Wager Disaster

In 1741, the British warship HMS Wager crashed on the shore of an uninhabited island off the coast of Chilean Patagonia. One hundred and forty men reached land. Only thirty-six made it back home. The "Wager" Disaster is the extraordinary story of human endurance and the perseverance of those soldiers in the face of unthinkable adversity. Britain and Spain were at war, and the Wager was part of a small British squadron sent to extend the battle to their Spanish possessions in the South Seas. Unfortunately, there were no accurate charts of the west coast of South America, and much of the navigation was determined by guesswork. Vicious hurricane-force winds wrecked the Wager, separating it from the squadron. Starvation, exhaustion, hypothermia, and drowning quickly claimed most of the soldiers who survived the wreck. The rest rose up against the unpopular captain and set off in an open boat with no chart, resulting in one of the greatest survival voyages as the castaways made their way 2,500 nautical miles back to Britain.--