BookBrowse Reviews The Wager by David Grann

BookBrowse:

An intricate and thrilling account of an 18th-century shipwreck and its aftermath.

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BookBrowse Nonfiction Award 2023

David Grann is a journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of several nonfiction books, including the bestsellers Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. The Wager was popular with our First Impressions reviewers, with 17 out of 20 rating it 4 or 5 stars.

What the book is about:

Set in the 1740s, this is the story of the treacherous journey of six English warships, the Wager among them, with the secret mission of capturing Spanish silver and gold near the tip of South America. While rounding Cape Horn, and battling an outbreak of scurvy, the weather conditions turned atrocious, and the Wager became separated from the rest of the squadron. Shipwrecked on a desolate island, the surviving crew struggled against the elements, splitting into two groups: one that mutinied against their captain, David Cheap, and a smaller group that remained loyal to him. Based on personal and detailed diaries of the captains and seamen, this book has elements of true crime and history (Anke V). The book is broken into four sections: pre-mission preparation, the disastrous voyage, the desperate struggle for survival after the shipwreck and the improbable return of the few survivors to England. The conflicting accounts of the voyage and shipwreck by these survivors add to the drama (Mary G).

Readers found themselves drawn into the book by the power of its descriptions and "characters"…

Coincidentally, I had just returned from a trip through the Strait of Magellan and the Drake Passage to Cape Horn so I have personally experienced the wind, sleet, fog, clouds, rocky cliffs and raging seas that he so vividly describes. Reading this book swept me right back to this wild place (Linda M). An interesting cast of characters from all ages and strata of society: David Cheap, captain of the flagship Centurion; gunner and log keeper John Bulkeley; 16-year-old John Byron of poet Lord Byron's family; carpenter Cummins, who cobbled together a fragile boat (Gail B).

…and were intrigued by the deep intellectual and moral questions the story raised, as well as the historical details.

What makes this story so fascinating is it covers so many facets; it is not just a shipwreck story. The focus changes to a mutiny (or is it even a mutiny if the ship is no longer at sea?), to a survival story, to a moral conflict story (who should be sacrificed and based on what?), to a legal story...and finally a good refresher of this fascinating time in history (Suzanne B). An unbelievable but true story of hardship, fortitude, betrayal, human folly and survival. It's also a look at the pervasiveness of England's 18th-century societal class structure, its government and its imperialistic ambitions (Brenda D).

A few readers warned that the book may not be best for those looking for something light…

There are so many characters, so many positions/ranks among the crew, diseases, scurvy, burials overboard, storms and eventually mayhem, murder, mutiny and cannibalism (Sherry K). This is a book for someone who enjoys digging into the backstories in history. This would be a fitting discussion for a book club that discusses personalities, events and motivation for actions. I would not recommend to a book club that prefers lighter subjects (Jan B).

…but many found it to be thrilling, entertaining and an overall great read.

I found this book to be well-researched, well-written and extremely easy to read. It was actually quite a thrilling read to be honest. It felt more like I was reading an adventure book than a nonfiction book (Tara T). Although the subject matter was not of great interest to me when I started reading the book, my opinion quickly changed when more of the narrative was developed. The author takes a maritime scandal and engulfs the reader in a suspenseful historical thriller! (Dan W). It's a riveting, page-turning adventure, complete with shipwreck, mutiny and murder (Lois K).

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in June 2023, and has been updated for the March 2025 edition. Click here to go to this issue.