How Did 18th Century Sailors Survive Shipwrecks? | Relaxing History

In September 1740, eight British warships sailed from Portsmouth harbour with orders to annoy and distress the Spanish, seize a treasure galleon, and return with glory. What followed was one of the most extraordinary disasters — and most fascinating moral puzzles — in naval history. This is the story of HMS Wager. Of a shipwreck on an unmapped Patagonian island. Of starvation, scurvy, and the slow collapse of everything the British Navy believed about order and authority. Of a captain who shot an unarmed midshipman and called it discipline. Of a gunner who used legal philosophy to justify mutiny and called it survival. And of two groups of men who took completely different roads home — and then spent the rest of their lives arguing about who was right. Nobody ever quite resolved that question. This documentary doesn't either. Narrated for sleep. Three hours of atmospheric, measured storytelling for curious minds who want history that stays with them.