Wager Mutiny

The Wager Mutiny is a historical event that took place in 1741, after the British warship HMS Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the south coast of present-day Chile. Wager was part of a naval squadron bound to attack Spanish interests in the Pacific. She lost contact with the squadron while rounding Cape Horn, ran aground during a storm, and wrecked on what would become known as Wager Island. The main body of the crew mutinied against their captain, David Cheap, abandoned him and a group of loyal crew members on the island, and set off in a modified schooner (named Speedwell) via the Strait of Magellan to Portuguese-administered Rio de Janeiro. Most of the mutineers either died or were abandoned on shore during the journey, but the survivors eventually returned to England. Cheap's group could not weather the cape in the voyage north and therefore returned to Wager Island three months after they had left, having given up hope of escape. A few days later, however, a group of indigenous Chonos visited the island and, after some negotiation, agreed to guide the group north to the Spanish-inhabited Chiloé Archipelago in return for the longboat and some guns. Most of the group died on the journey from starvation and exposure, but Cheap and several others survived and returned to England in 1745, two years after the surviving mutineers. The adventures of the crew of Wager were a public sensation and inspired many narratives written by survivors and others to the present day.