A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers

by Buckner F. Melton Jr.

Mutiny on the Bounty is one of history's greatest naval stories -- yet few know the similar tale from America's own fledgling navy in the dying days of the Age of Sail, a tale of mutiny and death at sea on an American warship.

In 1842, the brig-of-war Somers set out on a training cruise for apprentice seamen, commanded by rising star Alexander Mackenzie. Somers was crammed with teenagers. Among them was Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, a disturbed youth and a son of the U.S. Secretary of War. Buying other crew members' loyalty with pilfered tobacco and alcohol, Spencer dreamed up a scheme to kill the officers and turn Somers into a pirate ship.

In the isolated world of a warship, a single man can threaten the crew's discipline and the captain's authority. But one of Spencer's followers warned Mackenzie, who arrested the midshipman and chained him and other ringleaders to the quarterdeck. Fearing efforts to rescue the prisoners, officers had to stay awake in round-the-clock watches. Steering desperately for land, sleep-deprived and armed to the teeth, battling efforts to liberate Spencer, Somers's captain and officers finally faced a fateful choice: somehow keep control of the vessel until reaching port -- still hundreds of miles away -- or hang the midshipman and his two leading henchmen before the boys could take over the ship.

The results shook the nation. A naval investigation of the affair turned into a court-martial and a state trial and led to the founding of the Naval Academy to provide better officers for the still-young republic. Mackenzie's controversial decision may have inspired Herman Melville's great work Billy Budd. The story of Somers raises timeless questions still disturbing in twenty-first-century America: the relationship between civil and military law, the hazy line between peace and war, the battle between individual rights and national security, and the ultimate challenge of command at sea.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Nautical

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Bob Mayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the greatest prose but it examines an event that had a much greater impact that most people realize. It's about the only mutiny in the United States Navy. It occurred on board a training ship. Because of the young age of so many people on board, this led to the founding of the United States Naval Academy. As a graduate of West Point I had never really known how and when and why the Naval Academy was established. Occurring prior to the Civil War, many of the players in this book had a role to play in future events and Naval Academy graduates have certainly shaped our country's destiny.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the Somers is worth the recounting, and Bruckner Melton, who knows his ships and sea lore, certainly writes well enough. (Occasionally his prose does head over the top, as when he compares his pirate manqué with the new nation “where the lights of civilization grew dim and everything, even human life, was in flux.”[26]) Nevertheless, Melton here presents a thoughtful and levelheaded version of the events that occurred aboard the Somers in November 1842.

Hanging Offense also treats a host of loosely connected (but often fascinating) ancillary subjects, from the beginnings of Anti-Masonry, to the nature of ancient sailing rigs, to the medical consequences of being beaten with a cat-‘o-nine-tails. These digressions help Melton camouflage an obvious limitation of his topic—that it could have been adequately managed in a long article or book chapter.

What leads Melton astray is that, as a law professor, he finds more engaging than will most of his readers the details of the subsequent naval inquiry and court-martial. The inquiry was frankly lackluster, and the most notable feature of the court-martial was a zealous (if sometimes bumbling) judge advocate who conducted a fruitless fishing expedition in an attempt to uncover a post-hanging conspiracy. Unless the reader is a lawyer, he may wish to skip those chapters—more than a third of the volume—because Melton has already mined the records for earlier sections of the book.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a historian with a personal passion for tales of mutinous dogs, I have never stopped reading a book on the subject - until now. As others here have commented, the prose is over the top, so much so that I refused to finish the first chapter. If you are interested in the Somers, I highly suggest Philip McFarland’s “Sea Dangers.” While that book takes its time to get to the narrative, it does so in a much more readable manner.

[Cecelia Hightower]

The time period for this event was in 1842 and was the voyage of the first ever training cruise for officer cadets for the U.S. Navy. The final events of this cruise resulted in the establishment of Annapolis, the U.S. Navy training academy. Before this voyage the U.S. Navy had gotten their navy officers from navies of other nations and from the school of "Hard Knocks". Boys with some education, some without were shipped out on vessels and had to prove they were up to the job.

This Somers was a brig-of-war, 100 feet in length with a 25 foot beam, drawing 11 feet and only two masts and a complement of 120 men. Rather a crowded amount of space to live and work without any sense of privacy. It didn't take such a large number of men to operate the ship, they were aboard to provide manpower and cannon fodder incase of engagement with the enemy.

Because of the importance of this voyage all of the officers, midshipman, cadets and crew had been specially selected. That is all, except for one midshipman. This individual was the troubled son of the Secretary of War, had been thrown out of most of the schools in the country and seemed always to be in some kind of trouble. The Secretary of War pleaded with the Secretary of the Navy to allow his son to be a member of the crew on this voyage in the hopes it would straighten him out. This request was granted with the up most reluctance and before even leaving the dock, this individual was causing problems and trouble aboard the vessel.

This midshipman had desires to acquire his own ship and become a pirate. To achieve this he attempted to incite a mutiny aboard the Somers, which failed. The Captain attempted to bring the three leaders of this mutiny back so they could be tried in navy court marshal, but there was no space for a brig and the men were placed in irons on the top-deck. The captain and officers tried to isolate the leaders from the rest of the crew where a significant number of crew members were still in favor of the mutiny and were threatening to still take over the ship. The captain and officers were maintaining control by virtue of armed force but were so short handed they could not continue the pace, especially with a significant number of the crew still supporting the leaders of the mutiny. The three leaders of the mutiny were the only ones of the mutineers that knew how to navigate and without them the rest of the crew would have no knowledge of where they were or how to plot a course to any destination. The captain decided in the safety of all hands and other vessels at sea a court had to be convened to resolve the situation. The decision of this court was the the three leaders of the mutiny were to be hung by the neck until dead.

This decision was carried out, the ship made it back safely and the rest of the book is about the ramifications of the decision made by the captain and the court.

This book was a great read for anyone interested in American history, American naval history, and what life was like aboard a naval ship in the mid 1800's. This is a book that I plan to keep in my library to read again at a later date.

[Abigail Hartman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book landed somewhere around 2.5 stars for me. While I enjoyed learning about the United States' own "Mutiny on the 'Bounty'"-like event, that enjoyment was unfortunately dampened by the quality of the writing: it had sparks, if not of brilliance, at least of wit, but for the most part seemed pedestrian and sometimes even infantile. Perhaps better editing would have taken care of that issue. At any rate, "A Hanging Offense" was a quick read, and it was interesting to see an American court-martial in action.

(Interestingly, I found that the book has a connection with the novel I just finished reading, "The Deerslayer," as James Fenimore Cooper participated in the newspaper-wars that followed the 'Somers' affair. He was one of the few writers with a naval background of the times who castigated the brig's captain for the hangings; of course, he and the captain were enemies to begin with, so his opinion must be taken with a whole shaker of salt.)

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. But since we can't do half stars, I would say it's closer to 4 than 3. The story and book are pretty good. But if you have read any of my true crime reviews you know I don't like to much time spent on the trial or court room stuff. This book was great up to the point when the ship returned. But then the author covers the inquest AND the court marshall. Near the end I found myself thinking "ok... Ok... I just want to know how it ends." As far as the event itself... Pretty interesting. I won't give anything away, but I'll say I agree with what was done. And I would have done the same. If you read the book, you'll know what I'm talking about.

[JennanneJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

On one of my business trips, I brought along books to release, but not enough unread books. I picked this up in Amarillo, Texas. Was reading it on the plane. The guy next to me was in the navy. He recognised the name of the ship and said, "That's the ship Melville's story, Billy Budd, is about." Sure enough, in the dust jacket blurb, it says just that.