Was there ever a mutiny aboard a US Navy Vessel?

Question

Happened in 1842, 3 were hanged

Answer 1

USS Somers Mutiny 1842

The only known US Naval mutiny in documented history ended in 1842 with three mutineers having their necks prematurely lengthened.

Mutiny on the high seas has been a focal point in history. Explorer Henry Hudson was cast adrift as a result of a mutiny. The last Tsar of Russia granted a constitution to his country after the battleship Potemkin mutinied in 1905. The Wilhelmshaven mutiny in 1918 was one of the deciding factors in ending World War One. The British Royal Navy was epidemic with mutinies aboard the HMS Hermione in 1782, the HMS Sandwich and her escorts in 1797 at Spithead, as well as the more famous HMS Bounty. The only documented naval mutiny in US history that ended with bloodshed was aboard the brig USS Somers

The USS Somers was a brand new 259 ton, 100-foot brig which mounted ten 32-pounder guns and carried 120 sailors. She was serving an experimental training ship as there was no naval academy at the time and as such included several teenaged midshipmen in her crew. After a quiet summer cruise to Africa the ship's captain, Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie (who was also a well-published author and a personal friend of Washington Irving) and mate Lieutenant Guert Gansevoort, a career officer from an aristocratic Dutch-American family (his father was a brigadier general and had served in the Continental Army) were told that a mutiny was afoot.

The center of this plot was seventeen-year-old acting Midshipman Philip Spencer. It was thought that Spencer, along with two sailors, Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small, were planning to seize the ship and then kill any who opposed them before turning it into a pirate ship. This charge was supported when Mackenzie ordered Spencer seized after Gansevoort found him studying a map of the West Indies and asking questions about navigation. When Spencer’s cabin was searched a scarf was found with a list of names written in Greek of those of the crew who would be kept after the mutiny as well as drawing of the USS Somers flying a pirate's flag. This led to Small and Cromwell's arrest the next day and their subsequent captain’s mast (courts marshal at sea).

The defendants were unanimously found guilty by the panel and ordered hanged three days later. On December 1st, 1842 at 1:45 in the afternoon the ship's crew was called to attention. The defendants were tied to the ship's yardarms and heaved aloft while the ship's ensign was raised above them. All hands were ordered to cheer three times to salute the flag. The mutineers were left to dangle in the sails until 3:30 and were then committed to the sea at dusk.

The teenaged Spencer was the son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer and an inquiry and scandal ensued as soon as the USS Somers hit port. Commander Mackenzie, a naval veteran of some 27 years at sea, was tried at courts marshal for murder as well as eight other charges and fully exonerated. The U.S. Naval Academy was established October 10, 1845 in response to this scandal and the practice of training midshipmen at sea. The scandal colored Mackenzie's career and he died just six years later at age 45. The USS Somers herself did not outlive Mackenzie, being lost in a sudden squall in 1846 while under command of Raphael Semmes, who went on to become the Confederate navy's most famous officer. Th US Navy, who often recycles warship names, has had four subsequent ships (all destroyers) named USS Somers on the navy list as recently as 1988.

Answer 2

That was the USS Somers a Brig-of-War. It was a big stink because the ring leader was a midshipman related to a high up politician. He was hung. Technically he was guilty, but it was more a boys prank than a serious idea. Too many pirate dime novels and a spoiled youth....The problem was the captain was one of the harshest in the service.

Answer 3

No one has ever been formally charged with a mutiny on a US Navy Vessel..  HOWEVER there were plenty of close calls and possible attempted mutinies,

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/0701...

http://www.trivia-library.com/b/history-...

Answer 4

Nope I never heard of one

Answer 5

Are you referring to the Somers Affair? Three men were hanged for plotting to kill the officers aboard the USS Somers. However, plotting is not mutiny. Mutiny is the literal act over overthrowing the command structure by those of lesser rank or refusing to follow orders.

Plotting could become mutiny if put into place. In the case of the USS Somers Commander Mackenzie, the Somers commanding officer, was informed that Midshipman Philip Spencer and others were planning to kill the officers and those in the crew who were considered loyal then turn pirate. As a result, Mackenzie broke up the plot and held a court martial for three of the plotters. The aforementioned Spencer (he was the son of Secretary of War John Spencer), Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell, and Seaman Elisha Small. All three were found guilty of mutiny (ironic since they would have actually been guilty of plotting to commit mutiny) and hanged.

Of course there was the actual mutiny at Port Chicago during WWII, but you asked aboard a naval ship. And there was the attempted mutiny aboard USS Alliance in 1779. And you then specified 1842 with three hanged. Sommers fits that criteria.

Answer 6

NO