Papa Claus is making a special stop here in the Museum gallery! Come in where it’s warm and dry to snap a picture with our beloved Santa who will meet and greet kids young and old in our special holiday history spot (sorry no pets). Admission to the museum and Santa pictures are FREE all weekend.

Spread the cheer!

Papa Claus is making a special stop here in the Museum gallery! Come in where it’s warm and dry to snap a picture with our beloved Santa who will meet and greet kids young and old in our special holiday history spot (sorry no pets). Admission to the museum and Santa pictures are FREE all weekend.

Spread the cheer!

Admission is FREE for Members and $6 for Non-members.

St Lucia is a traditional favorite among Scandinavian and Italian cultures. Please join us for the annual St. Lucia Festival! Honoring the Harbor's Scandinavian roots, we will have the traditional children's procession, Swedish treats, and live singing by the GHHS choir! Join in the fun with crafts, games, storytime, and more! $6/person 5 and up, free for HHM Members.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 3rd, 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum. The book for December is Falling From Horses by Molly Gloss.

In 1938, 19-year-old cowboy Bud Frazer sets his sights on becoming a stunt rider in the movies. Fantasizing about rubbing shoulders with the great screen cowboys of his youth, he leaves his home in Echol Creek, Oregon, and heads for Hollywood. On the long bus ride south, Bud meets a young woman who also harbors dreams of making it in the movies, though not as a starlet but as a writer, a real writer. Lily Shaw is bold and outspoken and confident in ways completely out of proportion with her small frame and bookish looks. The two proceed to strike up an unlikely kinship that will carry them through their tumultuous days in Hollywood - and, as it happens, for the rest of their lives. Acutely observed and impeccably authentic, Falling From Horses charts what turns out to be a glittering year in the movie business, seen through the wide eyes and lofty dreams of two people trying to make their mark on the world, or at least to make their way in it. As she did so memorably in her previous novel, the best-selling The Hearts of Horses, Molly Gloss weaves a remarkable tale of humans and horses, hope and heartbreak. Molly Gloss is also the author of The Jump-Off Creek, a winner of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the Oregon Book Award, The Dazzle of Day, a New York Times Notable Book and winner of the PEN Center West Fiction Prize, and Wild Life, winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award.

How to get a copy of the book:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

Double your discount at the Museum Mercantile! It’s a great day to get a jump on holiday shopping during “Shop the Harbor.” Fill your stockings with handy goods, unique Gig Harbor treasures, and sweet treats. Plus, members receive a double-discount on all mercantile goods…that’s 30% off everything from bandanas to banana slugs!

Take a walk along Donkey Creek to spot any returning Chum Salmon. Along the way, pick up a passport to complete all the fun activities. Don’t miss the Museum’s new “Return of the Chum” art installation on our courtyard fence. Turn in completed passports at the museum’s front desk to be entered in a drawing to win a fun-filled Salmon Prize!

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 4th from 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum. The book for November is Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha LaPointe.

Sasha LaPointe has always longed for a sense of home. When she was a child, her family moved around frequently, often staying in barely habitable church attics and trailers, dangerous places for young Sasha.With little more to guide her than a passion for the thriving punk scene of the Pacific Northwest and a desire to live up to the responsibility of being the namesake of her beloved great-grandmother—a linguist who helped preserve her Indigenous language of Lushootseed—Sasha throws herself headlong into the world, determined to build a better future for herself and her people. Set against a backdrop of the breathtaking beauty of Coast Salish ancestral land and imbued with the universal spirit of punk, Red Paint is ultimately a story of the ways we learn to find our true selves while fighting for our right to claim a place of our own. Examining what it means to be vulnerable in love and in art, Sasha offers up an unblinking reckoning with personal traumas amplified by the collective historical traumas of colonialism and genocide that continue to haunt native peoples. Red Paint is an intersectional autobiography of lineage, resilience, and, above all, the ability to heal.

How to get a copy of the book:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

Experience the rich history of some of Gig Harbor's founding members on a guided walking tour through the historic Artondale Cemetery. Tours are offered on Sunday, October 12, and Sunday, October 19, with four tours each day. Two tours are offered at 1:30 PM and two tours are offered at 4:00 PM. Each tour is limited to 20 people. Tickets are required for every person attending, regardless of age. Please note that for the safety and comfort of all attendees, dogs are not permitted.

