The Wager by David Grann
Involving mutiny, shipwreck, murder, and survival against all the odds The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder’ by David Grann is a meticiulously researched and wonderfully informative and completely engrossing account of a two year naval journey during the eighteenth century that faces just about every obstacle you can think of.
The Wager
In 1740, the Wager sets off across the Atlantic. A royal Navy ship, it was part of a squadron comprising of six warships and two transports under Commodore George Anson. During the wonderfully named ‘War of Jenkins ear,’ it was to attack Spanish treasure galleons on the Pacific west coast of South America, with a particular interest in capturing gold.
But before it even left port, typhus tore through the 250 man crew (many of whom were ‘press ganged’ into service). Once on the seas, those who were left then suffered from the ravages of scurvy. With the crew decimated by death and disease, and rounding Cape Horn in atrocious conditions, the squadron broke up and the Wager takes a wrong turn. To put it mildly, a difficult passage was about to get a lot worse.
Non Fiction Narrative
I do love a good rip roaring sea faring yarn ( Madhouse at the end of the sea is an excellent account of a doomed Antartica expedition, whilst Saltblood is a swashbuckling tale based on the real life Mary Read) and had to read ‘The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder’ by David Grann which ticks similar boxes and a few more.
I also appreciate a writer who can blend non-fiction with narrative (huge fan of Patrick Radden Keefe, who like Grann also worked for the New Yorker) and now I can add David Grann to that list. It’s a particular skill, to take these facts and historical accounts and blend them into something so captivating and unputdownable as this.
Characters
As you’d imagine, there’s a memorable cast of sea faring characters on board. Some heroes, some absolute cowards and some very deluded, they are very vivid and easily imagined.
There’s something compelling about Captain Cheap, with his lofty ideals (inspired by Melville and looking for his white whale) and what he could acheive for the empire, even when surrounded by death, disease and insanity.
John Bulkeley keeps meticulous records, and is later a reluctant leader. There’s John Bryon, who we know survives because he is the grandfather of Lord Byron. John Duck is a free black seamen, and you wouldn’t want to get in the way of carpenters assistant James Mitchell.
It’s also about how many of the men were nothing but cannon fodder for the navy. It’s also about the grand notions of some of these men, and how they were motivated by fantastical notions of greatness.
There’s also something sad about how some the crew treat the indigenous people they met. I wondered if things might have turned our differently if they had been more courteous and receptive, but I suppose it was par for the era that people from outside the empire were viewed as savages.
Story
I’m loathe to talk too much about the story, about what happens after they become castaways and what ensues. As usual in my reviews, I’ll try to keep things as general as I can.
What I found particularly fascinating is the recruitment process, the descriptions of the various jobs on the ship, and the effects of disease on the crew. One of my favourite passages involves John Byron taking us a trip through the bowels of the Wager, and you can almost feel the tilt of ship whilst you peer into it’s darkest recesses. In a film it would make a great montage, and is wonderfully vivid.
I also found it really interesting how many phrases that have entered modern parlance came from life on high seas -
‘To ‘toe the line’ derives from when boys on a ship were forced to stand still for inspection with their toes on a deck seam. To ‘pipe down’ was the boatswain’s whistle for everyone to be quiet at night, and ‘piping hot’ was his call for meals. A ‘scuttlebutt’ was a water cask around which the seamen gossiped while waiting for their rations. A ship was ‘three sheets to the wind’ when the lines to the sails broke and the vessel pitched drunkenly out of control. To ‘turn a blind eye’ became a popular expression after Vice-Admiral Nelson deliberately placed his telescope against his blind eye to ignore his superior’s signal flag to retreat.’
The description of how the ships were constructed is also memorable. A hundred acres of forest, as many as four thousand trees, were needed to construct a large warship. To maintain them and stop them from deteriorating is also a huge task.
Rounding the cape is described so vividly - it’s where the Atlantic and Pacifici oceans meet with it’s pulverising waves, 200 mph winds, and occasional icebergs; it’s a wonder anything made it through back then. Incredibly difficult to navigate, you can see why it was feared by seamen.
Conclusion
This is a gripping story of sailing in the most horrendous of conditions, assailed by illness, the elements and then your own crew mates, and if that wasn’t enough, a bit of a legal drama at the end as well. Apparently there’s a Scorcese adapation in the works - now that will be something worth watching. (I only realised after finishing the wager that ‘Killers of the flower moon’ was also one of Grann’s - not sure if I should go for the film or book first - any fans let me know below).
Obviously everyone will have their preferred format, but I loved the maps and pen portraits of the characters (not sure if you’d get the same from the audiobook). There’s something very satisfying about following a ships voyage actoss the oceans, and then as it skirts the coast off Patagonia and Chile.
You can probably tell that I thoroughly enjoyed this, a fantastic feat of non-fiction narrative story telling that is difficult to put down once you start.
331 pages, Hardcover
First published April 18, 2023
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