Philip Spencer (sailor)

Philip Spencer
USS Somers, 1842 lithograph men hanging from yardarm
Status	Deceased
Occupation	Sailor
Parent	John C. Spencer
Criminal charge	Plan to mutiny
Penalty	Death by hanging

Philip Spencer (January 28, 1823 – December 1, 1842) is remembered for being hanged without court-martial for alleged mutiny while serving as a midshipman on board the USS Somers. He was the son of John C. Spencer, Secretary of War in U.S. President John Tyler's administration, and the grandson of Ambrose Spencer, a New York politician and lawyer.

Background

Spencer was born in Canandaigua, New York. He was described as handsome, despite a "wandering eye" (possibly strabismus) which surgery was unable to correct. As a youth at Geneva College (now Hobart College), he was considered wild and uncontrollable despite displaying signs of high intelligence. His favorite reading matter was pirate stories.

After an abortive stay at Union College – where he was a founder of the Chi Psi fraternity – Spencer ran away and signed on a whaler at Nantucket. His father located him and convinced him that if a life on the sea was what he wanted, to live it as "a gentleman"; in other words, as a commissioned officer.

As Secretary of War, it was easy for Spencer's father to procure his son a midshipman's commission. Unfortunately, Spencer proved to be just as intractable as ever, assaulting a superior officer aboard the USS North Carolina twice while under the influence of alcohol. Reassigned to the USS John Adams, he was involved in a drunken brawl with a Royal Navy officer while on shore leave in Rio de Janeiro. He was allowed to resign rather than face court-martial, but due to his father's position in the Cabinet, his resignation was not accepted. Instead, he was posted to the Somers.

Aboard the Somers, Spencer gained favor with the ratings – many of whom were boys – through his privileged access to tobacco and rum. He also exhibited an irreverent attitude toward the navy and his captain, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie. In November 1842, during the return home from a voyage to Liberia, suspicion arose that Spencer had formed a plan to seize the Somers and sail her as a pirate ship or slaver. His friendship with crew members Samuel Cromwell and Elisha Small was cited as evidence, as both these men were rumored to have sailed aboard slavers in the past. Cromwell in particular was feared.

On November 26, Spencer was cuffed and detained on the Somers' foredeck after a list of names was found in his razor case. The names had been written using Greek letters. The following day, Cromwell and Small were also detained on the foredeck. After a meeting of the ship's officers, all three men were hanged on the yardarm on December 1. Spencer was 19 years old.

Afterword

The circumstances of Spencer, Cromwell and Small's deaths is cited as one reason why the U.S. Navy stopped training boys at sea and founded the United States Naval Academy. The event on the USS Somers may be the only mutiny on a warship in US Navy history. Philip Spencer and the USS Somers affair were possibly the model for the story Billy Budd, by Herman Melville, who was the first cousin of Lieutenant Guert Gansevoort, an officer aboard the ship.

Further reading

• McFarland, Philip Sea Dangers: The Affair of the Somers (New York: Schocken, 1985), 308p., illus. ISBN 0-8052-3990-1

Melton, Buckner (April 1, 2003). A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers. Free Press. ISBN 0743232836.

External links

• Philip Spencer at Find a Grave
• Essay on the Legal Aspects of Somers Affair and Bibliography