The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by Amazonundefined

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#1
NEW YORK TIMES
BESTSELLER From the author of
Killers of the Flower Moon
, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on
The Wager
, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.
A Best Book of the Year:
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker
,
TIME
,
Smithsonian
, NPR,
Vulture, Kirkus Reviews
Riveting...Reads like a thriller, tackling a multilayered historyand imperialismwith gusto.
Time
"A tour de force of narrative nonfiction.
The Wall Street Journal
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majestys Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as the prize of all the oceans, it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-deathfor whomever the court found guilty could hang.
The Wager
is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Granns recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick OBrian, his portrayal of the castaways desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as
The Endurance
, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Granns work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.
Recenzja
#1
NEW YORK TIMES
BESTSELLERA Best Book of the Year:
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal
, T
he Washington Post
, TIME
, NPR, Esquire,
BookPage
The most gripping sea-yarn Ive read in years.A tour de force of narrative nonfiction. Mr. Granns account show how storytelling, whether to judges or readers, can shape individual and national fortunes as well as our collective memories.
Wall Street Journal
Glorious, steelya tightly written, relentless, blow-by-blow account that is hard to put down
The Washington Post
As much a rousing adventure as an exploration of the power of narratives to shape our perception of reality.
The New York Times
Propulsive.finely-detaileda ripping yarnremarkable.
The Boston Globe
David Grann's latest work of narrative nonfiction, The Wager, is part Robinson Crusoe, part Lord of the Flies... Gripping
Maureen Corrigan
, NPR
(Top 10 Book of 2023)
Riveting...The Wager reads like a thriller, tackling a multilayered historyand imperialismwith gusto.
Time Magazine
The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sailHe fixes his spyglass on the ravages of empire, of racism, of bureaucratic indifference and raw greedone of the finest nonfiction books Ive ever read.
The Guardian (UK)
The story of the shipwreck and its aftermath features scenery-chewing characters, unexpected twists and an almost unimaginable amount of human misery. Grann, the author of the acclaimed Killers of the Flower Moon, tells it with style. He manages to wring maximum drama out of the events and sketch out nuanced portraits of key players on the doomed ship."
Associated Press
His dogged search through ships logs and other contemporaneous accounts of the disaster and its mutinous aftermath has turned up the kind of sterling details that make his writing sing; he is also interested in the way these events were recorded and then recounted, with many different people trying to shape the memory of what happened. Grann simultaneously reconstructs history while telling a tale that is as propulsive and adventure-filled as any potboiler.
The Atlantic
"A genre-defying literary naval-history thriller, part Master and Commander, part Lord of the Flies"
Vanity Fair
"One of our finest nonfiction storytellers returns with a swashbuckling epic about shipwreck, scandal, mutiny, and murder"
Esquire
A thrilling accountdramatic and engrossing.
The Economist
This astonishing tale of maritime warfare, mutiny and survival in the 18th-century Atlantic proves that a nonfiction book can be as thrilling as any summer blockbuster.
People
"The Wager" is a soaring literary accomplishment and seductive adventure tale enthralling, seamlessly crafted The Wager then, is an accomplishment as vividly realized and ingeniously constructed as Grann's previous work, on par with Jon Krakauer's
Into Thin Air
and Sebastian Junger's
The Perfect Storm.
Welcome a classic.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Gripping Combining impeccable research with exceptional storytelling powers, [Grann] spirits the reader aboard a creaking wooden ship trapped at the eye of a howling storm No book that youre likely to read either this year or next will prove more dramatic and enthralling than Granns magnificent story of life both at sea and out on the desolate, mist-laden island whose solitary peak the Wagers unfortunate crew aptly named Mount Misery
Financial Times
A masterclass in story-tellingWith a series of twists and turns worthy of a well-plotted thriller, the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, uncovers an epic sea-faring taleEpic true story as told by a master David Grann has produced this riveting bookwith the artistry of a superb novelist.
The Toronto Star
[Granns] meticulously researched stories, with their spare, simmering setups that almost always deliver stunning payoffs, have made him one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today[Grann] has mastered a streamlined, propulsive type of narrative that readers devour for its hide-and-seek revealsDavids stuff reads like literature, but every detail, every quote, every seemingly implausible glimpse into a subjects mind is accounted for
New York Magazine
Your favorite writers favorite writer for decadesDavid Grann is poised to become the moments leading storyteller... [Grann] specializes in gripping historical chronicles and crime storiesso rich in intrigue that they would strain credulity in fiction[Granns] become one of our cultures leading sources of holy s**t page-turners.
