The Curse of the Somers: The Secret History behind the U.S. Navy's Most Infamous Mutiny

by James P. Delgado

The greatest controversy in the history of the U.S. Navy of the early American Republic was the revelation that the son of the Secretary of War had seemingly plotted a bloody mutiny that would have turned the U.S. brig Somers into a pirate ship. The plot discovered, he and his co-conspirators were hastily condemned and hanged at sea.

The repercussions of those acts brought headlines, scandal, a fistfight at a cabinet meeting, a court martial, ruined lives, lost reputations, and tales of a haunted ship bound for the devil and lost tragically at sea with many of its crew. The Somers affair led to the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy and it remains the Navy's only acknowledged mutiny in its history. The story also inspired Herman Melville's White-Jacket and Billy Budd. Others connected to the Somers included Commodore Perry, a relation and defender of the Somers' captain Mackenzie; James Fenimore Cooper, whose feud with the captain, dating back to the War of 1812, resurfaced in his reportage of the affair; and Raphael Semmes, the Somers' last captain who later served in the Confederate Navy.

The Curse of the Somers is a thorough recreation of this classic tale, told with the help of recently uncovered evidence. Written by a maritime historian and archaeologist who helped identify the long-lost wreck and subsequently studied its sunken remains, this is a timeless tale of life and death at sea. James P. Delgado re-examines the circumstances, drawing from a rich historical record and from the investigation of the ship's sunken remains. What surfaces is an all-too-human tale that resonates and chills across the centuries.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Historical, Reference, Technology, Archaeology

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 21, 1998

Reviews

[Victoria Gentry]

I am still reading this … but

Pros:

This is a story/moment in history I’ve not heard of before so it’s interesting to learn about.

Cons:

The writing leaves much to be desired and is awkward at times.

As with some of his other work typos are numerous.

Delgado’s use of “schizophrenic” is incorrect and unfortunately pushed hard as a theory though from the evidence given, there is little to suggest actual schizophrenia.

I will update further as I get into it - if I keep going.

[Grace]

This book is only interesting to people with a love for archaeology and marine archaeology, I found it interesting and useful although a bit dense, which is what can typically be expected from an encyclopedia. Its a valued part of my collection Nonetheless.

[Ryan Shane]

This is definitely a piece of American naval history worth knowing and reading. Delgado’s telling of the controversy is clearly well-researched, but delivered in a clunky and repetitious way.

Sentences drag on and require rereading due to their awkwardness. The author also repeats points frequently throughout the book, often even using the same phrasing to do so, such as, “Phillip was both trouble and troubled,” to describe his character and behavior.

Something I found personally frustrating about the book’s formatting was that the author detailed the events of the alleged mutiny both in the preface and the introduction, then used the book’s body to give background and explain how various actors responded to the event. I feel this did away with the narrative flair that could have been with such a controversial event.

One final gripe I have is that the book’s title leads one to believe that a mutiny did occur on the ship, when in fact a mutiny was not even attempted—merely allegedly plotted by Spencer.

In all, this is still a book worth reading and I learned more about the U.S. Navy during the middle 1800s, which is what I set out to do. I appreciated Delgado’s epilogue which spoke to his archeological work and the discovery of Somers.

[Ann]

This is a book that is very relevant today in terms of social history and how the America of 1842 has distinct similarities to the America of today. I always enjoy Delgado's writing. He's a gifted story teller and historian. The story in this book focuses on Philip Spencer, a young man who was hanged as a mutineer, and is said to have been the model for Billy Budd by Herman Melville. What happened on the ship is brought to life and with details about how sailors lived, worked, and misbehaved in the nineteenth century. The captain of the Somers, Alexander Mackenzie, was a strict disciplinarian. Delgado believes that Mackenzie overreacted to Spencer. He writes in great detail about Spencer's family, his father a prominent attorney who served as the Secretary of War. The Spencer family was known for heavy drinking, violence, and lying. Philip Spencer did all of those things on the Somers. When Captain Mackenzie learned that Spencer had told others he wanted to take control of the ship and make it a pirate, things got out of hand. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in social history as well as sea stories.

[Mary]

Sometimes in life we are met with a difficult decision that regardless of the choice we make there are going to be some ramifications. We outweigh the plight and go with what feels right at that time. But what if we were wrong? What if we were right? How many others might be affected by this decision? That was the predicament that the SOMERS captain, Mackenzie found himself in when a member of his crew was threatening mutiny and gaining support of the crew. The year was 1842, the US was embroiled in political battles, the Civil War was looming, and humanity was in turmoil. The Navy was structured on old British ways, favoritism and nepotism was rampant, and discipline was an afterthought. Times were changing with an increased desire for religion and faith to be the means to solve social problems. Captain Mackenzie was a fervent follower of this movement which fueled the way he ruled his ship and how he mentored the young boys that came in from the streets. Woe to those, like Spencer, who didn't share in his beliefs. He made the decision, and it sent a shock wave through to the Navy. Was he right? The writer leaves the reader to pass their own judgement.

[Scott Martin]

(Audiobook) Actually had not heard of this mutiny, but it was worth checking out. The book covers an attempted mutiny in the 1840s on the Navy ship USS Somers. It involves a cast of characters that were ill-suited to be on the ship that they all ended up on, from a 1st officer with high political connections and poor discipline to a captain that was also highly connection politically, but lacked sufficient “blue water” experience. What followed was an account of poor discipline, political coverups and decades of literary back and forths. Hardly a great look for the Navy.

The narrative of the book jumps around a lot, assuming that the reader actually knows about this tale, which I venture many readers of this work will not. That can be hard to follow at times. The narrator was an interesting choice. While he seemed to fit the image of someone to narrate a tale like this, the voice recording was a little difficult to navigate at times.

[Kurt Williams]

Inspired me to watch the movie "Billy Budd"