March 28, 2025 • 15 mins
🚢 The Wager: Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder — a gripping tale of survival, betrayal, and the darkest corners of human nature. In today's episode of BOOKKAST – Bestsellers in Minutes, we dive deep into David Grann’s best-selling historical masterpiece.
🌍 Set in 1740, against the backdrop of the War of Jenkins’ Ear, The Wager recounts the dramatic voyage of HMS Wager, part of Commodore Anson’s secret mission to capture the treasure-laden Manila Galleon. But what begins as an imperial quest for glory becomes an unimaginable nightmare of shipwreck, scurvy, mutiny, and survival on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
âš“ In this episode, you'll discover:
✨ The staggering challenges of 18th-century maritime voyages
✨ The leadership struggle between Captain David Cheap and gunner John Bulkeley
✨ The young midshipman John Byron’s perspective (grandfather of the poet Lord Byron)
✨ The battle between truth, memory, and manipulation — and how each survivor’s version shaped history
✨ Why The Wager is more than a survival story: it’s a powerful study of human endurance, betrayal, and storytelling itself
👉 If you love tales of adventure, survival against all odds, and the complex psychology of leadership and mutiny, this episode is for you!
🎧 Listen, learn, and decide for yourself: Who were the heroes and who were the villains?
đź”” Don’t forget to like đź‘Ť, comment đź’¬, and subscribe đź”” for more bestsellers in minutes!Â
🌍 Set in 1740, against the backdrop of the War of Jenkins’ Ear, The Wager recounts the dramatic voyage of HMS Wager, part of Commodore Anson’s secret mission to capture the treasure-laden Manila Galleon. But what begins as an imperial quest for glory becomes an unimaginable nightmare of shipwreck, scurvy, mutiny, and survival on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
âš“ In this episode, you'll discover:
✨ The staggering challenges of 18th-century maritime voyages
✨ The leadership struggle between Captain David Cheap and gunner John Bulkeley
✨ The young midshipman John Byron’s perspective (grandfather of the poet Lord Byron)
✨ The battle between truth, memory, and manipulation — and how each survivor’s version shaped history
✨ Why The Wager is more than a survival story: it’s a powerful study of human endurance, betrayal, and storytelling itself
👉 If you love tales of adventure, survival against all odds, and the complex psychology of leadership and mutiny, this episode is for you!
🎧 Listen, learn, and decide for yourself: Who were the heroes and who were the villains?
đź”” Don’t forget to like đź‘Ť, comment đź’¬, and subscribe đź”” for more bestsellers in minutes!Â
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, so welcome back to Bookcast, you know, the
show where we try to bring you best sellers in
just minutes.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And that's right, best sellers in minutes. And today we're
diving into The Wager by David Grant.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Oh. This one, this one's a good one, folks. The
Wager a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Buckle up. It's quite a ride.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And you know, I think one of the reasons you
reached out to us is you're just looking for like
the key takeaways, right.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, you're like, I've heard about this book, everyone's talking
about it. I see it on all the best seller lists,
but I don't really have time to dig into, you know,
a five hundred page you know, deep dive into eighteenth
century maritime history, right.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You want the adventure, the drama, the human story, but
like without maybe getting bogged down in all the you know,
the minutia of naval regulations exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And this is the perfect book for that because it
really is like an adventure story first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh absolutely, it reads like a thriller.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, but at the same time it makes you think,
you know, about the nature of truth, how stories get
told and retold, and whose voices get heard, you know,
especially in these extreme situations where survival is on the line.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Right. So we're going to unpack all of that for
you today. We're gonna set the scene, introduce you to
the key players, and really dissect the events of this
incredible true.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Story and hopefully leave you with some lingering questions because
the wager it really.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Stays with you, it does.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So to set the stage, we're talking about seventeen thirty nine, right,
the War of Jenkins.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Ear of Jenkins.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Ee.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, it sounds a little ridiculous, right, like a Monty
Python sketch almost.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I know, a war started over a severed ear, but
there was some serious geopolitical tensions simmering beneath the surface.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh absolutely. This wasn't just about one man's ear. This
is about Britain wanting to break Spain's grip on the
Americas and see some of that sweet colonial wealth for themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Right, and their prime target, the holy grail, so to speak,
was the Manila Gallion.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
The most desirable prize that was to be met with
in any part of the globe according to the book.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Wow, that's high praise. So what made this galleon so special.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, it's basically a treasure ship loaded with silks, spices, silver,
courseland you name it, all coming from the Philippines back
