USS Somers (1842)
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| Missing image USS_Somers_(1842).jpg Colored sketch | |
| Career | 
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| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 16 April 1842 |
| Commissioned: | 12 May 1842 |
| Decommissioned: | |
| Fate: | sank, 8 December 1846 |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 259 tons |
| Length: | 100 feet |
| Beam: | 25 feet |
| Draft: | |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | |
| Range: | |
| Depth: | 11 feet |
| Complement: | 120 men |
| Armament: | ten 32-pounder carronades |
The second USS Somers was a brig in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War.
Somers was launched by the New York Navy Yard on 16 April 1842 and commissioned on 12 May 1842, Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie in command.
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Initial cruise
After a shakedown cruise in June and July to Puerto Rico and back, the new brig sailed out of New York harbor on 13 September 1842 bound for the Atlantic coast of Africa with dispatches for frigate Vandalia. On this voyage, Somers was acting as an experimental schoolship for naval apprentices.
After calls at Madeira, Tenerife, and Porto Praia, looking for Vandalia, Somers arrived at Monrovia, Liberia, on 10 November and learned that the frigate had already sailed for home. The next day, Mackenzie headed for the Virgin Islands hoping to meet Vandalia at St. Thomas before returning to New York.
The "Somers Affair"
On the passage to the West Indies, the officers noticed a steady worsening of morale. On 26 November, Mackenzie arrested Midshipman Philip Spencer, the son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer, for inciting mutiny. The next day, Boatswain's Mate Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small were also put in irons.
An investigation by the officers of the ship over the next few days indicated that these men were plotting to take over the ship, throw the officers and loyal members of the crew to the sharks, and then to use Somers for piracy. On 1 December, the officers reported that they had "come to a cool, decided, and unanimous opinion" that the prisoners were "guilty of a full and determined intention to commit a mutiny;" and they recommended that the three be put to death. The plotters were promptly hanged.
Somers reached St. Thomas on 5 December and returned to New York on 14 December. She remained there during a naval court of inquiry which investigated the mutiny and the execution and the subsequent court-martial. Both proceedings exonerated Mackenzie.
In the Home Squadron
On 20 March 1843, Lt. John West assumed command of Somers, and the brig was assigned to the Home Squadron. For the next few years, she served along the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies.
Mexican-American War
Somers was in the Gulf of Mexico off Vera Cruz at the opening of the Mexican-American War in the spring of 1846; and, but for runs to Pensacola, Florida, for logistics, she remained in that area on blockade duty until winter. On the evening of 26 November, the brig, commanded by Raphael Semmes (later commanding officer of CSS Alabama), was blockading Vera Cruz when Mexican schooner Criolla slipped into that port. Somers launched a boat party which boarded and captured the schooner. However, a calm prevented the Americans from getting their prize out to sea so they set fire to the vessel and returned through gunfire from the shore to Somers, bringing back seven prisoners. Unfortunately, Criolla proved to be an US spy ship operating for Commodore David Conner.
On 8 December 1846, while chasing a blockade runner off Vera Cruz, Somers capsized and foundered in a sudden squall. Thirty-two members of her crew drowned and seven were captured.
Legacy and wreck
Herman Melville, whose first cousin, Lieutenant Guert Gansevoort, was an officer aboard the brig, was reportedly influenced by the notorious events of the Somers mutineers and utilized the story in his novella Billy Budd.
In 1986, her wreck was discovered and later explored and confirmed by divers. Unfortunately, she has been looted by wreck divers.
See USS Somers for other ships of this name.
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
External links
- Wreck exploration (http://data2.itc.nps.gov/submerged/dispproj.cfm?projcode=SOMR)