The castaways returned with rival truths

After HMS Wager wrecked off Patagonia in 1741, separated groups eventually reached home with incompatible accounts. One described lawful command surviving disaster; another alleged brutality and mutiny. The survivors were not merely recalling a shared event differently—they had reasons to make their version legally persuasive.

Naval records and later testimony allow reconstruction, but no document gives an innocent camera view. Grann’s narrative works by placing claims beside material conditions and competing witnesses. The surprise is methodological: survival did not end the struggle. It changed the battlefield from an island to the official story of what had happened there.