to Spain and the British they wanted a piece of
that action.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So enter Commodore George Anson and his squadron of ships.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Dispatched in seventeen forty with orders to disrupt Spanish shipping
and capture that elusive Manila Gallion.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And among Anson's fleet was the HMS Wager, the ship.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
That would become infamous for its disastrous journey and the
subject to Grand's book.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Now it's important to remember these ships were marvels of engineering,
but they were also incredibly vulnerable, right.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Oh, absolutely buoyant wooden castles, as Grand calls them. But imagine,
you know, constantly exposed to the elements saltwater, sun wind, not.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
To mention those pesky shipworms.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
To read anavallis the bane of every wooden ship. They
just burrow into the hull and feast away.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And then you've got fungus, rot, general decay. The average
life span of a man of warback then was only
about fourteen years.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's right, fourteen years for these huge, expensive warships and
they were pushing their limits on these long voyages.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
And this particular voyage getting it off the ground wasn't
exactly a smooth operation either, was it.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
No, not at all riddled with delays from the very start.
And the crews they assembled, well, a lot of them
were in pretty rough shape.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Like these weren't exactly the cream of the crop of
British sailors, were they not quite?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
A lot of them were considered invalids basically unfit for
duty before the even set sail.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And then there's the ever present threat of disease.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right, especially Typhus ship's fever. They called it incredibly contagious
and deadly in those close quarters.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I mean, just think about it. Hundreds of men crammed
together a below deck, often in filthy conditions. It's a
recipe for disaster.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The book mentions over twenty five deaths on Anson's flagship
of the Centurion before they even left port.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Wow, that's just heartbreaking. So they're already facing an uphill
battle before they even hit open water exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And that's not even considering the psychological toll, right, the fear,
the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, so let's talk about the captain of the Wager,
a man named David Cheek.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Ambitious man. Davy Cheap came from a good Scottish family
and he longed for glory, dreamed of commanding his own ship,
of being a true lord.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Of the sea.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But he hadn't really had his big break yet, had he.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
No, not really.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
He'd spent years chasing pirates in the West Indies, but
mostly just routine patrols, nothing too exciting or lucrative.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So this voyage to the Pacific, this was his chance.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
To prove himself, to make his mark, to capture some
of that Spanish gold, and maybe even find a short
cut back to England through the fabled Northwest Passage.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So the stakes were high for Captain Cheap. And who
else should we be paying attention to on board the Wager.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Well, there's John Byron, a young midshipman only sixteen years old,
and as you might have guessed, the grandfather of the
famous poet Lord Byron.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Oh wow. So he's experiencing this brutal reality of naval
life firsthand at a very young age, and.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
He was a stark contrast to his privileged upbringing.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You know, Indwstead Abbey and then there's John Bulkley, the
ship's gunner.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Right. Yes, Bulkley is a key figure because, unlike the
officers who were required to get keep official logs, Bulkley
kept his own detailed journals, so.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We get his perspective on events, which sometimes differs quite
a bit from the official accounts.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Oh absolutely, his journals provide a fascinating and often contradictory
view of what happened on the Wager, and they were
crucial to Gran's research.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
So we've got a captain eager for glory, a young
aristocrat thrust into this harsh world, and a meticulous gunner
documenting everything that's happening. It sounds like a recipe for
some intense drama.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And that's before they even encounter the true perils of
the voyage.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And those perils were significant right from the start.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yes, they faced delays leaving England, they bottled storms
in the Atlantic, and then the Typhus epidemic really took hold.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It's hard to even imagine the conditions on board those
