The Wager by David Grann

 

So Spain and England were fighting a war over colonial power and money, fueled by propaganda about some dude having his ear cut off, and a squadron of English ships sailed around Cape Horn looking to capture a Spanish galleon laden with gold, losing a few ships on the way. This is the story of the sailors on one of those ships, who endured months as castaways and in some cases years as prisoners, not to mention lifetimes as pawns. There are some characters in the book with connections to future notables--Lord Byron's grampa, mostly--but none of the characters in the book really come off the page as people. Part of it might be that castaway narratives haven't ever really been my thing, of course. Not the easiest read ever, and a book I nearly quit a few times--the conflict between the author wanting a singular narrative and the disparate threads the sources gave him made it a bit of a slog.