GQ
David Grann is one of the premier nonfiction storytellers of our timeGranns masterful new bookis at once an adventure on the high seas, a horror story, and a courtroom drama a little bit Rashomon meets Lord of the Flies.
Rolling Stone
Not just a good but a great story, fraught with duplicity, terror and occasional heroism the story of the Wager is, like many of its antecedents from Homers Odyssey to Mutiny on the Bounty a testament to the depths of human depravity and the heights of human endurance, and you cant ask for better than that from a story...The Wager will keep you in its grip to its head-scratching, improbable end.
Los Angeles Times
O autorze
DAVID GRANN is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was a finalist for the National Book Award and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of THE WHITE DARKNESS and the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Granns investigative reporting has garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in New York.
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Chapter 1The First LieutenantEach man in the squadron carried, along with a sea chest, his own burdensome story. Perhaps it was of a scorned love, or a secret prison conviction, or a pregnant wife left on shore weeping. Perhaps it was a hunger for fame and fortune, or a dread of death. David Cheap, the first lieutenant of the Centurion, the squadrons flagship, was no different. A burly Scotsman in his early forties with a protracted nose and intense eyes, he was in flightfrom squabbles with his brother over their inheritance, from creditors chasing him, from debts that made it impossible for him to find a suitable bride. Onshore, Cheap seemed doomed, unable to navigate past lifes unexpected shoals. Yet as he perched on the quarterdeck of a British man-of-war, cruising the vast oceans with a cocked hat and spyglass, he brimmed with confidenceeven, some would say, a touch of haughtiness. The wooden world of a shipa world bound by the Navys rigid regulations and the laws of the sea and, most of all, by the hardened fellowship of menhad provided him a refuge. Suddenly he felt a crystalline order, a clarity of purpose. And Cheaps newest posting, despite the innumerable risks that it carried, from plagues and drowning to enemy cannon fire, offered what he longed for: a chance to finally claim a wealthy prize and rise to captain his own ship, becoming a lord of the sea.The problem was that he could not get away from the damned land. He was trappedcursed, reallyat the dockyard in Portsmouth, along the English Channel, struggling with feverish futility to get the Centurion fitted out and ready to sail. Its massive wooden hull, 144 feet long and 40 feet wide, was moored at a slip. Carpenters, caulkers, riggers, and joiners combed over its decks like rats (which were also plentiful). A cacophony of hammers and saws. The cobblestone streets past the shipyard were congested with rattling wheelbarrows and horse-drawn wagons, with porters, peddlers, pickpockets, sailors, and prostitutes. Periodically, a boatswain blew a chilling whistle, and crewmen stumbled from ale shops, parting from old or new sweethearts, hurrying to their departing ships in order to avoid their officers lashes.It was January 1740, and the British Empire was racing to mobilize for war against its imperial rival Spain. And in a move that had suddenly raised Cheaps prospects, the captain under whom he served on the Centurion, George Anson, had been plucked by the Admiralty to be a commodore and lead the squadron of five warships against the Spanish. The promotion was unexpected. As the son of an obscure country squire, Anson did not wield the level of patronage, the greaseor interest, as it was more politely calledthat propelled many officers up the pole, along with their men. Anson, then forty-two, had joined the Navy at the age of fourteen, and served for nearly three decades without leading a major military campaign or snaring a lucrative prize.Tall, with a long face and a high forehead, he had a remoteness about him. His blue eyes were inscrutable, and outside the company of a few trusted friends he rarely opened his mouth. One statesman, after meeting with him, noted, Anson, as usual, said little. Anson corresponded even more sparingly, as if he doubted the ability of words to convey what he saw or felt. He loved reading little, and writing, or dictating his own letters less, and that seeming negligence . . . drew upon him the ill will of many, a relative wrote. A diplomat later quipped that Anson was so unknowing about the world that hed been round it, but never in it.Nevertheless, the Admiralty had recognized in Anson what Cheap had also seen in him in the two years since hed joined the Centurions crew: a formidable seaman. Anson had a mastery of the wooden world and, equally important, a mastery of himselfhe remained cool and steady under duress. His relative noted, He had high notions of sincerity and honor and practiced them without deviation. In addition to Cheap, he had attracted a coterie of talented junior officers and protégés, all vying for his favor. One later informed Anson that he was more obliged to him than