Cheap watched the incoming invalids, many of them so weak they had to be lifted onto the ships on stretchers. Their panicked faces betrayed what everyone secretly knew: they were sailing to their deaths. As Reverend Walter ac-knowledged, "They would in all probability uselessly perish by lingering and painful dis-cases; and this, too, after they had spent the activity and strength of their youth in their country's service."

— The Wager by David Grann