Tours will happen rain or shine, so dress like you live in the PNW! Warm up with complimentary hot cocoa or cider served upon check in. Your ticket purchase helps support two important local institutions, as this event is a fundraiser for both the Artondale Cemetery Association and the Harbor History Museum. Your tickets will be held at will call the day of the event. *You will not be mailed a physical ticket* Don't miss this chance to learn, remember, and contribute to the preservation of Gig Harbor's heritage!

This event is sponsored by The Far North Retreats. For further questions, please send an email to thefarnorthretreats@gmail.com Visit our website at: https://thefarnorthretreats.com/

Experience the rich history of some of Gig Harbor's founding members on a guided walking tour through the historic Artondale Cemetery. Tours are offered on Sunday, October 12, and Sunday, October 19, with four tours each day. Two tours are offered at 1:30 PM and two tours are offered at 4:00 PM. Each tour is limited to 20 people. Tickets are required for every person attending, regardless of age. Please note that for the safety and comfort of all attendees, dogs are not permitted.

Tours will happen rain or shine, so dress like you live in the PNW! Warm up with complimentary hot cocoa or cider served upon check in. Your ticket purchase helps support two important local institutions, as this event is a fundraiser for both the Artondale Cemetery Association and the Harbor History Museum. Your tickets will be held at will call the day of the event. *You will not be mailed a physical ticket* Don't miss this chance to learn, remember, and contribute to the preservation of Gig Harbor's heritage!

This event is sponsored by The Far North Retreats. For further questions, please send an email to thefarnorthretreats@gmail.com Visit our website at: https://thefarnorthretreats.com/

Experience the rich history of some of Gig Harbor's founding members on a guided walking tour through the historic Artondale Cemetery. Tours are offered on Sunday, October 12, and Sunday, October 19, with four tours each day. Two tours are offered at 1:30 PM and two tours are offered at 4:00 PM. Each tour is limited to 20 people. Tickets are required for every person attending, regardless of age. Please note that for the safety and comfort of all attendees, dogs are not permitted.

Tours will happen rain or shine, so dress like you live in the PNW! Warm up with complimentary hot cocoa or cider served upon check in. Your ticket purchase helps support two important local institutions, as this event is a fundraiser for both the Artondale Cemetery Association and the Harbor History Museum. Your tickets will be held at will call the day of the event. *You will not be mailed a physical ticket* Don't miss this chance to learn, remember, and contribute to the preservation of Gig Harbor's heritage!

This event is sponsored by The Far North Retreats. For further questions, please send an email to thefarnorthretreats@gmail.com Visit our website at: https://thefarnorthretreats.com/

Experience the rich history of some of Gig Harbor's founding members on a guided walking tour through the historic Artondale Cemetery. Tours are offered on Sunday, October 12, and Sunday, October 19, with four tours each day. Two tours are offered at 1:30 PM and two tours are offered at 4:00 PM. Each tour is limited to 20 people. Tickets are required for every person attending, regardless of age. Please note that for the safety and comfort of all attendees, dogs are not permitted.

Tours will happen rain or shine, so dress like you live in the PNW! Warm up with complimentary hot cocoa or cider served upon check in. Your ticket purchase helps support two important local institutions, as this event is a fundraiser for both the Artondale Cemetery Association and the Harbor History Museum. Your tickets will be held at will call the day of the event. *You will not be mailed a physical ticket* Don't miss this chance to learn, remember, and contribute to the preservation of Gig Harbor's heritage!

This event is sponsored by The Far North Retreats. For further questions, please send an email to thefarnorthretreats@gmail.com Visit our website at: https://thefarnorthretreats.com/

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 7th from 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum. The book for October is West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge.

An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America. Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes. Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.

How to get a copy of the book:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

Join us for our annual fundraising event: History Rocks 2025: The Boom Town Twenties

Don't miss the party of the decade! Slip into your finest glad rags and step back in time to the roaring 1920s—surrounded by authentic era planes and the vibrant spirit of the Jazz Age. Enjoy both a silent and a lively in-person auction led by the incomparable Jim Borgen, savor delicious food provided by Snuffin’s Catering, and raise a glass of complimentary wine, beer, or a Boom Town Old Fashioned. Bring plenty of dough for our auctions, win prizes for the best 1920s costume, and be among the first to celebrate the Harbor History Museum’s first local history hero. It’ll be the bee’s knees!

