Somers Mutiny
The Somers Mutiny was a planned mutiny on board the American brig 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. Recently the plotters have been compared to modern-day school shooters.
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brig
Concept
Q535898
Alexander Slidell Mackenzie
PER
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Philip Spencer
PER
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court martial
Concept
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New York
LOC
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United States Secretary of War
Concept
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John C. Spencer
PER
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United States Navy
Concept
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Somers Mutiny
MISC
1842-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1842
DATE
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NUMBER
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NUMBER
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1823
NUMBER
-1842^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-1842
NUMBER
position held