In 1742, a scrappy, leaking, cobbled together vessel lands on the Brazilian coast. The men on board soon become minor celebrities, thanks to the strange tale they have to tell, on being survivors of the shipwreck of the British ship, the Wager, two years earlier. Somehow, these men weren't the only members of the doomed voyage to (eventually) make it back to England, but as it turns out, there are many conflicting narratives on what exactly happened.

I'll be honest, I can sometimes find "survival stories" like this a bit tiresome to read. There's honestly only so many times you can read vivid descriptions of starvation, murder and mutilation, or how isolation and hunger send men insane, or the horrors of scurvy, or how some men simply have a superiority complex, thinking they know better than anyone else, even in a life or death situation, before you just feeling like yelling "Enough!".

But I did want to read this for many reasons. I wanted an insight into 1700s nautical society, and I was intrigued by the idea that conflicting accounts caused a legal nightmare on their return to England. Sadly, the vast majority of this book was the gruesome, survival tale stuff. I do appreciate how clear Grann was on his sourcing of first hand accounts, and how he even attempted to include people who are usually silenced, those who could not leave written accounts, such as the Kawésqar people. The narrative is clearly incredibly well researched and put together, but it's simply not something I loved reading about it.

After such a detailed retelling of the mens' shipwreck and their stranger-than-fiction returns to their homeland, I was then left surprised at just how rushed the end of the book felt. Simply, the parts I was most excited to learn about, the mens' return to England, the legal aftermath, and views of the burgeoning press, and the views of the wider society, views both on the men themselves and what they went through, felt very glossed over in comparison to the earlier parts of the book. That's a shame, in my opinion, because there was definitely a lot there for those of us that felt a bit deflated after reading about the hundredth gruesome death while castaway on an island. I'm sure there should have been more accounts of this period, not less, so it almost feels like perhaps these areas weren't as interesting to the author, and so he spent a lot less time on them. A shame and a bit of a let down.

I did learn many fascinating facts from this book, however. My favourite being just how many expressions and idioms that we still use today have their origin in this "age of sail":

(Chapter 2: A Gentleman Volunteer)

A solid book with a lot of interesting history, but it kind of fizzled towards to end, and didn't quite live up to its promise. 

The descriptions of the weather and sea conditions helped set the atmosphere for the book - you could picture the squalls and the beaches. The style of the writing was informative and I liked the vernacular. If you like history with a tinge of humour but like your history books relatively short (this is mercifully only about 250 pages not including the references and index - I’ve known history books be longer than 500 and so dry to read) this should be satisfying. 

Nonfiction that reads like fiction. I didn't want to stop reading. 

I think this is a pretty good starter book for anyone looking into naval history. It has all the elements of a good story: dynamic characters, plot & crazy drama & suspense. Author does a good job of compiling several narratives & creating a strong sense of flow in his story telling. My only complaint is the author’s use of pronouns when he’s discussing multiple people at once. A few times I caught myself questioning “who???” But ya I love me a British naval historical account🙂‍↕️

This book is shorter than it seems. It has extensive notes, pictures, an idea, etc at the back.