The Story of the Pirates of Cape Horn

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In 1740, five British warships set off on a secret mission that would send them around Cape Horn. They were going after a Spanish ship filled with silver to trade for silks and spices. A Commodore named George Anson would lead the mission. He was told that he should create as much trouble for the Spanish as possible. But there is a problem. The Navy began sending out something called press gangs.

There’s an old sailors’ saying about the ocean at the southernmost part of the world — “below 40 degrees latitude, there is no law; below 50 degrees, there is no God.”

David Grann brings us the story of what happened when five British warships set off on a secret mission to steal a ship filled with treasure. They’d have to sail around the very bottom of South America — at 56 degrees south.

David Grann’s book is The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.

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Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

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