Tickets are $100 until July 15th. After July 15th tickets will go up to $125. Attendees will be automatically registered for the event's Silent and In-Person Auctions. Purchase your tickets here!

Become a Sponsor! Your generous support will be highlighted in both our print and digital media, helping bring history to life for our entire community.

Why Your Support Matters
History Rocks isn’t just a great party—it’s a vital event that helps sustain the Harbor History Museum throughout the year. As a local non-profit museum, we rely on the generosity of friends and neighbors like you to maintain our exhibits, protect local artifacts, run educational programs, and care for our community-serving facilities. Your ticket, your bid, and your sponsorship all make a real difference in ensuring this museum remains a vibrant place of learning, discovery, and connection for generations to come.

Thank you for being part of our story.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 2nd from 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum. The book for September is The Library Book by Susan Orlean

On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.

“A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.

How to get a copy of the book:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

Brought to you by Humanities Washington. Harbor History Museum is excited to welcome Brad Holden. When not out searching for local historical artifacts, Brad Holden enjoys writing about the more illicit side of Seattle’s past.  He is a contributing writer for HistoryLink.org (an online encyclopedia of Washington state history) and his work has also appeared in Seattle Magazine and several newspapers. Holden has been profiled on KIRO and KOMO news, Seattle Refined, NPR, King 5 Evening! and various publications. His trilogy of books related to the Prohibition era are available online and at bookstores everywhere. He lives in Edmonds, WA.

For those interested in the darker corners of local history, please visit Brad's site which chronicles all the "Delinquency, Devilry & Dirty Deeds in the Pacific Northwest" - Brad Holden's Vice Files

Admission is FREE for Members and $5 for Non-members. This talk will be IN PERSON at the museum. To save your space, please RSVP to Amy Crews at finance@harborhistorymuseum.org

This event is sponsored by Mary Sudar Appraisals and Estate Sales:

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 5th from 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum. The book for August is Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran.

When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children. For months, Henry scours the surrounding wilderness, until all hope is lost and his wife and children are presumed dead. Grief-stricken, he books passage to California. There he marries Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a new baby, and it seems they’ve both found happiness in the midst of their mourning—until Henry’s first wife and children show up, alive and having finally escaped captivity. Narrated primarily by the two wives, and based on a real-life legal case, The Wives of Henry Oades is the riveting story of what happens when Henry, Margaret, and Nancy face persecution for bigamy. Exploring the intricacies of marriage, the construction of family, the changing world of the late 1800s, and the strength of two remarkable women, Johanna Moran turns this unusual family’s story into an unforgettable page-turning drama.

How to get a copy of the book:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

This event is at capacity, but we hope to see you next time. Thanks for your interest!

**************************************************

Join us for a Special Presentation with Author and Portland TV Personality Anne Jaeger

Discover stories behind The Rule of Crime and Me, the compelling new biography of America’s legendary true crime author, Ann Rule.

Anne Jaeger; longtime journalist, crime reporter, and friend of Ann Rule, shares insights from their remarkable 31-year friendship. In this special event, Jaeger will reveal behind-the-scenes moments, personal anecdotes, and surprising adventures they experienced together, including encounters with some of the same notorious criminals, such as Diane Downs.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from someone who knew the Queen of True Crime best.

The Dorotich, Skansie, Kazulin, Gilich, Bez, and Janovich families all came from Croatia, and more specifically the Dalmatian coast and the island of Brac. All were connected to the FV Shenandoah. But how did they find their way to America, and how were they related? Join director Stephanie Lile for a journey to and from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to America and discover the complex ties to each other and the Shenandoah. Learn more about our Croatian sister city, cross-continental boat building projects, and the invention that changed the face of commercial fishing forever.

Admission is FREE for Members and $5 for Non-members. This talk will be IN PERSON at the museum. To save your space, please RSVP to Amy Crews at finance@harborhistorymuseum.org

PenLight’s 100-Year Anniversary Event: Community Centennial Celebration
Join us on July 14, 2025, as we celebrate PenLight’s 100th birthday with a day full of community fun and history at the Harbor History Museum! From 1–4 PM, enjoy a family-friendly event hosted by PenLight employees including STEM activities, demonstrations, treats and more! Then, from 5–6 PM, gather for a Centennial Ceremonial Celebration to honor PenLight’s legacy and look ahead to the future. Don’t miss this milestone moment in our community’s history!

