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A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers

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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.

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.

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.

"A Hanging Offense" is a brief but powerful account of an early Amercian Naval incident. In order to squelch a possible mutiny aboard a warship in the early 1840s, the ship's commander executed three accused conspirators, including the alleged reingleader, son of the sitting secretary of war. While it's easy to pick apart the commander's decision, it's important to look at the events from his perspective and within the context of the times. Melton provides a balanced chronicle of this event and what possibly motivated the ship's commander to hang three sailors without benefit of a legal court martial. As a result, this book serves as an important lesson in leadership in general, and not just the military arena.

It's important to remember that the Somers' commander was a politically-connected rising star who was all too aware of the consequences of hanging a cabinet secretary's son, but nevertheless felt his actions were necessary. The Somers was a small but swift vessel whose loss would be both an embarrassment to the pride of the fledgling US Navy and a danger to other vessels. The Somers was crewed by mostly teenage trainees who, the captain feared, would fall under the influence of the mutineers into killing the ship's officers and becoming pirates. Although this entire premise sounds absurd, the circumstances provide a conundrum that would challenge the best military leaders in the world.

Melton presents this entire chapter of Naval history in a clear and lucid manner, without taking sides. If you're interested in books about the character traits of leaders, forget the management books that are out there. Read a history of the extreme example of a no-win situation and ponder what you would do if you were the Somers' captain.

I saw this book in a used book store when I made a special trip to get another book entirely. "A Hanging Offense" with its intriguing title and cover caught my eye, and I decided to buy it instead. While I understand one reviewer's comment that the story would make for a fantastic article but is a bit drawn out in book form, it kept me engrossed for all 259 pages of the text and I looked forward to diving into the story every lunch break until the end. Melton's style, at first, was rather mechanical with sentences having the same structure, but the writing improved as the book progressed, although he used "had had" more than I have ever seen in a book before. I think an editor would clean that up.

Before getting to the meat of the story, Melton briefly describes the history of seafaring and naval training in the United States. Some might consider this background material as padding the story to get it to book length, but it does establish that the brig-of-war Somers, in 1842 when the story takes place, was a traditional sailing vessel in an era of steam and that naval apprenticeship took place on the waters with no land training or screening process. The old-school nature of the Somers brings us to Captain Mackenzie who was also of the old school who was given charge of the Somers as a demotion of sorts after running the ship Missouri aground. The lack of screening for the navy brings us to Midshipman Philip Spencer, whose father was the Secretary of War. Spencer had behavioral difficulties on past ships before he was placed on Somers for her voyage to the Atlantic coast of Africa to get him out of the way.

The background Melton provides thus sets the stage for the short, yet disturbing passage of the USS Somers. It does not take long for Spencer's behavior to raise red flags for the officers. He quickly starts an alliance with two men who knew how to navigate while not hiding his fascination with piracy (he admits it was a "mania" for him). Danger of mutiny continued even after Spencer and his two main allies were arrested. The exhausted officers were afraid to fall asleep. MacKenzie and his officers had to make an agonizing decision to save themselves and the ship. This decision lead to an inquiry and court-martial once they returned to New York.

As a professor of law, Melton is in his element when he describes the inquiry and court-martial of Captain MacKenzie; however, he does not bog down the book with legalese. MacKenzie had an advantage in the inquiry but, he found that the defense of his life was more difficult during the court-martial against the skilled cross examinations of Judge Advocate William H. Norris not to mention the anger of the uncompromising and relentless Secretary of War and father of Philip, John Canfield Spencer. Considering the information provided on the case was from those trying to save their lives, what really happened on the Somers was probably lost forever at sea, but Melton does an admirable and thorough job covering the "strange affair of the warship Somers" with the material available. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in seafaring history, mutiny (there does not seem to be many books on this intriguing subject), naval discipline, and even naval law. It is a unique chapter in the history of the U.S. navy. Maps and illustrations are, unfortunately, not included in this book but would have been a welcomed addition.

Excellent story! While trying to prevent a mutiny in 1842, Commander Alexander Mackenzie, of the US war ship "Sommers" hung a few of the mutinous sailors. The decision was abnormally intensified and complicated since Commander Mackenzie was a rising star in the officer ranks and one of the sailors hung was Midshipman Philip Spencer, son of the Secretary of War!! Not going to look good on the Commander's resume! Awesome story in itself, to choose what to do and the search for who were the main mutineers. It even gets better! Upon returning to the US, an expected uproar in the national press occurred. A major trial ensued to find if Commander Mackinzie had followed proper procedures and hung the correct sailors. The O.J. trial to the third power! Was it Mackenzie's turn to get the noose, be exonerated, or have his career virtually ended!

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.

O here's to Philip Spencer, who when about to die.
When crashing down beneath the waves, loud shouted out Chi Psi!