The Adventures of Captain Cheep

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Sailors began evacuating in the few small boats that the wager had on board. At first, some of them refused to leave and broke into the wager's liquor supplies. One British officer later compared the island to a place in which the soul of the man dies in him.

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.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Listen back through our archives at youtube.com/criminalpodcast.

We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

Episode transcripts are posted on our website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices