THE WAGER: A TALE OF SHIPWRECK, MUTINY AND MURDER by David Grann ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We have it so easy. That’s what I kept turning to as I read about horrible hunger and storms and the dark depths of humanity. We’re lucky to inherit two hundred and fifty years of technological and civil advancement to relieve us from that grimy and chaotic time. We’ve got our problems, but reading about theirs is a refreshing (if not tough) reminder of all that we take for granted.

A painstakingly researched marvel, Grann uncovers another long lost piece of history. I don’t know how tales like the Wager or the Osage fade away, especially when they provide perfect examples of man at his worst and how we can avoid the same calamity happening twice. Then again, maybe that’s exactly why we let them go. It can be hard to look in the mirror, to accept our faults and our hubris. We can try to hide it on a shelf or bury it in both the earth and sea, but the past has a way of rising back to the surface, one way or another.

This has everything you want it to have. Extensive but thrilling details of the time and of the sailors, their treacherous journey and the ocean that seemed to exist only to kill them, their lives as castaways and their courage in accepting what might be the end, and the shocking efforts to return home. All were just men and boys thrust across a chessboard, the unfortunate tentacles of an empire reaching out to own the world. It’s impossible to put down, and in some parts, impossible to believe.

I read parts of this as I rocked in a bumpy airplane (our own sometimes fraught but preferred way of conquering other lands), creating an uncomfortable immersion. I wouldn’t recommend it, but I would absolutely recommend this book.