Overview 

During the 18th century conflict with Spain, Britain dispatches a squadron of war ships led by George Anson to intercept Spanish galleons, or sailing ships, bringing wealth from South America. The ships were to set sail for Cape Horn, South America’s southernmost tip, in order to fight Spanish ships attempting to round the continent. This necessitated the ships sailing through Drake’s Passage, the waters between South America and Antarctica known for their “pulverizing” currents and storms . The Wager was destroyed by the Passage’s fierce winds and underwater rocks near the beach. The survivors were stuck on a deserted island with no food or fresh water.

David Cheap, the ship’s captain, fought to preserve order on the island. However, in a fit of wrath, he shot and killed one of the crew’s seamen for stealing and being disobedient. This prompted many of the survivors to revolt against Cheap. They banded together behind the ship’s gunner, John Bulkeley, “a ferocious worker—a survivor” who organized the construction of a shelter for the majority of the survivors. While Cheap planned to attack a Spanish outpost on mainland South America, Bulkeley and his supporters headed for the Strait of Magellan (near South America’s southern tip), where they could safely return to Britain. Cheap and the crew mates who supported him were abandoned on the island that would become known as Wager Island.

The majority of the survivors made it back to Britain with the assistance of local Indigenous populations. The survivors were tried in a court martial as a result of Captain Cheap’s murder charges and the mutiny. With the exception of a modest reprimand against the ship’s lieutenant for failing to properly disclose a warning that could have prevented a shipwreck, none of the survivors were punished. The story of the Wager Island mutiny was forgotten over time because it reflected poorly on the British Empire and its fleet.

Part 1 Analysis of  Chapters 1-3

David Grann explores a crucial aspect of the tale, The Romance of the British Navy, through David Cheap and John Byron. In Britain, as the younger sons of aristocratic parents, Cheap and Byron had no inherent, legal claim to their families’ aristocratic titles, or even an inheritance at all, if their fathers chose not to leave anything to them in their wills. Many of the aristocracy’s younger sons pursued jobs in government or colonial administration, the army, or the Church of England. There was a stigma attached to nobles enlisting in the navy when compared to careers in the Church or the army.

However, there was also an effort to recruit upper-class males to join the navy. Stories about the exploits of legendary British explorers such as Sir Francis Drake  drew people like Byron to the navy. Sailors like Drake were famed not just for their contributions to European discovery and the foundation of British colonies, but also for their valor in battle against the Spanish fleet. Drake’s adventures were especially poignant now that Britain was at war with Spain.

Grann’s narrative emphasizes John Bulkeley’s social class. Bulkeley, unlike Byron and Cheap, came from a lower-class family. Britain, like the rest of Europe, was still a fairly hierarchical, class-focused society in the 18th century. For men who did not come from an upper-class background, rising through the ranks of the army and navy and becoming a senior officer was nearly unheard of. However, the 18th century was also a time when literacy rates were rising and public opinion was becoming a more powerful political force. This is why, following the events of the shipwreck and rebellion, Bulkeley’s record became so divisive. Bulkeley’s publications were deemed worthless because he did not get an upper-class education.

Grann investigates the conflict between the British Empire, its navy, and colonial ventures, as well as the ideas of Imperialism and Colonialism. This will become evident in later chapters that recount events on Wager Island and during the shipwreck. Grann examines problems with the British navy that led to the shipwreck in these early chapters, such as a lack of administrative organization over the fleet and a lack of funds. The romantic character of sailor life and the concept that men should rush to join in the imperial navy clashed with the truth that many of the sailors who served on the Wager and its partnerships were forcibly conscripted using press gangs. Such contradictions between romantic aspirations and reality will become more apparent throughout The Wager.

Part 2: Analysis of Chapters 4-7

Grann makes a key point in these chapters: ships like the Wager were ill-prepared for not only hostile settings like Drake’s Passage, but also for marine life disasters. The British were unable to deal with scurvy since they were unaware of its causes and lacked appropriate remedies. They also lacked dependable techniques of navigation and position determination. Nonetheless, Cheap was driven by a great desire to carry out his original orders to assault Spanish settlements in South America. In reality, despite numerous casualties and tragedies, Cheap continued to drive aggressively on his crew for “the honor of our country”. Cheap’s leadership was excessively rigid, as Bulkeley would later contend during the mutiny controversy in Britain.

Grann emphasizes the contrast between the terrible realities of seafaring and the romance of the British Navy. Life at sea was romanticized by sailors. Even less educated sailors like Bulkeley were familiar with and referred to reports from well-known commanders and explorers like Ferdinand Magellan, Alexander Selkirk, and Sir Francis Drake. Many geographical features of the seas, such as the Strait of Magellan and Drake’s Passage, still bear these explorers’ names in English. This exemplifies The Importance of Stories and how storytelling has the potential to influence people to the point of signing up for a lethal cause.

