Case of the Somers' Mutiny, Defence of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie..

1843. New York: Tribune Office, 160 Nassau Street, 1843.. New York: Tribune Office, 160 Nassau Street, 1843. The Only Mutiny Plot That Occurred on a U.S. Navy Ship [Trial]. MacKenzie, Alexander Slidell [1803-1848], Defendant. Case of the Somers' Mutiny. Defence of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Commander of the U.S. Brig Somers, Before the Court Martial Held at the Navy Yard, Brooklyn. New York: Tribune Office, 160 Nassau Street, 1843. 30, 11 pp. Octavo (9-1/4" x 6"). Stab-stitched pamphlet in printed wrappers. Light soiling, a few minor stains to exterior, spine ends abraded, faint traces of erased penciled annotation to front wrapper. Light toning to interior, light foxing to p. ii. A well-preserved copy. $450. * First and only edition. This trial concerns the only time a mutiny plot was discovered on a U.S. Navy ship. "Alexander Slidell Mackenzie was a career naval officer and author of many books. In 1842, while he was commander of the brig Somers, Mackenzie executed three members of his crew for allegedly plotting a mutiny. The three (Philip Spencer, Samuel Cromwell, and Elisha Small) were executed without a hearing. The incident aroused much public interest and criticism since Spencer was the son of the secretary of war, John C. Spencer. Although a court of inquiry cleared Mackenzie, the secretary of the navy charged him with murder. A court martial, held at Mackenzie's request, found him innocent" (Cohen). Because it was the first, and, as time would show, only, attempted mutiny in the history of the U.S. Navy, this case attracted a fair amount of subsequent attention, most recently Philip McFarland's 1985 account Sea Dangers: The Affair of the Somers. Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 13563.