According to Wikipedia, there are reports that the body of the missing co-conspirator was recovered:
Report shmeports, you say: a wiki reference to a porn mag doesn’t constitute hard evidence. And one may wonder whether Linnett and Loiederman followed the 2 source rule. (Not that I’m disparaging them, those interested can read their book, whose last chapter has the enticing title, “Found”.)
At any rate, those seeking elaboration on Cecil’s précis can follow some of the links in the Wikipedia article.
Two of the incidents Cecil mentions happened long after the movie was released. So, the folks who wrote the disclaimer couldn’t be expected to count those.
Second, was the hanging of Spencer the inspiration for Melville’s “Billy Budd”?
just an aside - I recently read Halsey’s Typhoon, which repeats the claim that Herman Wouk’s Captain Queeg (from The Caine Mutiny) was based on the case of Captain James Marks of the USS Hull, and his actions (or rather in-actions) that he took on the bridge during the typhoon (The Hull was lost during the typhoon - along with over 200 men).
Almost certainly. Melville’s first cousin, Lieutenant Guert Gansevoort, was an officer on the Somers. However, the two stories aren’t much alike. Spencer was a juvenile delinquent who was almost certainly guilty of everything he was accused of, while planning to do more and worse; the only iffy matter is whether the Captain acted beyond his authority in the summary executions. Billy Budd is an innocent driven to a single, merely technical act of mutiny under extreme pressure.
Of course, the Chi Psi fraternity’s official position has always been that Spencer was hanged for refusing to reveal the fraternity’s secrets. Historians (except for Chi Psi brothers) do not take this hypothesis seriously.
The first mutiny on board a U.S. military naval ship was on board the schooner General Mifflin in 1776. The crew made a petition against the the captain (Thomas Cregier) and it was forwarded to the powers that be by the first lieutenant (Thomas Quigley). The captain was dismissed. the crew paid off and the ship was sold. Here is one letter from Quigley to the New York Convention ;
Lieut. Thomas Quigley to Thomas Randall
September 4th 1776 Cranberry Inlet
[Extract]
…there is a great disturbance in the vessel. They [the crew] had told him [Quigley] they were determined not to sail under his [Cregier’s] command…on account of his bad conduct. On my requesting to way the anchor, they aquainted me it was their resolution never to act in the schooner while he had command…I have granted the liberty to petition as I imagine the Captain will not inform you…he is not expected back under 8 or 10 days.
The Petition
We have been 4 months…on board…during which time we have been to sea 11 days. All the rest of time we have been inactively at the heads of inlets…that we have…times laid a week sometimes longer in an inlet and we have laid at anchor 4 or 5 miles from the
mouth a full month…scarcely offering to send any person to look out. Numbers of vessels have pass’d with out our endeavoring to speak to them. We have not been out of this inlet in 7 weeks.
Our commander has insulted the officers when they have candidly advised him. For correcting people for slight or no offenses he hath used unlawful weapons, once presenting a pistol to the breast of Burns for asking what his allowence was. Swearing by God he would Blow a ball through him…with a large hickory club striking one Bell in the head…giving the cabbin stores away.
Even if your account is correct, there’s no mutiny there. The crew petitioned to the lawful authorities, who lawfully relieved the captain of his command. At worst, the crew was guilty of a slight breach of etiquette, in stepping outside the chain of command.
I recently read Mutiny: A History of Naval Insurrection by Leonard F. Guttridge (Naval Institute Press 1992), which is a pretty good introduction to the subject. The Somers incident and the late 1972 racial unrest aboard U.S. supercarriers are discussed at length, as are the HMS Bounty mutiny (now, that was a mutiny!), the bloody Napoleonic War rebellion aboard HMS Hermione, and the Russian Revolution’s celebrated Potemkin uprising. Guttridge suggests that the U.S. Navy still lacks a single, easily-understandable definition of mutiny, and that the charge has been rarely brought throughout naval history because it reflects so badly on the commanding officer who must report that it’s taken place aboard his ship.