The Wager’s crew, on the other hand, did not discover exotic new lands, exciting conflicts, or life as part of a “band of brothers”. Instead, they discovered conflict among crew members and with their skipper. They also encountered sickness, adversity, and death.

Part 3 Analysis of Chapters 8-13 

Despite the fact that Cheap represented the British nobility and the British Navy’s senior officer corps, his leadership abilities were being questioned. Bulkeley, a lower-class member of the British Navy, demonstrated greater or at least more practical leadership qualities than Cheap. He organized the creation of an effective refuge for all survivors and served as a representative for many of them in conversations with Cheap.

Simultaneously, other survivors disobeyed Cheap’s authority as well as the genteel and refined conventions of British society by snatching supplies from other survivors and even murdering them. The “shipwreck had laid waste to the old hierarchies” on Wager Island. Despite Cheap’s efforts to establish a system for dealing with thieves, his objective of establishing a “outpost” of the British Empire was doomed. Indeed, Cheap committed multiple acts of violence, the most heinous of which was shooting one of his own men. British culture and the authority of the empire’s authorities were insufficient to maintain order and conformity to the navy’s structure of command.

Bulkeley began writing about his and the other survivors’ experiences on Wager Island. According to Brann, this was an intentional approach. Bulkeley’s purpose was to compile a well-organized catalog of eyewitness evidence in case they were brought to trial for mutiny or had to testify against Captain Cheap when they returned to Britain. This is an illustration of The Importance of Stories: Bulkeley was attempting to seize control of the story ahead of time. Although he began writing in a notebook for his own amusement, Bulkeley actively strove to make his accounts factual and detailed on Wager Island.

The stowaways came across an Indigenous people known as the Kawésqar. This, according to Grann, is an illustration of colonialism’s harmful impact. Even though the Kawésqar had acclimated to life in Patagonia’s harsh environment, the British still considered themselves superior to Indigenous Americans.

Europeans have used violence against indigenous populations such as the Kawésqar. Several Kawésqar people, for example, were put into a human zoo in Paris in the nineteenth century. At its core, Grann investigates how colonialism delivers another story about European civilization’s alleged natural superiority.

Part 3 Analysis of  Chapter 14 

The mutiny and rebellion of Bulkeley’s men tainted perceptions of The Romance of the British Navy. Even Byron, who came from an upper-class family and was enticed to the navy by images of courage, betrayed Cheap at first. nevertheless, “totally deserting his commander—no matter how flawed and tyrannical he was—threatened the romantic image of himself that he had clung to despite the horrors of the voyage”.

Even Cheap and Byron were not completely united as companions on the expedition. They were instead forced to choose between their purpose, personal honor, and survival. Both parties were forced to abandon their own men. Bulkeley’s mutineers felt compelled to abandon numerous men on the South American peninsula, whereas Cheap’s crew abandoned four marines on an island. Circumstances and the start of the mutiny appeared to make the decision between survival and honor and devotion to authority untenable.

These chapters, like previous chapters documenting failed attempts to preserve order on Wager Island, highlight the weaknesses in Imperialism and Colonialism. Europeans frequently felt superior to Indigenous populations because they believed that cultures like the Kawésqar thrived in harsh conditions through cannibalism. In their desperation, the men of Wager Island are now cannibalizing corpses.

Grann recounts several other failed colonial endeavors, similar to the Wager’s journey, such as the disastrous Spanish colony known as Port Famine, where people died in a harsh climate. Not only the British, but all European nations having overseas colonies at the time, needed to think that they lived in moral, hardworking, and culturally superior societies with an underlying claim to areas held by “inferior” cultures. However, European colonialism’s failures to prevail over climates such as that of Patagonia, or to avoid exploitation and brutality, lay to rest the idea of heroic and efficient European colonialism.

Part 5 Analysis of Chapters 21-26 

The Importance of Stories is stressed in these final chapters. Parties fought over who would control the narrative of what transpired after the Wager sank; attempts were made to take Bulkeley’s journal, and Bulkeley and Lieutenant Baynes raced back to England. It was essentially a competition to determine which narrative—that of the mutineers or that of Captain Cheap—would reach British authorities first.

Bulkeley realized that publishing his journal and making it available to the public was his best choice. In the court of public opinion, his story won. This was due, at least in part, to his journal’s “bracing new voice—that of a hard-nosed seaman […] [that] was, in many ways, distinctly modern”. Bulkeley’s diary was better positioned to affect public opinion in the 18th century, when literacy rates were rising and a new mass media was taking development, than the earlier, more flowery logbooks.

