In 1740, the Wager set off on a journey around the world with a secret mission to capture Spanish silver and gold. Two years later, a leaking longboat lands in Brazil full of desperate men. But these are not the only survivors of the Wager, and both captain and crew end up on trial as England attempts to determine the truth.
I love a good survival story, but for some reason shipwrecks have always left me underwhelmed. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the beach. But I have enjoyed David Grann’s work in the past, and I had never heard of the story of the Wager, so I was excited for this book.
Grann vividly recreate the “wooden world” of an English naval ship, introducing us to the many people who lived and worked aboard the Wager vividly. He does a good job of grounding us in the place and time of the setting, with an especial focus on how people of different socioeconomic classes and races were regarded, and how they fit into society. The leading figures are compelling ones, serving to anchor an otherwise often chaotic story.
This book deals with the idea of narratives, and who controls the truth of any particular incident and how it is seen. As such, I appreciated how Grann made sure to tell us as many sides of the story as can be sourced almost three centuries later. He relies on the plethora of accounts from survivors among other sources, but takes pains to read between the lines to fairly present parties whose voices are not recorded, for example the “nomads of the sea,” the Kawésqar people, who tried to help the shipwrecked sailors.
However, I found that the pacing and the detail of the narrative varied throughout the book. While the first half of the book was very in-depth, events after the castaways begin to make their ways off the island are written in an occasionally vague manner, as though the author had expended the majority of his effort too early. It’s not an uninteresting second half, by any means, but rather a let-down after the interest of the first.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