ships during a typhus outbreak.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Hundreds of men packed together, the disease spreading rapidly, no
real understanding of how to treat it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
It was terrifying, and then they had to round Cape
Horn in.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
March, the worst possible time.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, I was gonna say, isn't it safer to go
east during the winter month.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It is, but their mission required them to go west,
straight into the teeth of the prevailing westerly winds and
those massive waves.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
It's like they were deliberately sailing into the most dangerous
waters on Earth.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, their orders were to attack Spanish shipping in the Pacific,
so they had no choice but to brave Cape Horn.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And on top of the storms, they're also dealing with
scurvy right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yes, a truly horrific disease caused by vitamin C deficiency.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I always forget how much of a problem scurvy was
back then.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It was a major killer on long voyages. Symptoms were
awful weakness, fatigue, bleeding gums, swollen joints, and eventually death.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And they didn't even know what caused it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
No, they had no idea about vitamins, of the importance
of fresh fruits and vegetables. They thought it was caused
by bad air or laziness.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
It's amazing that anyone survived these voyages at all.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It is a testament to human resilience. But the death
toll was staggering. Nearly three hundred of the Centurion's five
hundred men died from scurvy alone.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
So amidst all this death and chaos, the squadron starts
to fall apart.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, the storms scatter the ships. The seven in the
Pearl disappear without.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
A trace, and there were rumors that they might have deserted.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Right. Yeah, some people believe that the captains of those
ships just couldn't face the horrors of Cape Horn.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And turned back.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And eventually the Wager itself gets separated from the rest
of the.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Fleet, lost and alone in those unforgiving waters.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And that's when the real trouble begins, Right, that's.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
When the Wager runs aground on a desolate island off
the coast of Patagonia.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
And not just any island. This was the Gulf of Dapanas,
which translates to.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Meet Gulf of Sorrows. Very fitting is.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
It really sets the scene for what's about to happen.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So imagine the scene the Wager, battered by relentless storms,
they're trying to navigate by dead reckoning, essentially guessing their
position without accurate longitude.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Readings, which was a huge problem back then.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right, Oh yeah, longitude was the great navigational challenge of
the age. They couldn't pinpoint their location with any.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Certainty, so they're essentially sailing blind. And then boom they
hit the rocks.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Chaotic, terrifying scene. Waves crashing over the deck, the rudder gone,
the ship quickly filling with water. It's a miracle anyone
survived the initial impact.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
But survived, they do, at least some of them.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
One hundred and forty men managed to scramble ashore onto
this desolate rocky island. But their ordeal is far from over.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So now they're stranded right freezing, cold, damp, scarce food.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
What happens next, Well, at first there's this burst of resourcefulness. Yeah,
the instinct to survive.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Kicks in, Like, what kind of things are they doing?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, Bulkley, the gunner, he proves to be quite the handyman.
He manages to build a makeshift shelter using the ship's cutter.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It is.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
They're scavenging for supplies, trying to make the best of
a terrible situation. But as the days turn into weeks
and no rescue appears, the situation starts to deteriorate.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
The social order starts to break down.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Exactly, the established naval hierarchy. It just doesn't hold up
in this kind of extreme environment.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Like they're no longer officers and crew, They're just desperate
men fighting.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
For survival, and that's when the tensions really start to rise.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
They also encounter the native people of the region, the Cowiscar, right, they.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Do, and this could have been a turning point for them.
The Cowscar were incredibly skilled at surviving in this parch environment.
