Sailing the Graveyard Sea by Richard Snow

 

Title: Sailing the Graveyard Sea:  The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation

Author:  Richard Snow

Narrated by:  Jacques Roy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 4 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you @simonandschuster #BookClubFavorites for the free books!

 

Do you like to listen to audiobooks in the car on long trips?  If you are traveling with someone, how do you decide what book to listen to?  We traveled to Michigan over Thanksgiving weekend.  My daughter enjoys watching movies on trips and opts out of audiobooks.  I read the descriptions of several non-fiction audiobooks to my husband and two sons and they all voted to listen to Sailing the Graveyard Sea by Richard Snow.

Sailing the Graveyard Sea introduced us to a new part of history that we had never heard before.  In 1842, the US brig-of-war Somers was being used a training vessel for many 14- to 18-year-olds and was captained by Commander Alexander Mackenzie.  When the ship arrived in Boston, Mackenzie announced that he had narrowly prevented a mutiny and had hanged the three mutineers at sea.  One of the mutineers was 18-year-old acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, the son of the Secretary of War, John Spencer.

As officials look more into the case, they could not find any evidence that a mutiny did indeed take place.  Everything was based on the testimony of one crew man who stated that Spencer had talked about taking over the ship and becoming a pirate.  After Mackenzie heard this, he locked up Spencer and two other men and through paranoia started to believe that everyone was against him and that mutiny was imminent.  He decided to hang the three men without a trial before arriving back at port.  For this decision, he was put on trial.  The trial was riveting and did not end as we all expected it would.

This was a fascinating story that kept us enthralled through our voyage.  Jacques Roy was a good narrator.   I enjoyed hearing the back story of Philip Spencer, the ne’er-do-well son of the Secretary of War.  Spencer loved reading pirate stories and talking about pirates.  Was he just entertaining himself and the other sailor with pirate stories or did he indeed want to take over the ship?  One thing was for certain, the training of officers had to change.  After this trial, the Naval Academy was started in Annapolis.

Overall, Sailing the Graveyard Sea is a fascinating look into a forgotten episode of naval history.