartivante.
Impressionante as dificuldades dos primeiros grandes navegadores.
大航海時代裏話。
可もなし不可も無し。
Un extraordinario recuento de el tipo de vida y sufrimientos que soportaron quienes construyeron las bases del imperio británico.
Me ha gustado lo bien documentado del caso y como este, sin necesidad de adornos novelados, resulta apasionante.Me ha gustado también el modo en que las extraordinarias trayectorias de todos los involucrados van entreteniéndose para crear esta increíble aventura
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The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
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