They included not only washed-out logbooks but also moldering correspondence, diaries and muster books. I was amazed that, even after more than two and half centuries had passed, there was still a trove of firsthand documents about the calamitous expedition. What kind of research enabled you to write with this level of detail and intimacy? Your descriptions of what it was like to be on a British man-of-war or stranded on a desolate island are so specific and vivid. Read our starred review of ‘The Wager’ by David Grann. And if all this wasn’t enough to spark my curiosity, John Byron became the grandfather of the poet Lord Byron, whose work was influenced by what he called “my grand-dad’s ‘Narrative.’”
There were competing narratives, planted disinformation and allegations of “fake news.” So even though the story took place in the 1740s, it struck me as a parable for our own turbulent times.
In the hopes of saving their own lives, they all offered their own wildly conflicting versions of what had happened, and this unleashed another kind of war: a war over the truth. (By then, Byron was 22.) They were summoned to face a court-martial for their alleged misdeeds and feared they would be hanged. Byron and several other survivors, after completing extraordinary castaway voyages, made it back to England. Here was one of the most extraordinary sagas I had ever heard of: a crew battling typhoons, tidal waves and scurvy a shipwreck on a desolate island off the Chilean coast of Patagonia, where the castaways slowly descended into a real-life Lord of the Flies, with warring factions, murders, mutiny and cannibalism.Īnd that was only part of the saga. Though the account was written in archaic English, and the lettering was faded and hard to decipher, it instantly sparked my curiosity.
I came across an 18th-century eyewitness account of the expedition by John Byron, who had been a 16-year-old midshipman on the Wager when the voyage began.
What first sparked your curiosity about this story of a British naval expedition in the mid-18th century? Your previous books have dealt with a range of historical eras and subjects. What happened next-from the men’s harrowing survival to the unexpected fallout once they returned to England-is expertly told by National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award winner David Grann in The Wager. However, before the crew could accomplish their mission, they wrecked on an island off the coast of Patagonia. In 1740, a ship called the Wager departed from England to pursue a Spanish galleon filled with treasure.
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