The Curse of the Somers: The Secret History behind the U.S. Navy's Most Infamous Mutiny

Written by James P. Delgado

Narrated by J. Rodney Turner

The greatest controversy in the history of the US Navy of the early American Republic was the revelation that the son of the Secretary of War had seemingly plotted a bloody mutiny that would have turned the US brig Somers into a pirate ship. The plot discovered, he and his coconspirators were hastily condemned and hanged at sea.

The repercussions of those acts brought headlines, scandal, a fistfight at a cabinet meeting, a court martial, ruined lives, lost reputations, and tales of a haunted ship "bound for the devil" and lost tragically at sea with many of its crew. The "Somers affair" led to the founding of the US Naval Academy and it remains the Navy's only acknowledged mutiny in its history. The story also inspired Herman Melville's White-Jacket and Billy Budd. Others connected to the Somers included Commodore Perry, a relation and defender of the Somers's captain Mackenzie; James Fenimore Cooper, whose feud with the captain, dating back to the War of 1812, resurfaced in his reportage of the affair; and Raphael Semmes, the Somers's last captain, who later served in the Confederate Navy.

The Curse of the Somers is a thorough recreation of this classic tale, told with the help of recently uncovered evidence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798765060520

James P. Delgado

James P. Delgado is the President and CEO of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. Dr Delgado is the author or editor of nearly thirty books, including Adventures of a Sea Hunter: In Search of Famous Shipwrecks, Lost Warships: An Archaeological Tour of War at Sea, Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll, Pearl Harbor Recalled: New Images from the Day of Infamy and Khubilai Khan's Lost Fleet: History's Greatest Naval Disaster. Dr Delgado has led or participated in shipwreck expeditions around the world, including those of RMS Titanic, the discovery of Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanic's survivors, the notorious “ghost ship” Mary Celeste, USS Arizona, the sunken fleet of atomic-bombed warships at Bikini Atoll, and the 1846 wreck of the United States naval brig Somers. Dr Delgado's active participation in the study and preservation of shipwreck sites includes membership in the International Commission on Monuments and Site (ICOMOS) committee on underwater cultural heritage. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers' Club.