Sailing the Graveyard Sea: The Deathly Voyage of the ‘Somers,’ the U.S. Navy’s Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation

Historian Snow (Disney’s Land) examines in this gripping narrative the mystery surrounding the 1842 execution of three sailors aboard the training vessel USS Somers. One of the ship’s young recruits was midshipman Phillip Spencer, a teenager who was “insolent, sullen, [and] scornful of hierarchy.” (He was also the son of the secretary of war, John Canfield Spencer.) While on a voyage across the Atlantic, the ship’s “self-righteous” captain, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, was informed that Spencer was sharing with his fellow recruits fantasies of seizing the Somers and turning it into a pirate ship; Mackenzie acted immediately, harshly, and, many claimed in the aftermath, illegally, by assembling a court-martial. According to Snow, it was due to intimidation by the captain and his first officer that the jury reached a guilty verdict. On Dec. 1, 1842, when the ship was only 13 days from home port, Spencer and two supposed coconspirators were hanged. The events on the Somers became headline news, and speculation abounded: Had there really been a mutiny afoot, or had the captain committed murder? As a result of pressure from Spencer’s powerful father, Mackenzie was tried by a Naval court, but he was acquitted. Snow delves into the investigation and courtroom drama, drawing on court transcripts to vividly recreate scenes on board the Somers. Readers will be intrigued. (Nov.)