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 Flies. Ironically Gann leads off the entire book with two quotations and one of them is, “Maybe there is a beast…Maybe it’s only us.” (William Golding, Lord of the Flies). Gann’s and Golding’s books share undercurrents of similar issues in the sense that the process of governance can devolve between people who suddenly find they are living under dire conditions; civility falls by the wayside and people can be reduced to an animal like “survival of the fittest” behavior when their living circumstances change for the worse, whether it’s lack of food, lack of shelter, spreading disease, war, or all of those things simultaneously, much the way an EMP strike or nuclear war in today’s world might affect governments and individuals. Other subtle issues examined involve the British class system, “civilized” vs “native” cultures, how different styles of leadership work or fail in a crisis, and both these books are dramatic tellings of two stories, one fictional and the other nonfiction bolstered and framed by years of research. Both books are well worth reading.

The meat of The Wager’s plotline concerns how leadership fares following severe outbreaks of disease and deaths, the stresses of a catastrophic shipwreck, starvation, being marooned on uninhabited islands, along with brutality resulting from the relatively recently appointed Captain’s insistence on continuing to operate under the British Naval law as the Navy required, but under the extreme circumstances where they suddenly found themselves. Life’s adversities can be like a crucible with some emerging from the fire for the better, and others for worse, or perhaps not surviving at all. It is a riveting life study, a cautionary tale, but with glimpses of the kind of genius, vision, and determination that come from facing life’s greatest challenges. 

A wise Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus once stated, “Don't just say that you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better.” He believed the basis for all philosophy was self knowledge, and people should be responsible for their own actions, which they can control by practicing self discipline. The Wager is a completely immersive action adventure tale based on innumerable documents created during the 18th century. It is a real life study of humanity existing under the most horrifying conditions imaginable, and how social customs and mores can erode under harsh life threatening circumstances, while some can shine the brightest. William Golding’s beast becomes unleashed, but thankfully we have people among us who seek to lift up others. 

One might contemplate humanity hasn’t come very far since 1741 if we look around at our current global behavior on display, and often recorded for posterity thanks to cellphones and news cameras. We could all benefit by examining our own actions on any given day under the best of circumstances, and deepen our own self knowledge. Understanding shortcomings of ourselves and those around us in dire straights should arm us with compassion, and knowing when to practice a little self discipline could lead to a kinder world.