Voyage to the First of December

by Henry Carlisle

Drawn from the facts of a notorious episode in U.S. naval history, the Somers Mutiny Affair of 1842, Carlisle has crafted a stunning novel in the tradition of great stories of the sea. The story of the conflict between eighteen-year-old Midshipman Philip Spencer, son of President Tyler s Secretary of War, and the man of necessities, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, commander of the Somers, provides an existential excursion to the center of a tragedy in our past which brilliantly illuminates the present.

On the first of December in 1842, Philip Spencer was hanged at sea along with two sailors, the three having been charged with leading a conspiracy to capture their ship, the brig of war Somers. Voyage to the First of December re-creates this controversial incident through the journal of the ship s surgeon. Was there a real mutiny which nothing less than execution could check--or had the officers acted in panic, the commander for perhaps darker reasons? What happened at sea that the court-martial chose to overlook?

Voyage to the First of December effortlessly unites the taste of the sea with the relentless drama of men sitting in judgment of one another; a conflict between authority and rebellion, and ultimately one man s quest for meaning.

Genres: Historical Fiction

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Henry C. Carlisle was born in 1926

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story and the basis for "Billly Budd"

[Sarah De Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing book. The author presents the story from two viewpoints, one being a firsthand account from the diary of Robert Leacock, who was the surgeon aboard the Sommers. The other is the Naval Court of Inquiry proceedings. Although it was a little dry in some parts of the story, overall it was an enjoyable read that leaves the reader questioning everything.

[Bob Box · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in 1972. It's a mystery?

[Matthew Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly thought this was a real diary. It's a fascinating story

[Sverre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry Carlisle wrote seven novels from the 1960s to the 90s but he was perhaps best known for his translations (assisted by his wife Olga) from Russian to English of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s works which were instrumental in the latter’s being awarded the Nobel Prize. Carlisle’s mastery of the English language is predominant in all his works and translations. In this book he accurately reflects the speech of mid nineteenth century America.

This book would be loved by three groups of readers: American history enthusiasts, sailing ship aficionados and those interested in military law. The narrator is a ship’s surgeon, Robert Leacock, who served on the American brig Somers on its voyage in 1841 from New York to the Azores, Canary Islands to Liberia, returning via the Caribbean. It was captained by Commander Alexander Mackenzie, a shrewd, meticulous, self-centred and unconscionable career officer who executed three of his crew based mostly on unsubstantiated hearsay and the fanciful capricious chauvinism of an unruly eighteen year old Midshipman of privileged upbringing, Philip Spencer.

The narrative shifts by Leacock between his current time frame and his recollections of the past occurrences during the Somer’s voyage. The book’s drama is focused on the naval court of inquiry which intended to examine the facts of events as they pertained to Midshipman Spencer and especially the decisions and actions of Commander Mackenzie. Was the ship in danger of mutiny? Were the three sailors justly implicated? Was execution at sea necessary, rather than letting justice take its course on the Somer’s return to port? Surgeon Leacock often found himself unsympathetic to Mackenzie’s decisions and became the odd man out among the officers. During the court of inquiry considerable pressure is put on the surgeon to go along with the party line that Mackenzie was within his rights to act as he had.

The book is based on factual events, including court documents, newspaper reports and letters and notes discovered after Leacock’s death. All the intelligences are tied together by the author with the fictionalization of Leacock’s assumed musings and actions during and after the voyage. It is a dramatic study of the clash of personalities, the military’s pursuit of self-interest and psychological conflicts of conscience.

I found this book to be as good as I did thirty-five years ago when I first read it. The following paragraph by the author is strikingly apropos to our present time: "But worst of all, in my estimation, are those who follow fashion for what is called honest atheism: doubt of everything in the name of nothing: in a word, the corruption of all true American beliefs into uncertainty and irresolution. Useless to talk to these people of honor, duty, fear of God--they have honest doubts about all these matters and everything else except their own morbid skepticism." pp 233-4 (1972 Putnam hardcover edition)