to his own father and would do anything to act up to the good opinion you are pleased to have of me. If Anson succeeded in his new role as commodore of the squadron, he would be in a position to anoint any captain he wanted. And Cheap, whod initially served as Ansons second lieutenant, was now his right-hand man.Like Anson, Cheap had spent much of his life at sea, a bruising existence hed at first hoped to escape. As Samuel Johnson once observed, No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned. Cheaps father had possessed a large estate in Fife, Scotland, and one of those titlesthe second Laird of Rossiethat evoked nobility even if it did not quite confer it. His motto, emblazoned on the familys crest, was Ditat virtus: Virtue enriches. He had seven children with his first wife, and, after she died, he had six more with his second, among them David.In 1705, the year that David celebrated his eighth birthday, his father stepped out to fetch some goats milk and dropped dead. As was custom, it was the oldest male heirDavids half brother Jameswho inherited the bulk of the estate. And so David was buffeted by forces beyond his control, in a world divided between first sons and younger sons, between haves and have-nots. Compounding his upheaval, James, now ensconced as the third Laird of Rossie, frequently neglected to pay the allowance that had been bequeathed to his half brothers and half sister: some blood was apparently thicker than others. Driven to find work, David apprenticed to a merchant, but his debts mounted. So in 1714, the year he turned seventeen, he ran off to sea, a decision that was evidently welcomed by his familyas his guardian wrote to his older brother, The sooner he goes off it will be better for you and me.After these setbacks, Cheap seemed only more consumed by his festering dreams, more determined to bend what he called an unhappy fate. On his own, on an ocean distant from the world he knew, he might prove himself in elemental strugglesbraving typhoons, outdueling enemy ships, rescuing his companions from calamities.But though Cheap had chased a few piratesincluding the one-handed Irishman Henry Johnson, who fired his gun by resting the barrel on his stumpthese earlier voyages had proved largely uneventful. Hed been sent to patrol the West Indies, generally considered the worst assignment in the Navy because of the specter of disease. The Saffron Scourge. The Bloody Flux. The Breakbone Fever. The Blue Death.But Cheap had endured. Wasnt there something to be said for that? Moreover, hed earned the trust of Anson and worked his way up to first lieutenant. No doubt it helped that they shared a disdain for reckless banter, or what Cheap deemed a vaporing manner. A Scottish minister who later became close to Cheap noted that Anson had employed him because he was a man of sense and knowledge. Cheap, the once-forlorn debtor, was but one rung from his coveted captaincy. And with the war with Spain having broken out, he was about to head into full-fledged battle for the first time.The conflict was the result of the endless jockeying among the European powers to expand their empires. They each vied to conquer or control ever larger swaths of the earth, so that they could exploit and monopolize other nations valuable natural resources and trade markets. In the process, they subjugated and destroyed innumerable indigenous peoples, justifying their ruthless self-interestincluding the reliance on the ever-expanding Atlantic slave tradeby claiming that they were somehow spreading civilization to the benighted realms of the earth. Spain had long been the dominant empire in Latin America, but Great Britain, which already possessed colonies along the American eastern seaboard, was now on the ascendanceand determined to break its rivals hold. Then, in 1738, Robert Jenkins, a British merchant captain, was summoned to appear in Parliament, where he reportedly claimed that a Spanish officer had stormed his brig in the Caribbean and, accusing him of smuggling sugar from Spains colonies, cut off his left ear. Jenkins reputedly displayed his severed appendage, pickled in a jar, and pledged my cause to my country. The incident further ignited the passions of Parliament and pamphleteers, leading people to cry for bloodan ear for an earand a good deal of booty as well. The conflict became known as the War of Jenkins Ear.British authorities soon devised a plan to launch an attack on a hub of Spains colonial wealth: Cartagena. A South American city on the Caribbean, it was where much of the silver extracted from Peruvian mines was shipped in armed convoys to Spain. The British offensiveinvolving a massive fleet of 186 ships, led by Admiral Edward Vernonwould be the largest amphibious assault in history. But there was also another, much smaller operation: the one assigned to Commodore Anson.With five warships and a scouting sloop, he and some two thousand men would sail across the Atlantic and round Cape Horn, taking, sinking, burning, or otherwise destroying enemy ships and weakening Spanish holdings from the Pacific coast of South America to the Philippines. The British government, in concocting its scheme, wanted to avoid the