They could have taught the castaways so much.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
But it didn't go well, did it now.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Unfortunately, the castaways, driven by fear and desperation, they didn't
treat the cow Westcar with the respect they deserved.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
There were some clashes of misunderstandings, and ultimately the Cowistcar withdrew.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Taking with them their invaluable knowledge of how to survive
in this unforgiving place.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So the castaways are on their own, facing starvation, exposure,
and infighting.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And Captain Chief's leadership it starts to unravel, but.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
He's not able to maintain control of the situation exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
He becomes increasingly isolated he's seen as out of touch
with the needs of the men.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And then there's this guy, James Mitchell, Ah, yes, Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
He emerges as a kind of rival leader, a more
ruthless figure who appeals to the baser instincts of.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Some of the the men.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So it becomes us versus them.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Basically, and the fragile trust that held the group together
completely evaporates.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And then there's the theft, right, oh yes.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
The theft that becomes ramped at, men stealing from each other,
hoarding supplies. It's every man for himself.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So the situation is descending into chaos anarchy.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Exactly, and their only hope seems to be escaping this island,
which leads them to this ambitious plan to build what
they call the Arc.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The Arc what is that?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Essentially, they salvaged what they could from the wreckage of
the Wager and they started rebuilding a longboat, a much
smaller vessel but hopefully see worthy enough to get them
off this island.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
It sounds like a long shut.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
It was desperate, gambled, but they didn't have many other options.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
And this whole process of building the Arc, it just
exacerbates the tensions within the group.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Right, it does, because now they're not just fighting for survival,
they're fighting for a place on this escape vessel.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And that's when the mutiny happens.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yes, Fueled by desperation and resentment, a group of men
led by Bulkley, the gunner, they decide they've had enough
of Captain Chief's leadership.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
They see him as weak and decisive, out of touch, and.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
They take matters into their own hands. A munich we
can find cheap to his quarters and they drop their
own set of rules for the group that will attempt
to sail away on.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
The arc, and about what happens to him?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
He refuses to leave.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
He says he'd rather be shot than carried off a prisoner.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
So he stays behind on the island with a small
group of loyalists and a very limited amount of supplies,
while the rest set sail.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
In the arc along with a smaller barge and a yawl,
all dangerously overcrowded with dwindling provisions.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So now we've got two groups of survivors, each facing
their own incredibly difficult journey.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And their stories diverged dramatically.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So what happens to Bulkley and his group?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
They attempt to sail through the treacherous Strait of Magellan,
aiming for the Portuguese settlements in Brazil.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Which is no easy feat. No.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
They face storms, starvation, continued dissent within their ranks. It
was an epic struggle for survival.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And what about Cheap and his men.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Attempt to round Cape Horn again and they're much smaller
and less seaworthy barge.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Which is even crazier than the first.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Time it is, they face further shipwrecks, they're forced to
turn back, and eventually they end up back on that
same desolate island, the Gulf of Sorrows, living up to
its name it is, and their ordeal continues for months
before they're finally rescued by the Spanish.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So they end up as prisoners of war of the
very empire they were sent to fight against.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
It's a cruel twist to fake.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And what about Bulkley and his group? Do they make
it to Brazil?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
They do After months of hardship, they finally reach the
Portuguese settlements, but their journey.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Is far from over, so they eventually make it back
to England.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
They do in January seventeen forty three. Bulkley and a
companion named Cummins. They arrive in England and their stories
start to.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Spread, and then Cheap and Byron. They eventually make.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It back too, yes, but much later, after enduring even
more hardships and facing accusations.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Of their own.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So now you've got all these survivors back in England,
each with their own version of events, and.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Their stories are wildly.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Contradictoryas flying everywhere. Who's the hero, who's the villain, Who's
telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
It becomes a battle of narratives, a fight for reputation
and vindication.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And Bulkley he publishes his own account right, he.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Does a voyage to the South Seas. It becomes a
bestseller and it really shapes public opinion.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
So he's controlling the narrative to a certain extent.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
He is.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
He's presenting himself as the resourceful leader, the man who
saved the men from chiefs incompetence.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
But cheap and is loyalists. They have their own side
of the story.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
They do.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
They accuse Bulkley of mutiny, of being a liar and
a manipulator.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So who's telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's the question that David Granm grapples with in the Wager,
and it's a question that ultimately has no easy answer.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Because the truth is often subjective, especially in these kinds
of extreme situations.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Exactly, trauma, memory, perception, they all play a role in
how we remember and recount events.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And the Admiralty they're trying to make sense of all this.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Right they are.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
They launch an investigation, They convene a court martial to
try to determine what really happened on the Wager and
what's the Well, surprisingly, no one is convicted of mutiny
or murder.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Really, so despite all the accusations, all the drama, no
one is held accountable.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
It seems that the Admiralty was more concerned with maintaining
order and discipline within the Navy than with punishing individuals.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Like they wanted to send a message that mutiny wouldn't
be tolerated exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, But they also recognized the extraordinary circumstances of the Wager's.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Voyage and the fact that the truth was so elusive, So.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
The Wager it becomes this cautionary tale, a reminder of
the fragility of human nature and the perils of.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Ambition and the power of storytelling.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Right, absolutely, yeah, Because in the end, it's the stories
we tell ourselves and others that shape our understanding.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Of the past.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So The Wager is much more than just a shipwreck story.
