Stanley was convicted and dismissed from the Navy. However, President Fillmore intervened and granted executive clemency to Stanly; he "mitigated" the sentence to "a suspension from service and pay for the term of twelve months."27 Stanly retired from the Navy in 1874, having achieved the rank of rear admiral after serving for 41 years. He died in 1882 at the age of 67.28
History does not record if the tooth extracted from Stanly in his experimental attempt to alleviate his facial neuralgia ever worked.
References:
1. Court-Martial -- Fabius Stanly, Ex. Doc. No. 69, 32 Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives, 1853, 57.
2. Ibid, 57, 61.
3. Ibid, 57.
4. Ibid, 57.
5. Ibid, 56.
6. Ibid, 57.
7. Fabius Stanly letter to Secretary of the Navy, March 31, 1849. NARA: RG 45: Naval Records Collection and Library, Entry 464 Subject File 1775-1910, File NO-Court Martial Pacific Station; Commodore Jones letter to Fabius Stanly, April 3, 1849. NARA: RG 45: Naval Records Collection and Library, Entry 464 Subject File 1775-1910, File NO-Court Martial Pacific Station; Fabius Stanly letter to Secretary of the Navy, April 9, 1849. NARA: RG 45: Naval Records Collection and Library, Entry 464 Subject File 1775-1910, File NO-Court Martial Pacific Station.
8. Smith GA. Thomas ap Catesby Jones, Commodore of Manifest Destiny. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press; 2000: 35.
9. Court-Martial -- Fabius Stanly, Ex. Doc. No. 69, 32 Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives, 1853, 64.
10. Smith, Thomas ap Catesby Jones, 45.
11. Ibid, 140-141.
12. Ibid, 160-161.
13. Court-Martial -- Fabius Stanly, Ex. Doc. No. 69, 32 Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives, 1853, 64.
and a half without pay."20 Two years later, President Millard Fillmore remitted the remainder of Jones' sentence and he was relisted for a command -- something he never got. Jones died in 1858 at the age of 67.
As for the practice of flogging, in 1851 Congress outlawed it as a form of military discipline, due in large part to the publication of Herman Melville's White Jacket, which criticized the practice. A year later, Melville published Moby Dick. Most scholars believe both the "Commodore" in White Jacket and Captain Ahab were patterned after Jones. Melville, a whaling ship deserter, had been arrested by Jones and impressed as a sailor aboard Jones' flagship.21
It was there that Melville learned of an incident 27 years earlier, in which then Captain Jones' ship, the Peacock, had been rammed and severely damaged by a whale, which became the fictitious white whale in Moby Dick.22
Shortly after Jones' conviction, Stanly challenged Jones' co-conspirator, Commander Johnston, to a duel. Initially, Johnston seemed to agree to the duel, but he then withdrew his consent. Thereupon Stanly and his confederates posted at a hotel "a card or instrument in writing" accusing Johnston of being a "coward."23 The posted card in part accused Johnston of being "a vulgar associate with dissipated habits," a street brawler, and a "boaster ... devoid of the first principals of military honor."24 One of Stanly's confederates, Captain A. M. Dupereau actually threatened to "cut off Commander Johnston's ears."25
Stanly was then, once again, court-martialed. This time Stanly was accused of violating a naval regulation that forbade officers from "publishing or causing to be published, in newspapers, handbills, or otherwise, any disrespectful or offensive matter relative to transactions of a private nature between officers."26
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References Continued Page 4
The commodore, the toothache court-martial, and Moby Dick
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