CBR16 BINGO: Fiasco, because this mission to capture Spanish treasure was a fiasco from the get-go
I’ve been putting off writing this review because, while The Wager seems to have been well researched and the writing is engaging, it left me feeling a bit tepid. Nautical history isn’t my usual jam, but I do love a good survival story (see Endurance for my favorite nautical tale and one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books).
In the mid-18th century, Britain and Spain were engaged in the hilariously named War of Jenkins’ Ear, and Britain sent a small squadron of ships on a secret mission to intercept a Spanish galleon carrying treasure. The mission was fraught with trouble from the very beginning. Scurvy ran rampant through the ships, weakening the crews as they prepared to round Cape Horn (an arduous task for healthy sailors). Due to sickness and death, crews became severely understaffed, necessitating leadership changes and promotions across the fleet. A lieutenant from one of the smaller boats, David Cheap, was eventually promoted to Captain of the Wager. Rounding Cape Horn, the Wager lost contact with the rest of the fleet and was ultimately wrecked on a small island (hereafter known as Wager Island) off the west coast of Chile (handy maps on the inside front and back covers make this easy to visualize!).
The shipwrecked crew descended into a Lord of the Flies type of chaos. Cheap, a capable enough Captain on the sea, struggled to maintain order on land. Every captain has to make unpopular decisions, and rationing their meager resources felt to the men like starvation. Factions formed, with one group completely separating from the crew and going off on their own to another part of the island. One group drafted a petition demanding that they sail through the Strait of Magellan on makeshift vessels rather than slowly starve. Cheap felt increasingly that his command was being threatened, leading him to shoot a rebellious sailor in the head without due process, fractioning the group even more.
It was hard for me to feel sorry for most of these men, in spite of all the hardships. Certainly the breakdown of the social structure isn’t shocking–as David Grann writes, “a long, dangerous voyage inexorably exposed one’s hidden soul.” It’s also important to remember that not all of these men went on the voyage willingly. The British navy was famous for pressing unwilling men into service, and the Wager “had an unusual number of unwilling and troublesome crewmen,” including “highwaymen, burglars, pickpockets, debauchees, adulterers, gamesters, lampooners, bastard-getters, imposters, panders, parasites, ruffians, hypocrites, threadworn beaux jack-a-dandies.”
Yet the foolishness of humanity never ceases to disgust me. At one point, a group of Kawésqar, Patagonian natives, aided the shipwrecked sailors by diving for shellfish and showing them how to use nets to fish in the lagoon. After a couple of days, some of the sailors tried to steal the Kawésqar’s canoes and even tried seducing some of the women, so that one morning the Kawésqar just disappeared and left the men to their own devices. This is why you can’t have nice things, British Navy.
This book has another layer to it, however, beyond being a survival tale. When two groups eventually make it back to England separately (a mere 30 men from a crew of almost 200 that began the journey), conflicting stories emerged. Words like “mutiny” and “court martial” and maybe even “firing squad” were thrown around. This is where one has to fully appreciate what it means to be part of the British Navy. Was Cheap still Captain when the men were on the island? Was his shooting of the sailor justice or murder? Were the actions of the rebellious sailors mutiny or survival? Withstanding the ordeals on the ship and on Wager Island were one thing: Saying the wrong thing at a trial could just as easily prove fatal for these men.
This is the type of book that I enjoy well enough while I’m reading it but that I forget as soon as I put it down; however, if you love British history or nautical adventure, you will probably really enjoy it. I say probably, because this book has received numerous rave reviews, yet my husband, the biggest nautical history fan I know, was decidedly “meh” about it. Go figure.