USS Somers (1842) - Legacy and Wreck

Legacy and Wreck

Herman Melville — whose first cousin, Lt. Guert Gansevoort, was an officer aboard the brig at the time of the Somers Affair — may have been influenced by the notorious events of the Somers mutineers. Melville may have used elements of the story in his novella Billy Budd.

The incident is detailed in the novel "Voyage to the First of December" by Henry Carlisle. The novel is written from the naval surgeon on duty's point of view - from old journals he had kept.

The story of the "Somers Affair" and the subsequent trial was dramatized in the penultimate episode of the sixth season of the television series JAG. The regular cast portrayed the individuals involved, with the role of Mackenzie played by Trevor Goddard and the story told as a lecture by Colonel Sarah Mackenzie (a play on the identical name) played by Catherine Bell.

In 1986, the wreck was discovered by an expedition led by San Francisco art dealer and explorer George Belcher. In 1987, the wreck's identification was confirmed by archaeologists James Delgado and Mitchell Marken. In 1990, Delgado co-directed a joint Mexican-U.S. expedition along with Pilar Luna Erreguerena of Mexico with U.S. National Park Service, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and Armada de Mexico archaeologists and divers. A site plan of the wreck, which the project determined had been looted by unknown parties after the 1987 expedition, was produced. The wreck remains a protected (by legislation) site off Veracruz.

The most famous legacy of the Somers affair is the United States Naval Academy, which is said to have been founded as a direct result of this incident. Appalled that a midshipman would consider mutiny, senior Naval leaders ordered the creation of the Academy so that midshipmen could receive a standardized and supervised education in Naval Seamanship.