Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

A super fast, harrowing read about the doomed voyage of The Wager. I enjoyed the wealth of information and was swept along in the story. These men were making doing their best to make decisions in absolutely horrific circumstances where there are no good choices and there is no clear "moral" avenue.

Overall, a super interesting read.

Note: This was read for Popsugar Reading Challenge "A book about Pirates", though... I would classify this as more "pirate adjacent". No actual pirates here.

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prettiestwhistles's review against another edition

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adventurous informative medium-paced

4.0

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waterlogged's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

3.5

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knkoch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative medium-paced

3.75

I found this worthwhile and informative, if bleak in its reminders of the way naval stories like this are shaped by the huge and destructive forces of imperialism and ruthless extraction of resources. All the human folly that went into conscripting hundreds of deathly ill men to run ships that take thousands of century-old trees to build just to attempt needlessly difficult cape passages, only to shipwreck in an extremely challenging climate and

waste the lives of hundreds of people from disease and starvation!

I really liked that David Grann gave great context into the Indigenous tribes the men from this ship interacted with and the impact that naval expeditions had on them and all others in South and North America in the eighteenth century especially. It felt like he was resetting the image of journeys like these, moving away from glory and adventure into the grinding hardship, weaknesses of leadership, imperial greed, racist assumptions of superiority/inferiority, and endless jockeying between major European empires like Spain and England. Grann developed the historical characters well, and clearly established how naval honor codes, class, and rank influenced the events at sea and land. Shocked to learn that

the value of the seized Spanish galleon, then the greatest single event war bounty seized, was dwarfed by the full millions-of-pounds cost of the entire expedition to seize it.

And yet, we can't forget that history can be so easily spun into self-congratulatory stories that flatter rather than invite critical examination.

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gringolet's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.75

A well researched, entertaining and fascinating book. David Grann good as usual

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theabee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.75

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bibliomania_express's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann is a gripping and thought-provoking account of the voyage and shipwreck of HMS Wager in the 1740s. Drawing on primary sources and thorough archival research, Grann reconstructs the hardships of the voyage from before the ships set sail, through its perilous journey, shipwreck, mutiny, and court-martial. If you are squeamish about descriptions of disease and death, take care, but I do think Grann tow the lines of factual without going into excessive details.

The story of the Wager is heartbreaking and amazing, with falliable human ingenuity and the unrelenting power of hope coming up against the forces of nature, disease, delerium, and himan depravity.

I really enjoyed Grann's writing. He made the story feel engaging as a living narrative rather than a historical account. I also appreciated how he took the time to call out the intrisic racism and imperialist motives of the venture. He made space for the indigenous peoples of South America, the African slave trade, and even class divides amongst the British.

I was mainly surprised by how the court martial ended, and I appreciated Grann's discussion of why it went the way it did.

Overall, a fantastic book.

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