It's a story about survival, betrayal, the limits of human endurance,
and the enduring power of narrative.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And it's a story that continues to resonate with readers
centuries later.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, it really makes you think about the choices we
make under pressure and how our perspectives shape our understandings
of the world.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
And it reminds us that history is never simple. It's
always messy and complex and full of contradictions.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Absolutely, So if you're looking for a thrilling and thought
provoking read, The Wager by David Gran is definitely worth
checking out.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
And if you want to explore the story further, Gran
includes extensive notes and sources in the back of the book.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So you can really dive deep into the historical context
and the different perspectives on this incredible true.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Story and maybe even come to your own conclusions about
what really happened on The Wager.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Thanks for joining us on Bookcast, where we bring you
best sellers in minutes. Tune in next time for another
deep dive into a captivating book.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
We'll see you then bye.
All right, so welcome back to Bookcast, you know, the
show where we try to bring you best sellers in
just minutes.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And that's right, best sellers in minutes. And today we're
diving into The Wager by David Grant.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Oh. This one, this one's a good one, folks. The
Wager a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Buckle up. It's quite a ride.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And you know, I think one of the reasons you
reached out to us is you're just looking for like
the key takeaways, right.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, you're like, I've heard about this book, everyone's talking
about it. I see it on all the best seller lists,
but I don't really have time to dig into, you know,
a five hundred page you know, deep dive into eighteenth
century maritime history, right.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You want the adventure, the drama, the human story, but
like without maybe getting bogged down in all the you know,
the minutia of naval regulations exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And this is the perfect book for that because it
really is like an adventure story first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh absolutely, it reads like a thriller.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, but at the same time it makes you think,
you know, about the nature of truth, how stories get
told and retold, and whose voices get heard, you know,
especially in these extreme situations where survival is on the line.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Right. So we're going to unpack all of that for
you today. We're gonna set the scene, introduce you to
the key players, and really dissect the events of this
incredible true.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Story and hopefully leave you with some lingering questions because
the wager it really.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Stays with you, it does.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
So to set the stage, we're talking about seventeen thirty nine, right,
the War of Jenkins.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Ear of Jenkins.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Ee.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, it sounds a little ridiculous, right, like a Monty
Python sketch almost.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I know, a war started over a severed ear, but
there was some serious geopolitical tensions simmering beneath the surface.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh absolutely. This wasn't just about one man's ear. This
is about Britain wanting to break Spain's grip on the
Americas and see some of that sweet colonial wealth for themselves.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Right, and their prime target, the holy grail, so to speak,
was the Manila Gallion.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
The most desirable prize that was to be met with
in any part of the globe according to the book.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Wow, that's high praise. So what made this galleon so special.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, it's basically a treasure ship loaded with silks, spices, silver,
courseland you name it, all coming from the Philippines back
to Spain and the British they wanted a piece of
that action.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So enter Commodore George Anson and his squadron of ships.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Dispatched in seventeen forty with orders to disrupt Spanish shipping
and capture that elusive Manila Gallion.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And among Anson's fleet was the HMS Wager, the ship.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
That would become infamous for its disastrous journey and the
subject to Grand's book.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Now it's important to remember these ships were marvels of engineering,
but they were also incredibly vulnerable, right.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Oh, absolutely buoyant wooden castles, as Grand calls them. But imagine,
you know, constantly exposed to the elements saltwater, sun wind, not.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
To mention those pesky shipworms.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
To read anavallis the bane of every wooden ship. They
just burrow into the hull and feast away.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And then you've got fungus, rot, general decay. The average
life span of a man of warback then was only
about fourteen years.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
That's right, fourteen years for these huge, expensive warships and
they were pushing their limits on these long voyages.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
And this particular voyage getting it off the ground wasn't
exactly a smooth operation either, was it.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
No, not at all riddled with delays from the very start.
