Sometimes it seems like a difficult task to make history interesting, especially to people living hundreds of years later who have access to (almost) all the knowledge available to mankind.
In this case, the history of the HMS Wager, a ship that foundered and wrecked off the coast of South America in the mid-1700s, is completely fascinating on its own. Thanks to a great deal of research, the writer really brings this old tale to life and it does well when seen from a modern viewpoint.
The story has it all – shipwrecks, battles at sea, war, mutiny, cannibalism, treasure and desperate reaches for life. Written in a brisk, modern style it is really interesting to see what life was like for a sailor back then, and how it compares to the modern day.
Because of preserved logs and first-hand writing about the incident, the story is as clear a look as we’ll get at what really happened, and the author assures us that he is relating events without embellishments or bias. We have to trust the writer on this, but there is an extensive list of sources and explanations for the material laid out in this book.
I had no real criticism of this book – it was for me interesting from start to finish. The only minor point I found disturbing was that the passage of time in the pages seemed so short relative to what these people actually went through. When some castaways are caught by the Spanish there is only a sentence saying “after two and a half years of imprisonment they could go home”. You are left wondering what kinds of experiences and lifestyle they must have had during these and other times that are sort of fast-forwarded for this book.
But I think the author made the right choices to keep this book to a reasonable length and it leaves some things to the reader’s imagination.
Next I am taking a trip to the USA, not sure when I’m going to be reading again. I have a few books on my list though – maybe I’ll get back to reading those in a couple of weeks.
