A Hanging Offense by Buckner F. Melton, Jr.

by 80 Winters on Wed 18 Apr 2012, 01:09

Suppose someone gave you the opportunity to write a HNF in the AOS novel and gave you the following elements to work with:

1. A U.S. naval Brig of War, one of the last sailing ships in a navy turned to steam is the stage.
2. Ship to be used as training vessel for apprentice officer training.
3. Captain (of the old school) given command as punishment for running larger ship aground.
4. No Marine contingent aboard.
5. Mentally disturbed "acting midshipman" hatches plan to mutiny, kill all officers and turn to piracy.
6. Placed in irons with 2 leading cohorts "acting midshipman continues to exhort others to mutiny.
7. Few officers available are "watch on watch" and nearer to exhaustion than port.
8. Captain decides "only solution" is to hang the 3 mutineers without trial.
9. Mutiny ringleader "acting midshipman" is son of U.S. Secretary of War in presidents cabinet.

I know, you could write a pretty good yarn with those elements.....unfortunately, it's already been written and one other thing......it's not a novel.

The greater part of the rest of A Hanging Offense is spent (as you would expect) on the naval inquiry and following Courts Martial of the captain.

While they say: " truth is stranger than fiction it also makes for a very good read.

Publisher's comments: "Mutiny on the Bounty is one of history's greatest naval stories -- yet few know the similar tale from America's own fledgiing navy in the dying days of the Age of Sail, a tale of mutiny and death at sea on an American warship.

In 1842, the brig-of -war Somers set out on a training cruise for apprentice seamen, commanded by a rising star Alexander Mackenzie, Somers was crammed with teenagers. Among them was Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, a disturbed youth and the 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 the Somers into a pirate ship."

Free Press (A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc) 2003 ISBN 0-7432-3283-6

It's in my library.