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 1st from 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum.

The book for July is Educated by Tara Westover.

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

“Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue

You can get a copy of the book in one of several ways:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you. Copies available starting June 3.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

Admission is FREE thanks to Humanities Washington! Humanities Washington sparks conversation and critical thinking using story as a catalyst, nurturing thoughtful and engaged communities across our state. This talk will be IN PERSON at the museum. To save your space, please RSVP to Amy Crews at finance@harborhistorymuseum.org

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 3rd from 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum.

The book for June is North Woods by Daniel Mason

When two young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister con man, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: As the inhabitants confront the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

This magisterial and highly inventive novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason brims with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature, and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment, to history, and to one another. It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets and destinies, but a way of looking at the world that asks the timeless question: How do we live on, even after we’re gone?

You can get a copy of the book in one of several ways:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you. Copies will be available starting May 6th.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

This event has reached capacity as of 5/28.

Until the 1970s, women on board fishing boats were virtually unheard of. Superstitions held that women brought bad luck, caused unrest among the crew, and were generally not capable of working the long days on board. A handful of young Gig Harbor women changed all that. Some worked their fathers’ boats, others worked alongside their husbands. Still others broke the mold and ran their own boats. The Shenandoah at the Harbor History Museum was one boat where women defied superstition and worked on board, but it wasn’t always easy.

Join us for a lively discussion with three Gig Harbor women fishers who were the ground breakers of their time. Bunky Janovich crewed on board the Shenandoah. Laurie Dahl Isacson worked as cook and crew on the Pacific Maid, and Debbi Ross worked on both a purse seiner and a halibut long liner. Their stories of life on board will surprise and amaze!

Admission is FREE for Members and $5 Non-Members. This talk will be IN PERSON at the museum. To save your space, please RSVP to Amy Crews at finance@harborhistorymuseum.org

Hosted by South Sound Surfrider

Join us for a special screening of Echos of the Sound, an award-winning documentary by sister filmmakers Emma & Annie Stafki of Two Girls Take on the World. Plus a live reading by children’s author Sharon Mentyka, featuring her orca-themed novel Chasing at the Surface.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 6th from 6pm-7:30pm at the Harbor History Museum.

The book for May is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

In this magical debut, a couple's lives are changed forever by the arrival of a little girl, wild and secretive, on their snowy doorstep.

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

You can get a copy of the book in one of several ways:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com

Join us for the grand opening of Harbor History Museum’s Maritime Gallery! Celebrate 100 years of the Shenandoah; our 65’ purse seiner fishing vessel, and the completion of its remarkable restoration. See Thunderbird #1, the inspiration for an international fleet and racing class, and numerous small craft that represent Gig Harbor’s boat building heritage. Enjoy local food vendors, lively maritime music, insider history scoop talks, blacksmith demonstration, ribbon cutting ceremony, boat tours, and fun activities for all ages. Don’t miss this exciting day of community and celebration as we honor Gig Harbor’s maritime heritage together. Admission is free.

A special thanks to our wonderful donors and sponsors who have believed in this project over the years. It’s nearly done, thanks to you!

Still interested in supporting this project or the community opening through a donation or sponsorship? Donate Today

The Harbor History Museum is excited to announce a special presentation from our very own Shipwright, Riley Hall, on the restoration of the Shenandoah as a part of our Humanities in the Harbor Series.

Admission is FREE.

This talk will be IN PERSON at the museum. To save your space, please RSVP to Stephanie Lile at director@harborhistorymuseum.org

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 4th at 6:00 pm at the Harbor History Museum. The book for our March meeting is The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann.

--------------------------------------------------------- 

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.

You can get a copy of the book in one of several ways:

1. Call us (253) 858-6722 at the museum and identify yourself as a Gig Harbor Literary Society member and the staff will put a copy aside for you.

2. Request an electronic version through the Libby app on your mobile device.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, even if you don't have a chance to read or listen to the book, join us. 
----------------------------------
This event is FREE and open to the public. For questions, please contact Cindy Hackett at cynthia.hale.hackett@gmail.com