THE COMMODORE THE COMMODORE

Perry was one of the US Navy’s finest officers and a good choice to lead the Japan expedition

Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry was a member of a famous American naval family. His father, Christopher Perry, of Rhode Island, had served aboard privateers during the American War of Independence and Perry himself had joined the Navy as a 15-year-old midshipman in 1809. His older brother, Oliver Hazard Perry, won glory for his 1813 victory over a British squadron at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

After the war’s end in 1815, Perry found himself engaged in hostilities with Algiers and suppressing pirates in the Caribbean. During the Mexican-american War (18451848), Perry had commanded the American flotilla that had bombarded Vera Cruz, assisting in its capture by American troops. Perry earned the reputation of being a stern disciplinarian, but also that of an officer who was much concerned with the health of his crew, taking pains to protect them from the ravages of scurvy, malaria and yellow fever.

Perry possessed a keen intellect, and his skills went beyond the merely military. He was an avid student of nautical science and botany, and conducted diplomatic missions on behalf of the

US in Africa, Turkey and the Caribbean during his many years at sea. He would be tapped by his superiors to run the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the 1840s.

Perry’s diplomatic skills would be tested to the utmost by the Japan Expedition. He had to be conciliatory to the Japanese, since his mission was peaceful, but still firm and resolute in pressing the American position with the reluctant Japanese negotiators. It was a difficult balance, but one that Perry struck, a crucial reason for his ultimate success.