The account of the Wager’s shipwreck and mutiny on Wager Island was hidden in order to protect the British Navy’s Romance. Instead, the story of George Anson’s successful capture of a Spanish galleon near the Philippines was pushed and applauded, despite the fact that Anson’s voyage was a “catastrophe” in terms of lives and money wasted. The authorities in charge of the Wager survivors’ court martial thought it was preferable to ignore the mutiny and its effects than to prosecute the mutineers or find Captain Cheap guilty of the death of sailor Cozens. Either scenario would have harmed the British Navy’s prestige.

Finally, Imperialism and Colonialism influenced how Cheap and Bulkeley were rescued. Indigenous peoples saved both of them. Despite the fact that the Chono people of Patagonia assisted in the rescue of Cheap, Byron, and other survivors, Europeans nevertheless regarded the Chono as “savages”. The Spanish are contrasted with Indigenous peoples such as the Chrono, who were generous to the survivors. Grann talks about how the Spanish enslaved Indigenous peoples and sold the Black freeman John Duck into slavery.

Throughout The Wager, Grann emphasizes the toll colonization has taken on humanity. The price was paid not just by colonial and enslaved peoples, but also by people from the colonizing nation, like as the Wager’s crew, who lost their humanity, or those perished in Britain’s fight with the Spanish.

Discussion Questions 

1. Investigate imperialism and colonialism as important historical themes in “The Wager.” From the decision to set sail to the dismissal of charges in the court martial case, how does the ambition to control and develop colonies influence the characters’ actions?

2. Discuss the unsettling reality reflected in the Wager survivors’ experiences and actions. In what ways does it call into question the notion of “civilized” men and naval officers, displaying a darker side of human nature in certain circumstances?

3. Consider the imperial, nationalist cause’s impact on individuals, notably those from upper-class backgrounds who joined sailors. What are the consequences shown in the ruins of failed colonial ventures and examples of “imperial hubris” in Grann’s portrayal of the allure of imperialism?

4. Examine the colonial worldview as defined by David Grann. How, as evidenced by different examples in the text, does confidence in the intrinsic superiority of European culture, particularly British civilization, contribute to exploitation and abuse of non-European peoples?

5. Investigate the significance of storytelling in the context of imperialism. How do stories help empires recruit soldiers for their armies, and how do logbooks, travelogues, and literature shape public impressions of the British Empire?

6. Examine the effect of propaganda in influencing the naval career choices of people like John Byron. How can idealized stories about sea life, such as those told by explorers such as Sir Francis Drake, influence people pursuing a career in the navy?

7. Consider the importance of logbooks and travelogues as the foundation for best-selling novels in the United Kingdom. How do these narratives spread stories about adventures, other peoples, and naval conflicts, helping to pique the public’s interest in the British Empire?

8. Consider the concept of a “mythic tale of the sea” and its impact on the Wager survivors’ court martial. What is the relationship between the government’s promotion of a certain narrative and the public’s expectations and perceptions of the British Empire and its superiority?

9. Discuss the text’s depiction of selective memory, in which certain stories are promoted and remembered while others are discarded. What role does this occurrence play in the formation of a narrative that serves the goals of British imperialism?

10. Investigate the Jenkins’ Ear story and its function in justifying British imperialism. How does the myth of the ear cutting lend a “righteous sheen” to Britain’s and Spain’s greater colonial ambitions, as Grann describes?

Reflection Essays 

1.What caused the Wager to crash? Was the Wager expedition doomed to fail? What is your reasoning?

2. What would entice someone to join the British navy in the 1700s? What are the benefits and drawbacks of a career in the navy at current time?

3. Describe three ways racism and colonialism influenced what happened to Wager’s crew and how they understood their experiences. How did colonialism and racism affect the Wager and the tales that emerged from it?

4. What was the purpose of John Bulkeley’s journal? What was its significance? What impact did it have on the court martial?

5. Pretend you’re one of the survivors stuck on Wager Island. Write a brief entry in your personal journal of events using details from The Wager.

6. Could the Wager Island settlement have endured, possibly even creating the nucleus of an enduring town? What is your reasoning?

7. Why were accounts and stories about what happened on Wager Island so important? How does what David Grann portrays in The Wager demonstrate the power of stories and, more broadly, media narratives?

8. Are there any parallels between current events and how the Wager survivors and British authorities attempted to control the narrative of the shipwreck and mutiny? Explain the parallels between the events depicted in The Wager and these current occurrences.

9. Does the story imply that Bulkeley’s men should have been convicted of mutiny and/or that David Cheap should have been sentenced to death for murder? What is your reasoning? Use textual proof to back up your claim.

10. What are two or three facts concerning the history of the British Empire in the 18th century shown by The Wager? What do they learn from the book?