And the crews they assembled, well, a lot of them
were in pretty rough shape.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Like these weren't exactly the cream of the crop of
British sailors, were they not quite?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
A lot of them were considered invalids basically unfit for
duty before the even set sail.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And then there's the ever present threat of disease.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Right, especially Typhus ship's fever. They called it incredibly contagious
and deadly in those close quarters.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I mean, just think about it. Hundreds of men crammed
together a below deck, often in filthy conditions. It's a
recipe for disaster.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The book mentions over twenty five deaths on Anson's flagship
of the Centurion before they even left port.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Wow, that's just heartbreaking. So they're already facing an uphill
battle before they even hit open water exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And that's not even considering the psychological toll, right, the fear,
the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Okay, so let's talk about the captain of the Wager,
a man named David Cheek.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Ambitious man. Davy Cheap came from a good Scottish family
and he longed for glory, dreamed of commanding his own ship,
of being a true lord.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Of the sea.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But he hadn't really had his big break yet, had he.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
No, not really.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
He'd spent years chasing pirates in the West Indies, but
mostly just routine patrols, nothing too exciting or lucrative.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So this voyage to the Pacific, this was his chance.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
To prove himself, to make his mark, to capture some
of that Spanish gold, and maybe even find a short
cut back to England through the fabled Northwest Passage.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So the stakes were high for Captain Cheap. And who
else should we be paying attention to on board the Wager.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Well, there's John Byron, a young midshipman only sixteen years old,
and as you might have guessed, the grandfather of the
famous poet Lord Byron.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Oh wow. So he's experiencing this brutal reality of naval
life firsthand at a very young age, and.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
He was a stark contrast to his privileged upbringing.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You know, Indwstead Abbey and then there's John Bulkley, the
ship's gunner.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Right. Yes, Bulkley is a key figure because, unlike the
officers who were required to get keep official logs, Bulkley
kept his own detailed journals, so.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We get his perspective on events, which sometimes differs quite
a bit from the official accounts.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Oh absolutely, his journals provide a fascinating and often contradictory
view of what happened on the Wager, and they were
crucial to Gran's research.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
So we've got a captain eager for glory, a young
aristocrat thrust into this harsh world, and a meticulous gunner
documenting everything that's happening. It sounds like a recipe for
some intense drama.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And that's before they even encounter the true perils of
the voyage.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And those perils were significant right from the start.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yes, they faced delays leaving England, they bottled storms
in the Atlantic, and then the Typhus epidemic really took hold.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It's hard to even imagine the conditions on board those
ships during a typhus outbreak.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Hundreds of men packed together, the disease spreading rapidly, no
real understanding of how to treat it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
It was terrifying, and then they had to round Cape
Horn in.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
March, the worst possible time.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, I was gonna say, isn't it safer to go
east during the winter month.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It is, but their mission required them to go west,
straight into the teeth of the prevailing westerly winds and
those massive waves.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
It's like they were deliberately sailing into the most dangerous
waters on Earth.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, their orders were to attack Spanish shipping in the Pacific,
so they had no choice but to brave Cape Horn.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And on top of the storms, they're also dealing with
scurvy right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yes, a truly horrific disease caused by vitamin C deficiency.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I always forget how much of a problem scurvy was
back then.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It was a major killer on long voyages. Symptoms were
awful weakness, fatigue, bleeding gums, swollen joints, and eventually death.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And they didn't even know what caused it.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
No, they had no idea about vitamins, of the importance
of fresh fruits and vegetables. They thought it was caused
by bad air or laziness.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
It's amazing that anyone survived these voyages at all.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It is a testament to human resilience. But the death
toll was staggering. Nearly three hundred of the Centurion's five
hundred men died from scurvy alone.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
So amidst all this death and chaos, the squadron starts
to fall apart.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, the storms scatter the ships. The seven in the
Pearl disappear without.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
A trace, and there were rumors that they might have deserted.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Right. Yeah, some people believe that the captains of those
ships just couldn't face the horrors of Cape Horn.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And turned back.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
And eventually the Wager itself gets separated from the rest
of the.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Fleet, lost and alone in those unforgiving waters.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
And that's when the real trouble begins, Right, that's.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
When the Wager runs aground on a desolate island off
