Reading Between the Lines
The Wager: A tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder
by Chuck Wisman
The immense challenges of shipmates and shipwreck survivors described by author David Grann in “The Wager” make for an epic and gripping story. Image credit: Penguin Random House
The #1 New York Times bestseller, “The Wager,” is an engrossing and masterfully written story of nonfiction by David Grann, author of other popular novels, including “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
In the early 1700s, a squadron of Royal Navy warships secretly departed England in pursuit of a Spanish galleon laden with gold, silver, and other treasure. At the time, Spain and England were engaged in the War of Jenkins’ Ear, which lasted from 1739 to 1742. (Yes, the war actually involved a dispute over a severed ear!)
The British squadron planned on striking the Spanish galleon and its accompanying ships in the southern Pacific by way of the dreaded Drake Passage. Located at the southern tip of South America and joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the passage was described by early explorers as the “mad sea.” It’s easy to see how the passage earned its nickname. Depths vary from 1300 to 300 feet, creating waves “dwarfing a 90-foot mast.” The clashing of temperature extremes, currents and weather created incredible conditions including high winds, sleet, snow, churning seas, mountainous waves, and driving rain.
The HMS Wager, as part of the squadron, was originally a merchant ship purchased from the East India company. Described as “tubby and unwieldy” and “a 123-foot eyesore,” it was retrofitted into a lowly ranked man-o-war with twenty-eight guns. It carried a crew of 250, nearly twice its normal crew size due to the extended length of the voyage.
Given the times, the squadron was immediately hit with “ship’s fever” before they even left port. Many sailors were hospitalized and later succumbed to the fever, which is now known as typhus. Due to the numbers of ill, many of the sick were lodged in taverns, where they received more liquor than medicine.
Between the prevalence of disease and the lengthy time at sea, the dearth of healthy sailors was supplemented by press gangs who kidnapped the unwitting to serve as crew on the ships. These conscripts were less than stellar.
One admiral described them as “full of pox, itch, lame, King’s evil, and all other distempers, from the hospitals at London, and will serve only to breed an infection in the ships; for the rest, most of them are thieves, house breakers, Newgate [prison] birds, and the very filth of London.”
The book follows a number of colorful characters through many trials and tribulations. These include David Cheat, captain of the HMS Wager; a sixteen-year old midshipman John Byron (who would later become the grandfather of Lord Byron, one of Great Britain’s greatest poets); John Bulkeley, the ship’s gunner; and a number of others.
During and after traversing Drake Passage, the Wager endured repeated battering and severe damage from fierce storms. In addition, crew members were lost as men fell overboard and others died from injuries and scurvy, the cause of which was unknown at the time. Ultimately, the Wager became separated from the squadron and shipwrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. Initially the ship and crew were believed to be forever lost, but months later, a decrepit jerry-built craft overloaded with starving men near death arrived in Brazil after a trip of nearly 3,000 miles. These men were from the original wreck of the Wager and were later hailed in Great Britain as heroes.
Six months after that group of men arrived in Brazil, an even more decrepit craft arrived in Chile carrying just three survivors from the Wager, including Captain David Cheat. This small group accused the first group of mutiny.
Accusations and counter accusations ensued while the Royal Navy investigated and court martial inquiries were convened. Anyone found guilty of mutiny could hang. (Spoiler alert: John Byron was not one of them!)
“The Wager” is a difficult book to put down. It’s a fast and easy read. David Grann’s detailed description of the ship’s working (and non-working) parts, the daily life of the sailors, and the immense challenges they all faced as ship mates and later as they were marooned makes for an epic and gripping story. I couldn’t recommend it more. Apparently, I’m not alone, as actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese are now collaborating on a movie version of “The Wager.”
“The Wager” is available on order from the Stockbridge District Library.
Chuck Wisman still resides locally on the family farm and is retired from state government after almost 40 years of service..