Somers Affair

The Somers Affair was an incident involving the American brig USS Somers during a training missin in 1842 under Captain Alexander Slidell Mackenzie (1803-1848). Midshipman Philip Spencer (1823-1842) was accused of plotting to overthrow Mackenzie and use the Somers for piracy. Spencer was arrested and executed, along with two other alleged co-conspirators, Samuel Cromwell and Elisha Small, when the ship was just thirteen days away from shore. The three were hanged without a court-martial after the ship's officers agreed with Mackenzie's judgment. The Somers then returned to New York. An official inquiry and a court martial both cleared Mackenzie. There was enormous public attention, most of it unfavorable to Mackenzie, but he remained in the Navy until his death.[1][2]

The case is particularly notable since Philip Spencer was the son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer.

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