the coast of Patagonia.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
And not just any island. This was the Gulf of Dapanas,
which translates to.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Meet Gulf of Sorrows. Very fitting is.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
It really sets the scene for what's about to happen.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So imagine the scene the Wager, battered by relentless storms,
they're trying to navigate by dead reckoning, essentially guessing their
position without accurate longitude.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Readings, which was a huge problem back then.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right, Oh yeah, longitude was the great navigational challenge of
the age. They couldn't pinpoint their location with any.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Certainty, so they're essentially sailing blind. And then boom they
hit the rocks.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Chaotic, terrifying scene. Waves crashing over the deck, the rudder gone,
the ship quickly filling with water. It's a miracle anyone
survived the initial impact.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
But survived, they do, at least some of them.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
One hundred and forty men managed to scramble ashore onto
this desolate rocky island. But their ordeal is far from over.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So now they're stranded right freezing, cold, damp, scarce food.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
What happens next, Well, at first there's this burst of resourcefulness. Yeah,
the instinct to survive.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Kicks in, Like, what kind of things are they doing?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, Bulkley, the gunner, he proves to be quite the handyman.
He manages to build a makeshift shelter using the ship's cutter.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It is.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
They're scavenging for supplies, trying to make the best of
a terrible situation. But as the days turn into weeks
and no rescue appears, the situation starts to deteriorate.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
The social order starts to break down.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Exactly, the established naval hierarchy. It just doesn't hold up
in this kind of extreme environment.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Like they're no longer officers and crew, They're just desperate
men fighting.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
For survival, and that's when the tensions really start to rise.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
They also encounter the native people of the region, the Cowiscar, right, they.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Do, and this could have been a turning point for them.
The Cowscar were incredibly skilled at surviving in this parch environment.
They could have taught the castaways so much.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
But it didn't go well, did it now.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Unfortunately, the castaways, driven by fear and desperation, they didn't
treat the cow Westcar with the respect they deserved.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
There were some clashes of misunderstandings, and ultimately the Cowistcar withdrew.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Taking with them their invaluable knowledge of how to survive
in this unforgiving place.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So the castaways are on their own, facing starvation, exposure,
and infighting.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And Captain Chief's leadership it starts to unravel, but.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
He's not able to maintain control of the situation exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
He becomes increasingly isolated he's seen as out of touch
with the needs of the men.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And then there's this guy, James Mitchell, Ah, yes, Mitchell.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
He emerges as a kind of rival leader, a more
ruthless figure who appeals to the baser instincts of.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Some of the the men.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So it becomes us versus them.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Basically, and the fragile trust that held the group together
completely evaporates.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And then there's the theft, right, oh yes.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
The theft that becomes ramped at, men stealing from each other,
hoarding supplies. It's every man for himself.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So the situation is descending into chaos anarchy.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Exactly, and their only hope seems to be escaping this island,
which leads them to this ambitious plan to build what
they call the Arc.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The Arc what is that?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Essentially, they salvaged what they could from the wreckage of
the Wager and they started rebuilding a longboat, a much
smaller vessel but hopefully see worthy enough to get them
off this island.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
It sounds like a long shut.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
It was desperate, gambled, but they didn't have many other options.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
And this whole process of building the Arc, it just
exacerbates the tensions within the group.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Right, it does, because now they're not just fighting for survival,
they're fighting for a place on this escape vessel.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
And that's when the mutiny happens.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yes, Fueled by desperation and resentment, a group of men
led by Bulkley, the gunner, they decide they've had enough
of Captain Chief's leadership.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
They see him as weak and decisive, out of touch, and.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
They take matters into their own hands. A munich we
can find cheap to his quarters and they drop their
own set of rules for the group that will attempt
to sail away on.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
The arc, and about what happens to him?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
He refuses to leave.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
He says he'd rather be shot than carried off a prisoner.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
So he stays behind on the island with a small
group of loyalists and a very limited amount of supplies,
while the rest set sail.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
In the arc along with a smaller barge and a yawl,
all dangerously overcrowded with dwindling provisions.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So now we've got two groups of survivors, each facing
