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Hanging Offense\A
Category: History: U.S.: 19th Century
Author: Buckner F Melton Jr.
Copyright/published Year: 2003 by Free Press
ISBN: 0743232836
Binding: Cloth
In 1842, the brig-of-war Somers set out on a training cruise
for apprentice seamen, commanded by Alexander Mackenzie. Somers
was crammed with teenagers. Among them was Acting Midshipman
Philip Spencer, a disturbed youth and son of the U.S. Secretary
of War. Buying other crew members' loyalty with pilfered tobacco
and alcohol, Spencer dreamed up a scheme to kill the officers and
turn Somers into a pirate ship. The results shook the nation. A
naval investigation of the affair turned into a court-martial and
a state trial and led to the founding of the Naval Academy.
Mackenzie's controversial decision may have inspired Herman
Melville's great work Billy Budd. The story of Somers
raises timeless questions still disturbing in twenty-first
century America: the relationship between civil and military law,
the hazy line between peace and war, the battle between
individual rights and national security, and the ultimate
challenge of command at sea.
Condition Information
This book is 'remaindered' and may have marks on the cover and/or bottom of pages.
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