I'm John Batser with the author Richard Snow. His new book is a naval mystery,

sailing the graveyard sea, the deathly voyage of the summers, the US Navy's only mutiny, and the trial that gripped the nation.

Spencer, 18 years old, Cromwell, 30 years old, small indeterminate, or dead.

The Navy holds what is an inquiry, not a court-martialial an inquiry into these events beginning in January

and one very famous author Richard Dana will later on become a very prominent name

during the Civil War he's already famous because he's

written two years before the mast, which is an astonishing good seller in America at the time.

He writes brilliant prose. He goes on board the U.S.S. North Carolina.

No, just the North Carolina. They don't use U.S.S. yet.

He goes on the North Carolina where the hearing is being held and Dana is partial to

Mackenzie. What does he what does he write Richard to to favor Mackenzie? He is with Mackenzie right along.

He says what everybody was saying about Mackenzie in the beginning before the more facts began to come out that he's a gentle, more honorable man never drew breath on the quarter deck of an American ship that he is saintly and

his sagat and and and infinitely wise of it Dana's forum all the way through and thinks that anybody isn't is sort of

of scoundrel and he remains deeply loyal to, I mean they had that the two men had no connection but he was

recognized as a expert on maritime affairs and it it meant something that he was sure that

Mackenzie had behaved properly at every moment. The inquiry is headed up by

Commodore Stewart of Old Ironsides and the is Hoffman an attorney at the time. This is not a court-martial. It's not it's not a

coroner's investigation. The crime took place or the actions took place at the

sea. There's some confusion as to how this should go forward. Right before the

inquiry finishes, Mackenzie brings forward his explanation for what happened.

There are six items he mentions.

I was convinced that Spencer was plotting to take over the ship

...