Somers Mutiny

The Somers Mutiny was a planned mutiny on board the American brig USS Somers while on a training mission in 1842 under Captain Alexander Slidell Mackenzie (1803-1848). He learned that young Midshipman Philip Spencer (1823-1842) was plotting a mutiny that would kill all the officers and most of the trainees and become a very fast, well-armed pirate ship. This happened in the middle of the Atlantic and no help was nearby. He had Spencer arrested and all the officers agreed that to save the ship they had to immediately execute Spencer and his two co-conspirators. The three were executed without a court martial and the ship returned safely to New York. However Spencer's father was the powerful United States Secretary of War John C. Spencer who tried to destroy Mackenzie. An inquiry and a court martial both cleared Mackenzie. There was enormous public attention, most of it unfavorable to Mackenzie. It was the last mutiny in the United States Navy.[1] Recently the plotters have been compared to modern-day school shooters.[2]

This Lithograph, published circa 1843, shows the mutineers hanging under the US flag.

Plotting

On 25 November 1842, during the passage to the West Africa and back Midshipman Philip Spencer, the son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer, tried to enlist purser's steward J.W. Wales in a planned mutiny by approximately 20 of Somers' crew. They intended to use the fast well-armed brig for piracy in the Caribbean. Seaman Elisha Small was involved in the conversation, and Wales was threatened with death if he revealed Spencer's plan.[3]

Captain Alexander Slidell Mackenzie

Discovery

On 26 November, Wales notified Captain Mackenzie of the plan through his chain of command via purser H.M. Heiskill and first lieutenant Guert Gansevoort. Captain Mackenzie was not inclined to take the matter seriously, but instructed Lt. Gansevoort to watch Spencer and the crew for evidence of confirmation. Lt. Gansevoort learned from other members of the crew that Spencer had been observed in secret nightly conferences with seaman Small and Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell. Captain Mackenzie confronted Spencer with Wales' allegation that evening. Spencer replied that he told Wales the story as a joke. Spencer was arrested and put in irons on the quarterdeck. Papers written in English using Greek letters were discovered in a search of Spencer's locker and translated by Midshipman Henry Rodgers.

Spencer's secret note

"CERTAIN: P. Spencer, E. Andrews, D. McKinley, Wales

"DOUBTFUL: Wilson (X), McKee (X), Warner, Green, Gedney, Van Veltzor, Sullivan, Godfrey, Gallia (X), Howard (X)

"Those doubtful marked (X) will probably be induced to join before the project is carried into execution. The remainder of the doubtful will probably join when the thing is done, if not, they must be forced. If any not marked down wish to join after the thing is done we will pick out the best and dispose of the rest.

"NOLENS VOLENS: Sibley, Van Brunt, Blackwell, Clarke, Corney, Garratrantz, Strummond, Witmore, Waltham, Nevilles, Dickinson, Riley, Scott, Crawley, Rodman, Selsor, The Doctor

"Wheel: McKee

"Cabin: Spencer, Small, Wilson

"Wardroom: Spencer

"Steerage: Spencer, Small, Wilson

"Arm Chest: McKinley"

Philip Spencer had been a founding member of the Chi Psi fraternity at Union College, Schenectady, New York, in May, 1841. He was fascinated by pirates and buccaneers and may have used the pirates model for a sailors' "fraternity".[4] He was insufficiently trained and foolishly unaware of the captain's authority.

