The Wager

By: David Grann, David Grann - introduction

Narrated by: Dion Graham

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*

'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read' Guardian

‘The greatest sea story ever told’ Spectator

'I cannot think of anyone who would not love this book . . . It is an extraordinary true story, beautifully written' Richard Osman

‘A cracking yarn… Grann’s taste for desperate predicaments finds its fullest expression here’ Observer

From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.

On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s ship The Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, The Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

Critic reviews

'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve ever read. I can only offer the highest praise a writer can give: endless envy, as deep and salty as the sea' (Matthew Teague)

'Grann combines a forensic eye with a storyteller's enthusiasm... [he] skilfully moves between several genres – giving us a tense court-martial drama to finish an unrelenting survival thriller'

‘Vivid, immediate and tantalising… Grann has a knack not just for telling a great story, but for bringing it to life through its characters… There are a great many books on British naval history; very few are this good’

'This astonishing tale of maritime warfare, mutiny and survival in the 18th-century Atlantic proves that a nonfiction book can be as thrilling as any summer blockbuster'

‘Combining impeccable research with exceptional storytelling powers, [Grann] spirits the reader aboard a creaking wooden ship trapped at the eye of a howling storm… No book that you are likely to read this year or next will prove more dramatic and enthralling than Grann’s magnificent story of both life at sea and out on the desolate, mist-laden island whose solitary peak the Wager’s unfortunate crew aptly named Mount Misery’

(Miranda Seymour)

'The story of The Wager is, like many of its antecedents - from Homer's Odyssey to Mutiny on the Bounty - a testement to the depths of human depravity and the heights of human endurance, and you can't ask for better than that from a story... The Wager will keep you in its grip to its head-stratching, improbable end'

'Those who love yarns involving cannon fire, sea-chests, plum duff and mainmasts will find The Wager riveting, as will those less intrigued by the age of sail. In the hands of David Grann, the story transcends its naval setting... [Grann] is a master of exciting tales in far-flung places. He has produced a volume so dramatic and engrossing that it may surpass his previous books'

'... one of the premier nonfiction storytellers of our time... Grann's masterful new book The Wager is at once an adventure on the high seas, a horror story and a courtroom drama - a little bit Rashomon meets Lord of the Flies'

‘A tour de force of narrative nonfiction, Mr. Grann’s account shows how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunes—as well as our collective memory... The Wager is likely to cast a powerful spell on modern readers as well’

'It's the kind of inspiring chronicle that would make for a rousing maritime adventure. But this is a David Grann book, and so he gives us something more... Their struggle for survival consumed them; reading about their struggle for survival intruged me - as Grann, the consummate narrative architect, must have known it would'

Piercing the veil of shipwreck and mutiny

Impression
This book captured what it was like to be out at sea in the seventeen hundreds, brutal and unforgiving. I almost can't beleive that a bunch of humans boarded a small wooden craft by today's standards and raved the open ocean. I got lord of the flies vibes.

Summary
This is a well researched retelling of the events that happend to the HMS Wager and her crew. About a group of British naval vessels sailing to Cape Horn in pursuit of the Spanish enemy, to hopefully, capture a Spanish galleon filled with treasure. During a storm the Wager hits rocks and the crew is forced to abandon ship. What follows is starvation fueled feuds, desperation and a suicide plan to make it back to England.

Quotes
- “Persons who have not experienced the hardships we have met with,” Bulkeley wrote, “will wonder how people can be so inhuman to see their fellow creatures starving before their faces, and afford ’em no relief. But hunger is void of all compassion.”
- "Indeed these imperial structures require it: thousands and thousands of ordinary people, innocent or not, serving - and even sacrificing themselves for - a system many of them rarely question."
- "We emerge as the heroes of our stories, allowing us to live with what we have done—or haven’t done."
- "The blind horn's hate"

Exciting! Unbelievable true story!

I love these sort of books where truth is stranger than fiction. I found myself researching after reading the book to see for myself how every incredible detail depicted here was rooted in history. The execution and narration of this book is spot on. Highly Recommended!

Die schrecklichen Umstände mit denen Seeleute kämpfen mussten

Der Aufbau und Durchführung der Geschichte, die Geschichte hält einen in Atem, man lernt viel über die Seefahrt in früheren Zeiten

Well researched and balanced, captivating throughout

Grann has done an amazing job with this one, carefully researching and presenting the conflicting stories. It's hard to believe the human mind and body can survive the hardships these seamen endured both on ship and on land - I'm endlessly grateful for my comfortable life after listening! I also really appreciate Grann pointing out the colonial misguidedness of the times: how the British prejudice and racism lead them to scare off their best hope of survival (the natives of the land they were shipwrecked on), their deluded belief they, as Brits, were superior and more civilised than anyone else (while succumbing to murder, cannibalism, and mutiny), and the fate of Duck, the sole Black survivor. Excellent work through and through, also by the narrator bringing these pages to life!

Amazing story

Written almost as an adventure yarn this book covers so many different angles from seafaring, survival, mutiny, British class & political system, international skirmishes, the rise of journalusm, colonialism & fake news.