James P. Delgado is Senior Vice President of SEARCH, Inc., the leading cultural resources firm in the United States. Before that, he was Director of Maritime Heritage for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and President and CEO of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA). He was also host of the National Geographic international television series
James Delgado, a well-published maritime historian and archaeologist, has given the infamous 'Somers Affair' a 21st century twist with a fascinating view of sailors' daily life in the pre-civil war sailing navy. This is a diverting and essential book covering a rare mutiny and its punishment in the ante-bellum U.S. Navy. * William S. Dudley, author of Inside the US Navy of 1812-1815 * Was young Philip Spencer actually plotting a mutiny, or was he simply an over-imaginative teenager? Was Alexander Slidell Mackenzie a responsible skipper protecting his ship, or was he over his head in command and guilty of a paranoid overreaction? In this reconstruction of the so-called Somers mutiny, James P. Delgado offers a vivid and gripping account of the personalities and circumstances that culminated in one of the most controversial episodes of American naval history. * Craig L. Symonds, author of Nimitz at War *