'The Wager' by David Grann
'The Wager' by David Grann

The good

  • Fantastic intro: a first boat arrives on the coast of Brazil, full of nearly dead sailors claiming to have survived the shipwreck of the Wager; and then, a while later, a second, even smaller boat arrives, with even more emaciated sailors claiming to have survived the same shipwreck—and that the first group were all part of a mutiny. That sort of thing pulls you in right away.

  • It’s told as an exciting tale of survival, but, as best as I can tell, is a well-researched non-fiction narrative. And it’s an interesting narrative, full of men trying to survive, betraying each other, mutinies, crazy voyages, and so on.

  • I found it fascinating (and horrifying) to learn about life at sea as a sailor in that era. The awful storms, the hideous diseases (especially scurvy), the cramped living conditions, the perilous climbing on masts, the brutal battles, and so on. And that’s when things are going well; it only gets worse if a ship sinks, and the sailors are forced to survive on an island. The “normal” death rate was awful, but in the circumstances they faced in this story, it was devastating.

The not so good

  • It’s hard to know what really happened; there are scant written accounts, and, of course, the authors of those accounts were all biased. I wish the author was a bit clearer on how he came to the conclusions he did.

Rating: 4 stars