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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A credible account of an incredible event, March 29, 2003
Could there be a more preposterous, overly melodramatic fictional plot than a scenario where during a peacetime cruise a commanding naval officer deliberately puts to death without trial a junior subordinate officer, a subordinate who just happens to be the son of a member of the President's Cabinet? Yet, of course, that is no fictional plot, but exactly what happened aboard the USS Somers in 1842 when Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie hanged Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, the son of the serving Secretary of War, and two other men for reputedly planning a mutiny to kill the other ship's officers and carry the brig off into a career of piracy. Ever since, questions linger. Was young Spencer's plot merely a bizarre fantasy, or did he really plan to kill his captain and the other senior officers? Was Mackenzie justified in sidestepping normal procedure to hang men without trial, or did he and his fellow officers succumb to panic and execute innocent men? The Somers, of course, was not wholly a typical man-of-war on the voyage in question, and that was perhaps a vital element in the background to the mutiny (or whatever it was) and its aftermath. Except for the handful of officers and a small cadre of experienced seamen, almost the entire crew of the brig was composed of youths fresh off training ships, sent to sea on the Somers to gain practical experience. As such, they were perhaps more vulnerable to the blandishments of an erratic midshipman than seasoned sailors would have been. Yet, it was two of the experienced hands who were hanged along with young Spencer, one protesting his innocence and the other apparently conceding his guilt. A vital element of the circumstances was that the Somers carried no marines, the usual bulwark against a mutinous crew. The tale did not end with Mackenzie's suppression of unrest aboard his ship. His actions would have certainly been questioned in any case, but the fact that Spencer's father was Secretary of War guaranteed that Mackenzie would be charged with illegal, murderous behavior. Inevitably, a court-martial followed. Buckner Melton, Jr., a law professor at the University of North Carolina and author of a book last year about the mysterious machinations of Aaron Burr on the Western frontier in the early Nineteenth Century, has just published "A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers." It's a solid account of the affair written in a lively style aiming to capture the atmosphere - social, political, and physical - surrounding the events. He takes special care to describe the particular world of a naval warship during the Age of Sail and the unique power and responsibilities of a commanding officer, and in general he is successful in this. I must note, however, one small slip that caused me to frown. In describing the Somers, he mentions her armament: 32-pounders, more powerful than any land field artillery and longer ranged too. The brig's 32-pounders, however, were carronades whose short barrels also made them short ranged, despite their ability to inflict severe damage at close quarters. A 32-pound carronade was credited with a range of 1087 yards at a 5 degree elevation. The standard US Army 1841 6-pounder smoothbore field artillery piece had a range of 1500 yards at that same 5 degrees elevation. Leaving that largely irrelevant detail aside, Melton's account gives a satisfactory picture of this world-in-miniature that was so violently disrupted by these controversial events. He is quite evidently sympathetic to Commander Mackenzie's plight, and I believe he is right in finding insights into young Spencer's behavior by looking at much-publicized school violence incidents in recent years. From Columbine to the Somers may not be an overly long step. In short, I find Melton's portrayal of the events and personalities to be persuasive. As he himself acknowledges in an epilogue, there can be no final answers to the questions raised, but I believe that Melton has come about as close as we can ever expect.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Historical True Crime Saga, May 13, 2003
Buckner F. Melton Jr.'s "A Hanging Offense" is a fascinating work of narrative history that resurrects an important but little-remembered incident from the early days of the U.S. Navy. The U.S.S. Somers, one of the last sailing vessles to be commissioned by the navy, was on a routine training cruise when a near mutiny broke out, resulting in the hanging of three of her crew. The story of the voyage is both hair raising and heartbreaking, particularly considering that two of the three hanged were very young men. The would be mutineers were led by midshipman-in-training Phillip Spencer, the troubled son of a U.S. Cabinet Official who pulled the strings that got his son the post. Spencer almost immediately began conspiring with members of the crew to kill the officers and turn the ship into a pirate vessle. His plan was ultimately thwarted when he was double-crossed by a crewman he took into his confidence. The tragedy caused a sensation back in the U.S., resulting in the well publicized court marshal of Captain Alexander Mackenzie. It also exposed the many flaws endemic to the navy at the time, and ultimately resulted in much needed reforms, most particularly the establishment in 1845 of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. All of this Melton recounts with his highly readable prose. He details the life of Phillip Spencer, who most likely suffered from a personality disorder that caused many of his actions. Melton's accounts of the attempted mutiny itself read like the most suspenseful fiction. The lengthy aftermath describes the legal proceedings that ultimately exonerated Mackenzie, despite the political machinations of Phillip Spencer's father. As a professor of law, Melton also explains the finer legal points of the case in considerable detail. The book is a lively and relatively brief at about 260 pages of narrative. Overall, an excellent work of narrative history that will appeal most strongly to maritime buffs.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
very strange affair...., November 30, 2003
I found this book to be highly informative and interesting reading material. Obviously, there seem to be several different accounts of this incident but I found Buckner Melton's version to be pretty close to the mark. Other reviews before me have written much about it but I would add little bit of review, the book could have used some illustrations, of the ship, the primary players of this incident and maybe even a blue print of the Somers. Considering level of teen violence today, Melton's accessment sound pretty reasonable to me.
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