True Tale of Shipwreck Reads More Like a Novel

Perhaps, like me, you’ve never heard of the War of Jenkin’s Ear. Robert Jenkins was captain of the British brig Rebecca in 1731 when Spanish soldiers, searching his ship for contraband, tied him to the mast and sliced off his left ear.

The war named after that incident didn’t start immediately, but some seven years later when opposition politicians in the British Parliament used it as a premise to stoke sentiment for war with Spain. It was during that war that the ill-fated voyage of the Wager took place.

David Grann’s book follows the Wager’s voyage from Portsmouth in 1740 to shipwreck on a frigid and barren island off the coast of Chile in 1741. Before the shipwreck the Wager and its crew were in very rough shape. Ravaged by scurvy and typhoid fever, nearly half of its crew of 250 men had perished before the ship ran aground.

Nine months after the shipwreck some of the crew came ashore in Brazil, half clothed and barely alive. And several months after that another set of survivors appeared in Chile. The survivors had competing stories to tell and later, to sell.

Out of these events from 280 years ago Grann has pulled together a compelling story of a perilous voyage, shipwreck, mutiny and survival. Working from the competing stories left by the survivors Grann has to sift through their stories and journals to search out the truth. What really happened? Were the accounts of murder and the hints of cannibalism true?

One of the accounts left behind came from the captain David Cheap. He was a ruthless leader who sought to inspire his men through floggings and intimidation. John Byron, a teenage midshipman and grandfather of the famous poet Lord George Gordon Byron was on his first voyage. His account inspired the 1950’s novel The Unknown Shore. The gunner John Bulkeley was responsible for what Cheap saw as mutiny. Much of the account of the castaways on the island that Grann relates comes from Bulkeley’s journal.

On its release last year many reviewers hailed this book as an instant classic, and after listening to the audiobook I have to agree with that assessment. Crisply told and captivating, this book will satisfy fiction and nonfiction readers alike. And the narration of the audiobook by the acclaimed voice actor Dion Graham is really fantastic.

RATING: Five Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

RATING COMMENTS: A gripping true story of a perilous voyage, shipwreck, mutiny and survival. Crisply told by David Grann and related through the fantastic narration of Dion Graham.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I checked a copy of the audiobook out of my library using the Libby app.