The tale of the ill-fated HMS Wager gripped the public's imagination, feeding its taste for dramatic accounts of survival against the odds. Part of George Anson's squadron that had been sent to harass Spanish ships in the Pacific, she was wrecked after rounding Cape Horn in 1741. The majority of the survivors, led by ship's gunner John Bulkeley, mutinied against their irascible and unpredictable captain and chose to make their own way home in what would become one of the most hazardous journeys ever recorded. Their journey took them over 2,000 miles in an open boat through ferocious seas, enduring starvation and extreme privation. Two years after the disaster, the thirty remaining men arrived back in England. Bulkeley and ship's carpenter John Cummins published this account in 1743. Also reissued in this series is the 1768 account of John Byron, who had been midshipman aboard the Wager.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Rich in titles on English life and social history, this collection spans the world as it was known to eighteenth-century historians and explorers. Titles include a wealth of travel accounts and diaries, histories of nations from throughout the world, and maps and charts of a world that was still being discovered. Students of the War of American Independence will find fascinating accounts from the British side of conflict. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++<sourceLibrary>British Library<ESTCID>W029694<Notes>Dedicated to William Denny and Edward Vernon. Errors in paging: p. 125 misnumbered 124; page numbers 257-266 omitted from pagination. List of subscribers, p. xvi]-xxxii. Errata, p. 306.<imprintFull> Philadelphia]: London, printed. Philadelphia: reprinted by James Chattin, for the author, 1757. (Price 10s) <collation>xxxii,256,267-306p.; 8

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