Do you think the wreck of The Wager and its aftermath were in any way avoidable?

Do you think the wreck of The Wager and its aftermath were in any way avoidable?

Yes! Egos lead them to disaster! If they would not have ignored the first man that thought he saw something instead of ignoring him as not important enough to listen to, they could have avoided the ship wreck!

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Given the discription of the sea etc. I wondered why anyone would even attempt to sail around the cape. It seemed to be an impossible task and death and destruction were inevitable. For some of the sailors it appeared to be the only option they had.

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There is only one way to avoid this tragedy - turn back before you reached Drakes Passage. I sailed on the Drake on a very large ship. It is as rough as described in the book. No way would I go on a primitive ship without modern construction and safety protocols.

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Obviously the wreck was avoidable; the captains of Pearl and Severn sensibly turned around before their ships were wrecked and all their men dead. Honestly, with such a large percentage of the crew dead or sick, I can’t imagine what possessed any of the ships to continue into such a deadly storm.

Regarding the aftermath, I think that if Cheap could have kept his ego in check - had he been a better leader - they would have done better. And had the crew respected the indigenous population they wouldn’t have suffered such dire privation.

It could have been avoidable by not trying to make the pass. At the time of the Wager’s attempt, information wasn’t widely available - there wasn’t news, weather reports, etc to share information like there is now. The crews were going with the best information available at the time…and the hope of treasures/become war heros/new discoveries.

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The timing of the sale did not help with the weather conditions. It is hard to be critical of any of the men on the ship; they were all so sick, cold, hungry and tired, I am not sure anyone was thinking clearly.

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Yes, they could have paid attention to what was normally expected at certain times of the year. They should have “waited it out” until the seas were known to be calmer.

I’m not sure. With Cheap feeling so strongly that he had to follow Anson, there was no turning back.