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. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. "A tour de force of narrative nonfiction.” - The Wall Street Journal “Riveting.Reads like a thriller, tackling a multilayered history-and imperialism-with gusto.” - Time The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire. From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.
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