On this day in history, Oct. 10, 1845, US Naval Academy founded after planned mutiny shocks nation

Officer Giavanni Walker discusses the exhilarating moment in Houston, Texas.

The Naval School was founded in Annapolis, Maryland in the wake of a shocking scandal at sea on this day in history, Oct. 10, 1845. 

The renowned military institute was renamed the U.S. Naval Academy in 1850. 

The school was established following the discovery of a planned mutiny on the Atlantic Ocean aboard U.S. Navy brig Somers. 

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Three sailors were executed on the high seas — including the 19-year-old son of Secretary of War John Canfield Spencer, which only elevated the national profile of the sensational incident.

Erin Finley (front, center) of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and her fellow U.S. Naval Academy graduates throw their hats into the air at the conclusion of their graduation and commissioning ceremony in the academy's Memorial Stadium on May 27, 2022, in Annapolis, Maryland.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The ship departed New York in September 1842, destined for West Africa, on a training mission with teenage volunteers who were considering a career in the Navy.

"Discipline deteriorated on the Somers and it was determined by a court of inquiry aboard ship that Midshipman Philip Spencer and his two chief confederates, Boatswains Mate Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small, were guilty of a ‘determined attempt to commit a mutiny,’" reported the U.S. Naval Academy in its online history.

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"The three were hanged at the yardarm and the incident cast doubt over the wisdom of sending midshipmen directly aboard ship to learn by doing. News of the Somers mutiny shocked the country."