On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager. The British vessel had been chasing a treasure-filled Spanish galleon when they wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. But then six months later, another craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes -- they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death -- for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
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