The Wager is a Safe Bet As A Gripping Book About Life, Death, and Adventure on an 18th Century British Warship
The Wager by David Grann is the poster book for “Truth is stranger than fiction;” this narrative nonfiction book is a story about a crew of men and boys with ages spanning from 80 years (a cook) to adolescence, who work on the British 18th century ship HMS Wager in 1741. They are sent on a secret Naval mission with a squadron of other ships to destroy any Spanish vessels along the way toward South America and the Pacific Ocean (they were at war with Spain), and also try to locate and commandeer a legendary Spanish treasure ship. Author David Grann had access to “archival debris: the washed-out logbooks, the moldering correspondence, the half-truthful journals, and the surviving records from the troubling court-martial”(Kindle book blurb). This book is like a runaway train I didn’t want to leave. It is gripping and not easily put down. I posted several passages from this book on social media, prompting a friend to ask if it was similar to William Golding’s book Lord of the Fl...