Sailing the graveyard sea : the deathly voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's only mutiny, and the trial that gripped the nation / Richard Snow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Snow, Richard, 1947- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Navy--History.

United States.

Somers (Brig : 1842-1846).

Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, 1803-1848.

Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell.

Spencer, Philip, 1824-1842.

Spencer, Philip.

Cromwell, Samuel, -1842.

Cromwell, Samuel.

Small, Elijah, -1842.

Small, Elijah.

United States. Navy. Court-martial (Mackenzie : 1843).

Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, 1803-1848--Trials, litigation, etc.

United States. Navy.

Somers Mutiny, 1842.

Courts-martial and courts of inquiry--New York (State)--New York.

Courts-martial and courts of inquiry.

Trials (Mutiny)--New York (State)--New York.

Trials (Mutiny).

Trials.

New York (State)--New York.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

xi, 287 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : black and white illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Other Title:

Deathly voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's only mutiny, and the trial that gripped the nation

Place of Publication:

New York : Scribner, 2023.

Summary:

"On December 16, 1842, the US brig-of-war Somers dropped anchor in Brooklyn Harbor at the end of a cruise intended to teach a group of adolescents the rudiments of naval life. But this seemingly harmless exercise ended in catastrophe. Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie came ashore saying he had narrowly prevented a mutiny that would have left him and his officers dead. Some of the thwarted mutineers were being held under guard, but three had been hanged: Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell, Seaman Elisha Small, and Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, whose father was the secretary of war, John Spencer. Eighteen-year-old Philip Spencer, according to Mackenzie, had been the ringleader who encouraged the crew to seize the ship and become pirates, raping and pillaging their way across the old Spanish Main. And while the young man might have been a rebel fascinated by pirates, it soon became clear the order that condemned the three men had no legal basis. And worse, that perhaps a mutiny had never really occurred, and that the ship might instead have been seized by a creeping hysteria that ended in the sacrifice of three innocents. Months of accusations and counteraccusations were followed by a highly public court martial which put Mackenzie on trial for his life, and a storm of anti-Navy sentiment drew the attention of the leading writers of the day (Washington Irving thought Mackenzie a hero; James Fenimore Cooper damned him with a ferocity that still stings). But some good did come out of it: public disgust with Mackenzie's training cruise gave birth to Annapolis, the place that within a century, would produce the greatest navy the world had ever known. Vividly told and filled with tense action based on court martial transcripts, Snow's masterly account of this all-but-forgotten episode is naval history at its finest"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Boldness and decision

The pirate

The author

The Somers

Storm warnings

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Doomsday

Inquiry

Court-martial

Verdicts.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-268) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Snow, Richard, 1947- Sailing the graveyard sea.

ISBN:

9781982185442

1982185449

OCLC:

1380464837

Publisher Number:

99995272456