The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
David Grann
If you've read the Bounty Trilogy then you have an inkling of what's in store. The difference here is the shipwreck and its aftermath which smacks of Lord of the Flies.
The Wager was a member of a squadron of British Naval Ships that put out from Portsmouth for South America, rounded the Horn, and headed North along the coast of Chile.
The author provides a great deal of commentary on the British Navy in general including the press gangs that helped man the ships and life aboard a British Man of War in particular.
The tale is told from the perspective of Byron a young Midshipman, Officer In Training, aboard the ship. The passage around the Southern Tip of South America, Tierra Del Fuego, is perilous at any time but here was made at the worst possible time of year. The voyage was made before the dangers of Vitamin C deficiency were understood and an outbreak of Scurvy occurred at the peak of the storms that beset the squadron. The most simple preventative cure was the drinking of lime juice which served to label sailors as limeys, the use of tar to prevent rot on board labelled sailors Tars.
Marooned on an island in Southern Winter the thieves and murderers who made up the crew came back to haunt those in authority. Giving a starving man 600 lashes for stealing food sounds barbaric. The fate of John Byron's dog sounds equally cruel. Can cannibalism be far behind?
When this gets to the Admiralty and a Court Martial is launched the entire lurid affair is white-washed for the sake of the Admiralty, the Navy, and political expediency.
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