David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, has turned his narrative history skills to the maritime frontier of the 18th Century with The Wager. An unfamiliar story to me, and it looks most compelling.
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. 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. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
But then … six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.
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Speaking of Killers, the Scorsese film is looking good…
Looks like it’s going to land in October.
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We’re getting some stills from Outlander Season 7, in which the American Revolution overtakes the folk of Fraser’s Ridge, North Carolina.
Word has it that Jamie Fraser has upgraded to a Kibler Colonial Rifle.
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Even in the era of firearms and steel tomahawks and knives, the war club remained an effective melee weapon. Tecumseh reportedly favored the war club for the close-quarters fighting that he excelled in. He gifted such a club to the British General Isaac Brock, whom he greatly respected.
Here is a fine documentary copy of that club by Mike McHugh:
Crazy Horse reportedly favored a plains stone war club.
My favorite YouTube expert on old-school melee weapons just released a bit on the “Native American War Mace.”
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The “classic” Hawken Rifle is a half-stock — but they made plenty of full-stock rifles, and they speak to me. This one here is the quintessential working rifle.
Jean says
You do keep this blog interesting. Great stuff.
lane batot says
Dang. I just cain’t keep up with all these great TV series. I’ve only see “Outlander” up to season 4 so far. I’m JUST finishing up season 4 of “The Last Kingdom”. At least, by the time I get around to ordering more, the used DVD’s are purty cheapo!….And clubs–I’ve always kept a good club or two handy–I have a nice one made from a cow femur, in the Native American style! I have become more and more restricted, in these modern sensitive times, about where and when I can wear my sheath knife(which I feel NEKKID without!), and so used to wearing it at work and home, I often forget and go in public with it,(TABOO!!!) and get these LOOKS from people, as if I am indeed some kind of savage or something. Used to be, you were considered kinda strange if you DIDN’T have a knife of some sort on you! Anyway, I learned, in elementary school(long, long, long ago!) during a lecture by a visiting local policeman, that more people were killed by HAMMERS in the United States, than knives!(I still remember his lecture!) Now I don’t know if that statistic still holds(after all these centuries have passed), but it’s something I always keep in mind when out in public, with all the other crazies, a concept that I often tested as a construction laborer at different times in my life–having a basic hammer in my belt in public! No one ever pays any attention to that, and yet a basic hammer is a marvelous and deadly club, did you ever need it! So far, no one is sensitive about hammers in public!
JimC says
I still wear a sheath knife most of the time. I prefer a fixed blade. But you’re right, it does freak some people out.
lane batot says
Luckily, I have a job(as a Zookeeper) where I am allowed to wear a sheath knife, and I use it EVERY DAY! I once had a youthful, politically correct visitor, who noticed my knife on my belt, say in a cynical tone, “Oh yeah, like you really ever use that thing!” As if I was only wearing it as some sort of macho decoration! I proceeded to calmly tell him all the things I did DAILY and commonly with that knife. He gave me a blank look and replied “oh….” and walked away…… To me, a knife is a basic cutting TOOL, rather than a WEAPON, even if it can be used as a weapon. How do other humans even function as tool using bipedal primates without one? But then, I still don’t have a Cell Phone……
SQUIRE RUSTICUS says
As I’d mentioned in a few earlier post, I grew up on a small ranch, we had cattle, dad did custom haying,etc…I started carrying a belt and pocket knife young (never at school), so knives were more of a tool then a weapon to my life.
In my teen years I got into trapping, later “buckskinning” (although I never cared for that name), historical reenactment (fur trade, frontier, buffalo hunter, scout), and got into Primitive Survival through a Anthropology class I took my freshman at University.
