Really enjoyed The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann. What an absolute nightmare. Here’s my review.
I also posted a few excerpts over here:
For some reason I had it in my head that this was going to be a work of fiction, but no, this actually happened and I greatly appreciated how much research was put into lining up the various firsthand accounts with their interests and their intended presentation for the eventual review of the British Imperial Navy court martial. The gaps are filled in very elegantly by some informed fiction here and there, usually supplemented by evidence from other sailors and officers of the time, or other explorers throughout history. This results in a book that goes down very easy, despite it being what is essentially a nonstop torture circus where men become as beasts, the social contract collapses and death becomes a numbing routine.
I think it’s that constant scattershot death that stuck with me the most. Men would become sick with some horrible malady like scurvy and cling to life for months, only to die in a room full of other sick men when the walls of the vessel are breached. Men go scavenging and simply die on their feet, as if the presence of their fellow shipmates were the only think keeping them together. Men die to simple hopelessness when realizing their recent torturous efforts were for nothing - one dude, upon realizing they had backtracked two weeks in error in their shitty overstuffed life boat, stood, let out of a cackling madman laugh, and died on his feet. There’s this element of purpose and luck being the only things that will keep you alive, and if you lose either, you’re dead. Having any reason to keep going, any hope at all, will literally keep you alive. I was frequently moved by this as each new cruel pox or disaster befell them.
Great read, I’m definitely going to check out Grann’s other books.