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Title details for Sailing the Graveyard Sea by Richard Snow - Available

Sailing the Graveyard Sea

The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation

by Richard Snow
Jacques Roy
Audiobook
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2 of 4 copies available
A "compelling" (The Wall Street Journal) account of the only mutiny in the history of the United States Navy—a little-known but once notorious event that cost three young men their lives—part murder mystery, part courtroom drama, and as propulsive and dramatic as the bestselling novels of Patrick O'Brian.
On December 16, 1842, the US brig-of-war Somers dropped anchor in the New York Harbor at the end of a voyage intended to teach a group of adolescents the rudiments of naval life. But this routine exercise ended in catastrophe. Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie came ashore claiming he had prevented a mutiny that would have left him and his officers dead. Some of the thwarted mutineers were being held under guard, but three had already been hanged at sea: Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell, Seaman Elisha Small, and Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, whose father was the secretary of war, John Spencer.

Eighteen-year-old Philip Spencer, according to his commander, had been the ringleader who encouraged the crew to seize the ship and become pirates so that they might rape and pillage their way through the northern coast of South America and the Caribbean. While the young man might have been fascinated by stories of pirates, it soon became clear the order that condemned the three men had no legal basis. And, worse, it appeared possible that no mutiny had actually occurred, and that the ship might instead have been seized by a creeping hysteria that ended in the sacrifice of three innocents.

Months of accusations and counteraccusations were followed by a highly public court-martial that put Mackenzie on trial for his life, and a storm of anti-Navy sentiment drew the attention of such leading writers of the day as Herman Melville and James Fenimore Cooper. But some good did come out of it: public disgust with Mackenzie's hapless "training" gave birth to Annapolis, the distinguished naval academ that within a century would produce the mightiest navy the world had ever known.

Vividly told and filled with tense shown directly in court-martial transcripts, Richard Snow's masterly account of this all-but-forgotten episode is "a hell of a yarn" (Kirkus Reviews) and naval history at its finest.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 21, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797165820
      • File size: 232447 KB
      • Duration: 08:04:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 4, 2023
      Historian Snow (Disney’s Land) examines in this gripping narrative the mystery surrounding the 1842 execution of three sailors aboard the training vessel USS Somers. One of the ship’s young recruits was midshipman Phillip Spencer, a teenager who was “insolent, sullen, scornful of hierarchy.” (He was also the son of the secretary of war, John Canfield Spencer.) While on a voyage across the Atlantic, the ship’s “self-righteous” captain, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, was informed that Spencer was sharing with his fellow recruits fantasies of seizing the Somers and turning it into a pirate ship; Mackenzie acted immediately, harshly, and, many claimed in the aftermath, illegally, by assembling a court-martial. According to Snow, it was due to intimidation by the captain and his first officer that the jury reached a guilty verdict. On Dec. 1, 1842, when the ship was only 13 days from home port, Spencer and two supposed coconspirators were hanged. The events on the Somers became headline news, and speculation abounded: Had there really been a mutiny afoot, or had the captain committed murder? As a result of pressure from Spencer’s powerful father, Mackenzie was tried by a Naval court, but he was acquitted. Snow delves into the investigation and courtroom drama, drawing on court transcripts to vividly recreate scenes on board the Somers. Readers will be intrigued.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Listeners can explore the only mutiny ever to take place aboard a U.S. Navy ship that occurred in 1842. Three crew members were hanged aboard the training vessel, and the captain faced a court-martial when the brig returned to port. The mutiny and the subsequent trial are recounted in this work. Jacques Roy's narration carries the audiobook along with an even tone. He adds no false drama. However, the author regularly quotes at length from contemporary newspaper reports and court records. The embellished language of the nineteenth century makes for occasionally tedious listening. But those who tolerate it are in for an enthralling sea tale. The incident led to the creation of the U.S. Naval Academy. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2024

      Historian and former editor of American Heritage Magazine Snow (Disney's Land) grapples with a scandalous event in the history of the U.S. Navy known as the Somers Affair. During an 1842 training voyage, Captain Alexander Slidell Mackenzie of the USS Somers detained several crew members on the charge of attempted mutiny and hanged the three he considered the ringleaders, despite being nearly back on U.S. soil. Largely because one of the hanged men, Philip Spencer, was the son of the secretary of war, a formal inquiry and several court martials followed. Mackenzie was acquitted every time, but the affair stained the reputation of both the captain and the navy. Narrator Jacques Roy offers a restrained but engaging tone while the book sets forth the personal histories of both Mackenzie and Spencer as they draw closer to their fatal clash. He subtly works the class and education differences between officers and ordinary sailors into his voice, especially for direct quotes. Roy truly shines during the coverage of the inquiry and court martial, bringing Snow's skeptical commentary on Mackenzie's self-justifications into sharp focus. VERDICT Recommended for fans of David Grann's The Wager or Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea.--Natalie Marshall

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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