A belt knife was just something I felt naked with (NEVER at Work, Governmental Offices,stores)
So my friends owned a black powder store in Wichita, Kansas around 1992. I went in on a Saturday that was not working, and my friends were building some custom muzzle loaders, and powder horns. I mentioned I’d go to McDonalds to pick up the crowd of friends, a few camp dogs breakfast burritos and hashbrowns. Anyway, I waited in the line as the place was packed, and a little boy starts screaming, ” Mommy, that man has a gun” !!!! I’m looking around and figure out that he is talking about me, and people were getting freaked out. The knife was NOT that big (probably a 3 inch blade), so I acted like it was normal for kids to scream at me, and people to gawk. The whole time hoping a policeman did not shoot me. I’d never had the problem before, although I had a friend whom had a off duty policeman throw him up against a counter at a grocery store for wearing a lockback knife in a sheath. The store manager actually berated the policeman, and the store apologized.
So years later I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Mountainman Trade Show about 2004 at the Governors Palace, talking to Jeff Hengesbaugh, looking over his historical artifacts when a lady dressed in frontier clothing, asked about the blade I was wearing which was small (3 to 3.5 inches) made by Ruidoso Blacksmith David Berge. She looked at it, gave it praise (she knew David), and then mentioned how New Mexico law was strange and that I could end up in jail for wearing a sheath knife on the streets. I thought, well I’ll be damned !!!
Thus over the years I’ve curved wearing a sheath knife, although to me it is 98% tool. The more I wear one the more I use it. I’m always finding a new one to add to the rotation but keep them to smaller custom knives if I go to buy feed or something.
I have to admit, although it is rare, I’ve seen some strange characters with large bladed sheath knives in urban situations and not felt like getting too close to them.
I’m sad we live in a World whereby we cannot be as free as we once were. A girlfriend I had long ago had her daughter, who was about 7 years old, and got expelled for 3 days for taking fingernail clippers to school that had about a 1 inch file. She wanted perfect nails like her moma. As children most of us rural kids had pocket knives, we just knew to keep them in the pocket.
JimC says
Nothing gets up my nose faster than badge heavy authorities — be they cops or school principals who are just looking to roust somebody in the name of “safety.” Ugh.
lane batot says
Great stories, Rusty Squire! I have finally(mostly) developed the habit, before going in The Wal-Mart, or bank,(etc.), to get my checkbook, billfold, a pen to write checks with, AND take off the belt knife!–the order reversed once I’m back in my truck. And yes, I have been confronted in public by police officers of various kinds about my knife(whenever I forgot to take it off), but all of them were polite, I was apologetic, and that was the end of it. EXCEPT IN TEXAS! I never had a Texas sheriff/deputy rag me about my knife, but I was pulled over CONSTANTLY, and my vehicle torn apart, looking for drugs no doubt–I had LONG HAIR, you know, so they were sure I was a druggie! Then, when they didn’t find anything, they’d get pissed! That’s when I’d get shoved around and insulted, belittled, etc. I knew well enough to just take it, and keep my mouth shut. I’d usually at least get a ticket of some kind–headlight out, etc. One judge I complained to while going in to pay a ticket in Texas, was quite kind–let me off, and said “I’m sorry we have that element in Texas law enforcement, and I don’t want to tell you your business, son, but you are likely getting pulled because of your long hair. If you get it cut, I’ll bet these harassments stop.”(or some words akin to that–it was a long time ago!) I didn’t cut my hair, though–I left Texas! I had a part-wolf dog back then, who was often with me–he grew to HATE anyone with a uniform on–it could get tricky with him when he was with me and I got pulled over! Even after I left Texas, he continued to HATE people in uniforms of any kind, and he’d just GO for them! I had to watch him like a hawk around anyone like that!
Craig Rullman says
I have an excellent hand-carved Samoan War Club gifted to me by Chief Nui on the island of Ofu. A skull breaker for certain. I keep it with my old police baton. Also a brain buster in the right circumstances.
JimC says
Forgot about that. Awesome.
Hawken Horse says
Watching Outlander now. Only on season 2. Can’t wait to get to the colonies
JimC says
Aye!
Harry F says
I listened to about half of an interview David Grann had promoting the book but had to turn it off. The book may be very good (don’t know) but his knowledge of wooden ships and sailing made me cringe. Hard to explain why but it didn’t ring true to me as one who has a little knowledge about sailing and wooden boats.
JimC says
Uh-oh. That’s a bummer, but thanks for the heads up.