Wager Shipwreck, Mutiny and Court-Martial

HMS Wager was part of George Anson’s squadron sent against Spanish possessions and shipping during the War of Jenkins’ Ear. After becoming separated from the fleet, the ship was wrecked in May 1741 on a remote island off Patagonia, leaving its weakened crew exposed to cold, hunger, disease and the collapse of ordinary naval supply.

Captain David Cheap tried to retain command, while gunner John Bulkeley became the leading figure among men who rejected Cheap’s plan and sailed east in a converted longboat. Their survivors reached Brazil in 1742. Cheap, John Byron and a small group later reached Chile and gave a conflicting account in which the first party were mutineers and Cheap’s opponents accused him of tyranny and murder.

The Admiralty court-martial considered the loss of the ship and the conduct of its officers without resolving every disputed act committed after the wreck. For historical books, the event provides a concentrated study of Georgian naval warfare, survival, class discipline, imperial violence and the way journals and testimony shape public memory. David Grann’s The Wager is a major modern reconstruction of the disaster.