their own incredibly difficult journey.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And their stories diverged dramatically.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So what happens to Bulkley and his group?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
They attempt to sail through the treacherous Strait of Magellan,
aiming for the Portuguese settlements in Brazil.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Which is no easy feat. No.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
They face storms, starvation, continued dissent within their ranks. It
was an epic struggle for survival.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And what about Cheap and his men.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Attempt to round Cape Horn again and they're much smaller
and less seaworthy barge.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Which is even crazier than the first.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Time it is, they face further shipwrecks, they're forced to
turn back, and eventually they end up back on that
same desolate island, the Gulf of Sorrows, living up to
its name it is, and their ordeal continues for months
before they're finally rescued by the Spanish.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So they end up as prisoners of war of the
very empire they were sent to fight against.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
It's a cruel twist to fake.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And what about Bulkley and his group? Do they make
it to Brazil?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
They do After months of hardship, they finally reach the
Portuguese settlements, but their journey.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Is far from over, so they eventually make it back
to England.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
They do in January seventeen forty three. Bulkley and a
companion named Cummins. They arrive in England and their stories
start to.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Spread, and then Cheap and Byron. They eventually make.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It back too, yes, but much later, after enduring even
more hardships and facing accusations.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Of their own.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So now you've got all these survivors back in England,
each with their own version of events, and.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Their stories are wildly.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Contradictoryas flying everywhere. Who's the hero, who's the villain, Who's
telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
It becomes a battle of narratives, a fight for reputation
and vindication.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
And Bulkley he publishes his own account right, he.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Does a voyage to the South Seas. It becomes a
bestseller and it really shapes public opinion.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
So he's controlling the narrative to a certain extent.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
He is.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
He's presenting himself as the resourceful leader, the man who
saved the men from chiefs incompetence.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
But cheap and is loyalists. They have their own side
of the story.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
They do.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
They accuse Bulkley of mutiny, of being a liar and
a manipulator.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So who's telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's the question that David Granm grapples with in the Wager,
and it's a question that ultimately has no easy answer.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Because the truth is often subjective, especially in these kinds
of extreme situations.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Exactly, trauma, memory, perception, they all play a role in
how we remember and recount events.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And the Admiralty they're trying to make sense of all this.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Right they are.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
They launch an investigation, They convene a court martial to
try to determine what really happened on the Wager and
what's the Well, surprisingly, no one is convicted of mutiny
or murder.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Really, so despite all the accusations, all the drama, no
one is held accountable.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
It seems that the Admiralty was more concerned with maintaining
order and discipline within the Navy than with punishing individuals.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Like they wanted to send a message that mutiny wouldn't
be tolerated exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, But they also recognized the extraordinary circumstances of the Wager's.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Voyage and the fact that the truth was so elusive, So.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
The Wager it becomes this cautionary tale, a reminder of
the fragility of human nature and the perils of.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Ambition and the power of storytelling.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Right, absolutely, yeah, Because in the end, it's the stories
we tell ourselves and others that shape our understanding.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Of the past.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So The Wager is much more than just a shipwreck story.
It's a story about survival, betrayal, the limits of human endurance,
and the enduring power of narrative.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And it's a story that continues to resonate with readers
centuries later.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, it really makes you think about the choices we
make under pressure and how our perspectives shape our understandings
of the world.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
And it reminds us that history is never simple. It's
always messy and complex and full of contradictions.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Absolutely, So if you're looking for a thrilling and thought
provoking read, The Wager by David Gran is definitely worth
checking out.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
And if you want to explore the story further, Gran
includes extensive notes and sources in the back of the book.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So you can really dive deep into the historical context
and the different perspectives on this incredible true.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Story and maybe even come to your own conclusions about
what really happened on The Wager.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Thanks for joining us on Bookcast, where we bring you
best sellers in minutes. Tune in next time for another
deep dive into a captivating book.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
We'll see you then bye.
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