The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder / David Grann.

By: Grann, DavidMaterial type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Doubleday, 2023Edition: 1st edDescription: xii, 329 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), maps ; 25 cmISBN: 9780385534260Subject(s): Wager (Ship) | Shipwrecks -- Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) | Shipwreck victims -- Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) | Shipwreck victims -- Great Britain | Mutiny -- Great BritainAdditional physical formats: Online version:: WagerDDC classification: 910.9164/1 LOC classification: G530.W25 | G73 2023Summary: "On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death-for whomever the court found guilty could hang."--Provided by publisher.
Item type: List(s) this item appears in: True tales of adventure and survival | New Non-Fiction
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Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Martha's Vineyard High School Library
910.9164/GRA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 11/22/2023 39844500061334

Maps on end papers.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-313) and index.

Booklist starred, March 2023

Kirkus Starred, March 2023

Publishers Weekly Annex, March 2023

Library Journal web only, May 2023

"On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death-for whomever the court found guilty could hang."--Provided by publisher.

Adult Follett School Solutions.

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