The Wreck of the Wager

This volume pairs two eighteenth-century survivor narratives of HMS Wager, a store ship wrecked on the coast of Patagonia in 1741 during Anson's voyage against Spain. John Bulkeley, the gunner, describes the wreck, the split from Captain Cheap, and a long-boat passage through the Strait of Magellan back toward Brazil. John Byron, then a midshipman, later recounts remaining with Cheap, Indian encounters, and a harder overland and coastal ordeal before reaching Chile. Together the accounts cover mutiny, hunger, and disputed command. They are primary narratives, not a modern reconstruction of the voyage.

Quarter bound in dark blue leather, pale blue paper boards with a repeat linocut pattern in black by Edward Bawden. Map endleaves printed black on yellow. Page tops stained yellow. Cream slipcase.