A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers: Buckner F. Melton Jr.
From Publishers Weekly
This coherent and absorbing study from Melton (The First Impeachment) is the first full-scale study of the “mutiny” aboard the U.S.S. Somers in nearly a generation. The brig Somers was on a training cruise in 1842, with more than 100 apprentice seamen aboard. The son of the secretary of war, 19-year-old Philip Spencer, began talking and writing wildly about leading a mutiny. When the captain, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, had Spencer and his two confederates, Cromwell and Small, put in irons, several incidents occurred suggesting attempts to rescue the men. After consulting with his officers and petty officers, Mackenzie decided that in view of the “clear and present danger” of a bloody mutiny, he should hang the three suspects, and did. The Navy conducted a formal inquiry into Mackenzie’s conduct, then brought him before a court-martial. Melton, professor of law at the University of North Carolina, does his best to render the ensuing legal thickets intelligible to the 21st-century lay reader, without complete success. Better are his accounts of where the Somers affair fits into maritime history and the manner in which the isolation of the sailing ship made the captain’s power nearly absolute. His final verdict is similar to that of the 19th-century Navy: Mackenzie exceeded his authority, but not wantonly or frivolously, and Spencer was a clear-cut and dangerous sociopath. Equal traces of eloquence and purple prose in saying so may appeal to post-Patrick O’Brien-era maritime buffs.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In 1842, the U.S. Navy was a relatively small and primitive fighting force, especially compared to the British navy. Most crewmen were very young, poorly educated boys; officers were often poorly trained. Melton, a historian and professor of law at the University of North Carolina, offers a fascinating account of a simple training cruise that went terribly wrong, resulting in mutiny, executions, and a sensational court martial. At the center of this drama were two interesting but flawed men: Phillip Spencer, a 19-year-old midshipman who was bright and charismatic but mentally unstable, and Captain Alexander Mackenzie, a well-bred, vastly experienced seaman with a generally affable nature but a knack for getting into controversial situations. His efforts to cope with the blatant disobedience of Spencer and others who supported him led to tragedy and an eventual reassessment of naval training and shipboard procedures. This is a superbly written story that captures both the routine and the rising tension within the insular society of a warship. Jay Freeman
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