David Grann

Review: The Wager

/ rtrube54 / 4 Comments

The Wager, David Grann. New York: Doubleday, 2023.

Summary: An account of the shipwreck of the Wager, part of a naval squadron in one of England’s wars against Spain, and the effort of her captain to maintain order as the survivors struggled just to eat, and the divisions and mutiny of those who wanted to sail back to Brazil.

Except for the fact that both of these incidents really happened, this book, a tale of the sea, bears little resemblance to Killers of the Flower Moon, a real-life crime story against the Osage people of Oklahoma. Both reveal the skill of David Grann to weave a compelling narrative from historical archives, in this case, primarily from soaked and faded log books and after action accounts of the sad tale of the Wager. This is supplemented by research into shipboard life and accommodations.

George Anson commanded the squadron of which the Wager was a part in pursuit of a Spanish fleet during one of England’s wars with Spain, this in the 1740’s. The Wager was one of seven ships, commanded by David Cheap, captain of a ship for the first time. The Wager was one of the slower and older ships, carrying much of the arms for the squadron.

Trouble begins as they squadron encounters storms and high seas at the tip of South America. Already, a number have died of typhus and the effects of scurvy and malnutrition. They struggle for weeks to round the tip, ships are separated, and ultimately “dead reckoning” fails the Wager and they find themselves too close to land and are shipwrecked off a volcanic island that they name Wager Island.

Survival becomes the main order of business for the hundred or so that remain. Supplies salvaged from the wreck provide some food, but the island provides little. Some indigenous people who try to help are driven off by the rapacious character of some of the company. Despite Cheap’s effort to maintain discipline, relations among the crew degenerate. Grann traces the narrative through the eyes of three figures: Captain Cheap, Midshipman John Byron, and Gunner John Bulkeley, who kept the most detailed logbook of the voyage. Bulkeley, though subordinate, was a leader of men. As conditions deteriorate and men die, things come to head when Cheap, in a desperate effort to maintain control with an insubordinate man, summarily shoots him in the head to die a lingering death.

Bulkeley wants them to turn back to follow a Patagonian passage on the way to Brazil and leads the effort to extend one of the longboats and a couple of smaller boats that survived. Cheap refuses, wanting to press forward, with the hopes of rendezvousing with Anson or even capturing Spanish shipping and fulfilling his orders. The company goes with Bulkeley, leading to the decisive break of mutiny. Seventy sail off and several months later, on the edge of death, thirty make it to Brazil after a harrowing journey, including Bulkeley. Byron at first goes with Bulkeley but then with a few, stays with the captain.

Eventually, Bulkeley and his party make it back to England. Miraculously, with native help, and after imprisonment by the Spaniards, so does Cheap with Byron and one other. Bulkeley has already published an account, casting Cheap as a murderer. Cheap will make his case against the mutineers in court. This could mean either disgrace for the captain or death for the mutineers.

Grann narrates all of this in a vivid account in which we can imagine shipboard life, feel the gnawing hunger, and watch the veneers of command and naval discipline fall away as men simply try to survive. Stepping back, Grann leaves us to wonder about the futility of such naval expeditions. Yes, Anson seized a prize of a ship loaded with bullion. But the war cost far more and resolved nothing. He narrates the reality of press gangs that could force able-bodied men to leave family for years or die at sea, just to fill quotas. Of over 400 who sail on the Wager, but 30 or so survive. Yet there was a courage and indomitable character to those who do, both Cheap and Bulkeley, lost in the conflict between them. Once again, Grann has rescued from the archives, this time without first-person interviews, a riveting and harrowing tale.

Review: Killers of the Flower Moon

/ rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann. New York: Doubleday, 2017.

Summary: The true crime account of a series of murders of Osage tribal people motivated by money and the FBI agent who arrested some of the major figures involved in the deaths.

In the 1920’s, members of the Osage Nation were among the richest people on earth. They held the rights to the oil beneath their land and each tribal member had “headrights” that resulted in growing payments and wealth. That wealth was the object of numerous unscrupulous actors from those who sold vehicles for far more than their worth to “guardians” who siphoned off proceeds for themselves. Then a number of Osage began dying, some mysteriously wasting away, others dying from “hits,” a bullet in the head.

The book centers around the deaths surrounding Mollie Burkhart. Her former husband, Roan, was murdered with a bullet through his head. Her mother and sister appeared to be poisoned. Another also died of a bullet into the head, never found by the doctor doing the autopsy. And one died in a spectacular house explosion. Then Mollie’s own health began deteriorating, even though she was under a doctor’s care for diabetes.

Local and state investigators failed to find the killers, and at points may have been in league with them. Finally, the case landed on the desk of a young J. Edgar Hoover, trying to build what would become the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Failure could deal a blow to his ambitions. He turned to Tom White, a former Texas Ranger, who didn’t fit the mold of the Bureau, but knew the territory. White, in turn, recruited a team of undercover agents who were crucial to the success of the investigation.

The book details White’s determined pursuit of those responsible, despite the death of witnesses and other intimidation tactics. He saved Mollie’s life, getting her different medical care, under which she immediately improved, raising questions about her own husband’s part. The book traces the trail to a powerful figure in Osage country, seemingly upstanding, but truly evil, who was lining his pockets with Osage wealth.

While White was able to see the killers of Mollie’s family to justice, David Grann also tells a darker story of many other deaths and other killers never convicted. He concludes the account with his meetings of descendants of the families who had suffered loss as he attempts to provide some account to satisfy the “blood that cried out.”

I found this an engaging, page turning account of a monumental injustice, one more of a litany injustice done to the First Nations of North America. Grann shows the ruthless and unscrupulous efforts to deprive the Osage of what was rightfully theirs. It is too bad that Tom White did not head up the FBI. The contrast between him and Hoover is striking. It would have been a very different agency. White and his family treated their work as a sacred calling worthy of their excellence and courage, defying a corrupt version of “the machine.”