The Wager

1742: A barely seaworthy vessel washes up on the coast of Brazil containing thirty emaciated men, all close to death. Survivors from the <i>Wager</i>, a British vessel sent on a secret mission to plunder a Spanish galleon, they were greeted as heroes.<br><br> Six months later, another even more decrepit craft lands on the coast of Chile and the three castaways it contains have a very different story to tell – but who was telling the truth? Who were the mutineers and murderers, and who would face the hangman's noose?<br><br> In this true story, the master of narrative non-fiction, David Grann, draws a cast of indelible characters from the dustiest of sources – ships' logs, surgeons' textbooks, diaries, court-martial proceedings and Admiralty records – and takes us through the jaw-dropping twists and turns of their fate. It's an astonishing sea adventure, beautifully illustrated by Ricardo Martinez, whose scraperboard art is reminiscent of 18th-century popular illustration. Chapter-head decorations, hand-drawn maps and sea chart endpapers also bring to the design a flavour of the time.

1742: A barely seaworthy vessel washes up on the coast of Brazil containing thirty emaciated men, all close to death. Survivors from the Wager, a British vessel sent on a secret mission to plunder a Spanish galleon, they were greeted as heroes. Six months later, another even more decrepit craft lands on the coast of Chile and the three castaways it contains have a very different story to tell – but who was telling the truth? Who were the mutineers and murderers, and who would face the hangman's noose? In this true story, David Grann draws a cast of characters from ships' logs, surgeons' textbooks, diaries, court-martial proceedings and Admiralty records. What happens when a shipwreck leaves a crew stranded at the edge of the world, with little hope of rescue and even less agreement about who is in charge? The Wager turns a centuries-old maritime disaster into a story of human nature pushed to its limits.