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Show Mutiny In 1842 Philip Spencer, son of the secretary of war, who was acting midshipman on the Somers, and two others, Cromwell, a boatswain's mate, and Small, a seaman, were hanged for conspiring to mutiny. The captain of the ship was Comdr. Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, who was much criticized for the executions. execu-tions. Before Spencer served on the Somers he had a bad college record rec-ord and several misdemeanors had been credited to him. The executions execu-tions aroused such a great amount of public sentiment that even well-known well-known authors, such as James Feni-more Feni-more Cooper, wrote articles about the affair. |