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

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Snow, Richard, 1947-

Snow, Richard

Cary Regional
Green Road Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Oberlin Regional
Wake Forest Community

Adult Non-Fiction

Cary Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Green Road Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Morrisville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
North Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Oberlin Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Wake Forest Community - Adult Non-Fiction

"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"--

Book

Books

31f7f7f7-2b03-4fae-50f2-9f68cbf04d08

9781982185442

2025-05-11T09:19:24.412Z

-1

Non Fiction

Non Fiction

359 SNOW

Wake County Public Libraries

Cary Regional
Green Road Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Oberlin Regional
Wake Forest Community

9781982185442

2023

Scribner

grouped_work

Courts-martial and courts of inquiry -- New York (State) -- New York
Cromwell, Samuel, -- -1842
Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, -- 1803-1848
Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell, -- 1803-1848 -- Trials, litigation, etc
Small, Elijah, -- -1842
Somers (Brig : 1842-1846)
Somers Mutiny, 1842
Spencer, Philip, -- 1824-1842
Trials (Mutiny) -- New York (State) -- New York
United States. -- Navy -- History
United States. -- Navy. -- Court-martial (Mackenzie : 1843)

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

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

Sailing the graveyard sea

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

Courts-martial and courts of inquiry
Cromwell, Samuel
History
Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell
Small, Elijah
Somers Mutiny, 1842
Spencer, Philip
Trials (Mutiny)
Trials, litigation, etc