A mast failed and damaged some sail rigging on 27 November. The timing and circumstances were regarded as suspicious; and Cromwell, the largest man on the crew, was questioned about his alleged meetings with Spencer. Cromwell said: "It was not me, sir – it was Small." Small was questioned and admitted meeting with Spencer. Both Cromwell and Small joined Spencer in irons on the quarterdeck. On 28 November wardroom steward Henry Waltham was flogged for having stolen brandy for Spencer; and, after the flogging, Captain Mackenzie informed the crew of a plot by Spencer to have them murdered. Waltham was flogged again on 29 November for suggesting theft of three bottles of wine to one of the apprentices. Sailmaker's mate Charles A. Wilson was detected attempting to obtain a weapon on that afternoon, and Landsman McKinley and Apprentice Green missed muster when their watch was called at midnight.[5]

The officers respond

Four more men were put in irons on the morning of 30 November: Wilson, McKinley, Green, and Cromwell's friend, Alexander McKie. Captain Mackenzie then addressed a letter to his four wardroom officers (First Lieutenant Gansevoort,[6] Passed Assistant Surgeon L.W. Leecock, Purser Heiskill, and Acting Master M.C. Perry) and three oldest midshipmen (Henry Rodgers, Egbert Thompson, and Charles W. Hayes), asking their opinion as to the best course of action. The seven convened in the wardroom to interview members of the crew.[7]

On 1 December, the officers reported that they had "come to a cool, decided, and unanimous opinion" that Spencer, Cromwell, and Small were "guilty of a full and determined intention to commit a mutiny;" and they recommended that the three be put to death, despite Spencer's claim that the accused conspirators "had been pretending piracy". The plotters were hanged that day and buried at sea. Some have noted that the captain could have waited since there were only thirteen days to home port. In response, the captain noted the fatigue of his officers, the smallness of the vessel and the inadequacies of the confinement.

Aftermath

Somers reached St. Thomas on 5 December and returned to New York on 14 December. She remained there during a naval court of inquiry which investigated the alleged mutiny and subsequent executions. The court exonerated Mackenzie, as did a subsequent court-martial, held at his request to avoid a trial in civil court. Nevertheless, the general populace remained skeptical.[8]

Notes

Samuel Eliot Morison, "Old Bruin": Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 1794-1858 (1967) pp 144-62.
Buckner Melton, A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers (2007) p 261.
Scott Baron and James Wise, Jr. (2016). Conduct Unbecoming: Fifteen Military Criminals, Rogues and Victims of Justice from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam. McFarland. pp. 26–33.
Sliffer, H. Seger (1951). The Chi Psi Story. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Chi Psi Fraternity. pp. 73–79.
Baldwin, 1955.
Lt. Gansevoort was a cousin of Herman Melville whose famous novella Billy Budd was not closely based on the Somers mutiny. Herman Melville (1962). Billy Budd, Sailor. U of Chicago Press. pp. 28–29.
Samuel Eliot Morison, "Old Bruin": Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 1794-1858 (1967) pp 144-62.
Morison, 1967.

External links

1995 documentary "The Curse of the Somers" by The Somers Documentary Film Project
"Mutiny Of 1842 (USS Somers)" Documentary by George Belcher
history.navy.mil: USS Somers
CASE of the Somers' MUTINY. DEFENCE of ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE, COMMANDER OF THE U.S. RIG Somers, BEFORE THE COURT MARTIAL HELD AT THE NAVY YARD, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: TRIBUNE OFFICE, 160 NASSAU STREET, 1843.

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[1] Samuel Eliot Morison, "Old Bruin": Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 1794-1858 (1967) pp 144-62.

[2] Buckner Melton, A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers (2007) p 261.

[3] Scott Baron and James Wise, Jr. (2016). Conduct Unbecoming: Fifteen Military Criminals, Rogues and Victims of Justice from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam. McFarland. pp. 26–33.

[4] Sliffer, H. Seger (1951). The Chi Psi Story. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Chi Psi Fraternity. pp. 73–79.

[5] Baldwin, 1955.

[6] Lt. Gansevoort was a cousin of Herman Melville whose famous novella Billy Budd was not closely based on the Somers mutiny. Herman Melville (1962). Billy Budd, Sailor. U of Chicago Press. pp. 28–29.

[7] Samuel Eliot Morison, "Old Bruin": Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 1794-1858 (1967) pp 144-62.

[8] Morison, 1967.