This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.

Our guest today is bestselling author and New Yorker magazine staff writer David Grann.

Grann has a knack for finding little known stories from history and turning them into books that are page turners.

His new nonfiction book is no exception.

It's about a shipwreck and mutiny in the 1700s.

Martin Scorsese already has plans to adapt it into a film.

Scorsese already adapted Grann's book Killers of the Flower Moon into a film that will be released later this year.

An earlier Grann book, The Lost City of Z, was also adapted into a film.

Our producer Sam Brigger spoke with David Grann yesterday.

At the bottom of the world, below the tip of South America,

the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans converged to form one of the most dangerous places to find yourself in a boat.

The Drake Passage.

In the mid-18th century, a squadron of British warships made the journey through the passage in the worst weather imaginable,

suffering terrible damage to their ships.

One man of war called the Wager went missing and wrecked upon the rocks of a desolate island of Patagonia.

At first, the castaways maintained the naval laws and discipline of the British Empire under their captain,

but that unraveled under the hardships they endured, including poor shelter, punishing weather, and starvation.

There was murder and cannibalism, and the captain lost the respect of his crew, especially after killing one of the sailors by shooting him.

Eventually, the majority of the men mutinied and sailed away on a makeshift craft,

leaving behind their captain and a small band loyal to him.

They sailed nearly 3,000 miles to rescue in Brazil, but only 29 of the 81 survived the journey.

Miraculously, the captain survived as well.

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