Great book. Well written, well researched and well done. Reads like a novel. Hard to believe anyone would volunteer for a sea voyage in the 1700s. But I guess most didn’t. You can read the other reviews for the basic plot but it’s almost beyond belief what these people went through to survive. I enjoyed it very much. Highly recommend!

Let me begin with the answer to a direct question: is this book better than KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON? Yes, and by a wide margin. This is a historical tale that draws on the powers of fictional narrative. First and foremost, the story must be true. Hence, the success of the story rises or falls on the quality of the historical incidents themselves, because the resulting story will directly affect the elements of the narrative that are essentially novelistic: characters, themes, setting and plot. The story of the Wager satisfies each of those elements. In other words, David Grann chose wisely. And such choices are always guesses, to some degree. Once the commitment is made to sift through mountains of documents and other evidentiary material, the die has been cast: the resulting story could be a crashing bore; key questions might never yield satisfactory answers; plot lines could end in blind alleys; themes could prove to be maudlin commonplaces, and so on. Not in this case. We have an array of fascinating characters, a great adventure story, a novelistic plot, a riveting setting and a sobering set of lessons learned. Basically we are in the War of Jenkins’ Ear; a set of British ships under the great seaman George Anson is dispatched to intercept and capture a Spanish galleon loaded with treasure. The voyage involves the negotiation of the treacherous winds and waters around Cape Horn. One ship—The Wager—is crushed against the rocks and the men must attempt to survive hunger, disease, and, as we say, insuperable odds, to somehow return to England and stand trial for their actions in Patagonia. I purchased the book as a backup for other books in my reviewing queue that were about to ship. After being disappointed by KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, but seeing the hype for THE WAGER, I decided to read it until more interesting books arrived. However, once I started to read it I simply could not stop. Only one small quibble: the book ends with what the author (SPOILER alert) considers a reflection on the evils of empire. In other words, a dash of seasoning from the Woke shaker. Ultimately, the story is relevant for our own times and our own preoccupation with colonizers/colonized/oppressors/oppressed, etc. It is worthwhile to point out that every thinking writer in the 18th century (especially the putatively most ‘conservative’ ones, Johnson and Burke) were opposed to the aspirations of empire, particularly as they involved self-interested motives. The book is being described as Master and Commander meets Lord of the Flies. Fair enough, but the brief, third act brings everything down to the seedy world of politics. The book does not end on some high, moral, virtue-signaling ground, but in the world that is simply all too familiar. Bishop Sheen said he gave up on politics after Pontius Pilate. Amen. That does not undercut the impact of the story. It simply reinforces the usefulness of James Ellroy’s category of ‘tragic realism’ and, in this case, the manner in which politics can dilute actions of heavily-compromised courage and determination and render them (publicly) mundane.

The Wager is a good story about an awful experience. Shipwrecked on a desolate island off one of the earth’s most godforsaken coasts, the crew of HM Wager, a man of war, eked out a tempestuous existence trying to survive and escape. Their numbers reduced to a fraction of the original crew, they devolved into factions on enemies with former mates. Eventually, four or five groups made their way back to England, publishing accounts of their suffering in distinct contrast to one another. David Grann writes well and the book is a good read but even he seems overwhelmed by the multitude of warring primary narratives. The reader is allowed to founder and is hard pressed to choose a central truth. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whose narrative one chooses, for they are all completely grim.

“The Wager” is a wonderful piece of narrative history. It tells the story of the somewhat curiously named HMS Wager and its part in the even more obscure War of Jenkin’s Ear in the mid 18th century. It’s a well written and compelling story. The author, David Grann, also wrote “Killers of the Flower Moon”. The big difference between the two books is “The Wager” is so much easier to read. The story flows much like a novel. I read the book quickly, eager to find out what would happen next. In essence, a small armada of vessels left Portsmouth in 1740 bound for the west coast of the Americas seeking confrontation with Spanish galleons and their prospective booty. However, in the process of rounding Cape Horn, HMS Wager was wrecked on a small Chilean island known today as Wager Island. Grann’s book tells the story of how the crew managed to return to England. Some did and some failed. Those who succeeded had differing interpretations of events. The entire story is extraordinary. It’s puzzling to me why this story is not better known. To greater or lesser degrees, everyone knows the story of the Bounty and its famous mutiny. No one seems to know of the Wager. David Grann has done some excellent work bringing this story to a wider audience. Recommended.