Grann ultimately structured the book’s narrative around the accounts of three individuals—Captain Cheap, gunner John Bulkeley and John Byron ... who joined the Wager as a midshipman at just 16 years ...

In March 1741, in a ferocious storm at the foot of South America, a creaky wooden ship called the Wager sailed into the Drake Passage — the most notorious channel in the world. The gunner on board, ...