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Hanging Offense\A |
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Subject: | History: U.S.: 19th Century | |
Grade Level: | ||
Catalog # | HIST35658 | |
Regular Price: Your Price: You Save: | $25.00 $7.95 $17.05 (68.20%) | |
Author: |
Buckner F Melton Jr. |
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Binding: | Cloth | |
Copyright Year: | 2003 | |
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Description: |
In 1842, the brig-of-war Somers set out on a training cruise
for apprentice seamen, commanded by Alexander Mackenzie. Somers
was crammed with teenagers. Among them was Acting Midshipman
Philip Spencer, a disturbed youth and son of the U.S. Secretary
of War. Buying other crew members' loyalty with pilfered tobacco
and alcohol, Spencer dreamed up a scheme to kill the officers and
turn Somers into a pirate ship. The results shook the nation. A
naval investigation of the affair turned into a court-martial and
a state trial and led to the founding of the Naval Academy.
Mackenzie's controversial decision may have inspired Herman
Melville's great work Billy Budd. The story of Somers
raises timeless questions still disturbing in twenty-first
century America: the relationship between civil and military law,
the hazy line between peace and war, the battle between
individual rights and national security, and the ultimate
challenge of command at sea.
Note: This book is 'remaindered' and may have marks on the cover and/or bottom of pages.
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