impression that it was merely sponsoring piracy. Yet the heart of the plan called for an act of outright thievery: to snatch a Spanish galleon loaded with virgin silver and hundreds of thousands of silver coins. Twice a year, Spain sent such a galleonit was not always the same shipfrom Mexico to the Philippines to purchase silks and spices and other Asian commodities, which, in turn, were sold in Europe and the Americas. These exchanges provided crucial links in Spains global trading empire.Cheap and the others ordered to carry out the mission were rarely privy to the agendas of those in power, but they were lured by a tantalizing prospect: a share of the treasure. The Centurions twenty-two-year-old chaplain, Reverend Richard Walter, who later compiled an account of the voyage, described the galleon as the most desirable prize that was to be met with in any part of the globe.If Anson and his men prevailedif it shall please God to bless our arms, as the Admiralty put itthey would continue circling the earth before returning home. The Admiralty had given Anson a code and a cipher to use for his written communication, and an official warned that the mission must be carried out in the most secret, expeditious manner. Otherwise, Ansons squadron might be intercepted and destroyed by a large Spanish armada being assembled under the command of Don José Pizarro.Cheap was facing his longest expeditionhe might be gone for three yearsand his most perilous. But he saw himself as a knight-errant of the sea in search of the greatest prize of all the oceans. And along the way, he might become a captain yet.Yet if the squadron didnt embark quickly, Cheap feared, the entire party would be annihilated by a force even more dangerous than the Spanish armada: the violent seas around Cape Horn. Only a few British sailors had successfully made this passage, where winds routinely blow at gale force, waves can climb to nearly a hundred feet, and icebergs lurk in the hollows. Seamen thought that the best chance to survive was during the austral summer, between December and February. Reverend Walter cited this essential maxim, explaining that during winter not only were the seas fiercer and the temperatures freezing; there were fewer hours of daylight in which one could discern the uncharted coastline. All these reasons, he argued, would make navigating around this unknown shore the most dismaying and terrible.But since war had been declared, in October 1739, the Centurion and the other men-of-war in the squadronincluding the Gloucester, the Pearl, and the Severnhad been marooned in England, waiting to be repaired and fitted out for the next journey. Cheap watched helplessly as the days ticked by. January 1740 came and went. Then February and March. It was nearly half a year since the war with Spain had been declared; still, the squadron was not ready to sail.It should have been an imposing force. Men-of-war were among the most sophisticated machines yet conceived: buoyant wooden castles powered across oceans by wind and sail. Reflecting the dual nature of their creators, they were devised to be both murderous instruments and the homes in which hundreds of sailors lived together as a family. In a lethal, floating chess game, these pieces were deployed around the globe to achieve what Sir Walter Raleigh had envisioned: Whosoever commands the seas commands the trade of the world; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world.Cheap knew what a cracking ship the Centurion was. Swift and stout, and weighing about a thousand tons, she had, like the other warships in Ansons squadron, three towering masts with crisscrossing yardswooden spars from which the sails unfurled. The Centurion could fly as many as eighteen sails at a time. Its hull gleamed with varnish, and painted around the stern, in gold relief, were Greek mythological figures, including Poseidon. On the bow rode a sixteen-foot wooden carving of a lion, painted bright red. To increase the chances of surviving a barrage of cannonballs, the hull had a double layer of planks, giving it a thickness of more than a foot in places. The ship had several decks, each stacked upon the next, and two of them had rows of cannons on both sidestheir menacing black muzzles pointing out of square gunports. Augustus Keppel, a fifteen-year-old midshipman who was one of Ansons protégés, boasted that other men-of-war had no chance in the world against the mighty Centurion.Yet building, repairing, and fitting out these watercraft was a herculean endeavor even in the best of times, and in a period of war it was chaos. The royal dockyards, which were among the largest manufacturing sites in the world, were overwhelmed with shipsleaking ships, half-constructed ships, ships needing to be loaded and unloaded. Ansons vessels were laid up on what was known as Rotten Row. As sophisticated as men-of-war were with their sail propulsion and lethal gunnery, they were largely made from simple, perishable materials: hemp, canvas, and, most of all, timber. Constructing a single large warship could require as many as four thousand trees; a hundred acres of forest might be felled.
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