Published:
April 8, 2021 at 10:40 am
In the long annals of the Royal Navy, there have been many triumphs and disasters. The story of HMS
Wager, wrecked off the coast of Patagonian Chile in 1741, must be one of the most sensational and dramatic catastrophes of them all.
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Surprisingly, history has never given it much attention. Compared to the mutiny on the
Bounty, for example [the 1789 rebellion against the captain of a ship that had been sent to the Pacific Ocean to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to British possessions in the West Indies], it is practically unknown. But it exceeds the