The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

Book review for The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann. I rated it 5 stars The Wager is a non-fiction book covering the improbable story of the 1741 shipwreck and mutiny of the crew from the English warship HMS Wager. Remarkably, after the crew mutinies and split into two groups, both manage to make the long voyage home to England. Along the way they live as castaways on an island, traverse dangerous seas on a tiny boat, and some even end up being captured by the Spanish. Albeit of the original 250 crew, only 36 make it home - the rest perish by some combination of starvation, drowning, murder, scurvy and typhus. One of the more famous names to survive this journey is a Lord John Byron, who was only 16 when he embarked on this voyage. Of course you might immediately wonder if he’s in some way related to the famous poet Lord Byron and yep - he was his grandfather. Although the two never met, the poet Byron was inspired by the book his grandfather published…