Matthew Calbraith Perry 

(April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a commodore of the United States

Navy who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American
War (1846–1848). He played a leading role in the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention
of Kanagawa in 1854.
Perry was interested in the education of naval officers and assisted in the development of an
apprentice system that helped establish the curriculum at the United States Naval Academy. With
the advent of the steam engine, he became a leading advocate of modernizing the U.S. Navy and
came to be considered "The Father of the Steam Navy" in the United States.

Contents

 1Lineage
 2Naval career
o 2.1Opening of Key West
o 2.2Father of the Steam Navy
o 2.3Promotion to commodore
o 2.4Mexican–American War
 3Perry Expedition: opening of Japan, 1852–1854
o 3.1First visit (1853)
o 3.2Second visit (1854)
o 3.3Return to the United States (1855)
 4Last years
 5Personal life
 6Legacy
 7Memorials
 8See also
 9Citations
 10References
 11Further reading
 12External links

Lineage[edit]
Matthew Perry was a member of the Perry family, a son of Sarah Wallace (née Alexander) (1768–
1830) and Navy Captain Christopher Raymond Perry (1761–1818). He was born April 10,
1794, South Kingstown, Rhode Island. His siblings included Oliver Hazard Perry, Raymond Henry
Jones Perry, Sarah Wallace Perry, Anna Marie Perry (mother of George Washington Rodgers),
James Alexander Perry, Nathaniel Hazard Perry, and Jane Tweedy Perry (who married William
Butler).
His mother was born in County Down, Ireland and was a descendant of an uncle of William Wallace,
[1]: 54 
 the Scottish knight and landowner.[2][3] His paternal grandparents were James Freeman Perry, a
surgeon, and Mercy Hazard,[4] a descendant of Governor Thomas Prence, a co-founder of Eastham,
Massachusetts, who was a political leader in both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies,
and governor of Plymouth; and a descendant of Mayflower passengers, both of whom were signers
of the Mayflower Compact, Elder William Brewster, the Pilgrim colonist leader and spiritual elder of
the Plymouth Colony, and George Soule, through Susannah Barber Perry.[5]
Naval career[edit]
In 1809, Perry received a midshipman's warrant in the Navy and was initially assigned
to USS Revenge, under the command of his elder brother. He was then assigned to USS President,
where he served as an aide to Commodore John Rodgers. President was in a victorious
engagement over a British vessel, HMS Little Belt, shortly before the War of 1812 was officially
declared. Perry continued aboard President during the War of 1812 and was present at the
engagement with HMS Belvidera. Rodgers fired the first shot of the war at Belvidera. A later shot
resulted in a cannon bursting, killing several men and wounding Rodgers, Perry and others.[6] Perry
transferred to USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, and saw little fighting in the war
afterwards, since the ship was trapped in port at New London, Connecticut.
Following the signing of the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war, Perry served on various vessels
in the Mediterranean Sea. Perry served under Commodore William Bainbridge during the Second
Barbary War. He then served in African waters aboard USS Cyane during its patrol off Liberia from
1819 to 1820. After that cruise, Perry was sent to suppress piracy and the slave trade in the West
Indies.

Opening of Key West[edit]

Perry placed in commission and commanded USS Shark, a schooner with 12 guns, from 1821 to
1825. He deployed to the West Africa Station to support the American and British joint patrols
to prevent human trafficking.[citation needed]
In 1815, the Spanish governor in Havana deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas of St.
Augustine in Spanish Florida. After Florida was transferred to the United States, Salas sold Key
West to American businessman John W. Simonton for $2,000 in 1821. Simonton lobbied
Washington to establish a naval base on Key West both to take advantage of its strategic location
and to bring law and order to the area. On March 25, 1822, Perry sailed Shark to Key West and
planted the U.S. flag, physically claiming the Florida Keys as United States territory. Perry renamed
Cayo Hueso "Thompson's Island" for the Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson and the harbor
"Port Rodgers" for the president of the Board of Navy Commissioners. Neither name stuck however.
From 1826 to 1827, Perry acted as fleet captain for Commodore Rodgers. Perry returned
to Charleston, South Carolina, for shore duty in 1828 and in 1830 took command of a sloop-of-
war, USS Concord. During this period, while in port in Russian Kronstadt, Perry was offered a
commission in the Imperial Russian Navy, which he declined.
He spent 1833 through 1837 as second officer of the New York Navy Yard (later the Brooklyn Navy
Yard), gaining promotion to captain at the end of this tour.

Father of the Steam Navy[edit]

Commodore Matthew C. Perry

U.S. postage, 1953 issue
Perry had an ardent interest in and saw the need for naval education, supporting
an apprentice system to train new seamen, and helped establish the curriculum for the United States
Naval Academy. He was a vocal proponent of modernizing the Navy. Once promoted to captain, he
oversaw construction of the Navy's second steam frigate USS Fulton, which he commanded after its
completion. He was called "The Father of the Steam Navy",[7] and he organized America's first corps
of naval engineers, and conducted the first U.S. naval gunnery school while
commanding Fulton from 1839 to 1841 off Sandy Hook on the coast of New Jersey.

Promotion to commodore[edit]
Perry received the title of commodore in June 1840, when the Secretary of the Navy appointed him
commandant of New York Navy Yard.[8] The United States Navy did not have ranks higher than
captain until 1857, so the title of commodore carried considerable importance. Officially, an officer
would revert to his permanent rank after the squadron command assignment had ended, although in
practice officers who received the title of commodore retained the title for life, as did Perry.
During his tenure in Brooklyn, he lived in Quarters A in Vinegar Hill, a building which still stands
today.[9] In 1843, Perry took command of the Africa Squadron, whose duty was to interdict the slave
trade under the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, and continued in this endeavor through 1844.

Mexican–American War[edit]

Perry attacked and took San Juan Bautista (Villahermosa today) in the Second Battle of Tabasco.
In 1845, Commodore David Conner's length of service in command of the Home Squadron had
come to an end. However, the coming of the Mexican–American War persuaded the authorities not
to change commanders in the face of the war. Perry, who would eventually succeed Conner, was
made second-in-command and captained USS Mississippi. Perry captured the Mexican city
of Frontera, demonstrated against Tabasco, being defeated in San Juan Bautista by Colonel Juan
Bautista Traconis in the First Battle of Tabasco, and took part in the capture of Tampico on
November 14, 1846.
He had to return to Norfolk, Virginia, to make repairs and was still there when the amphibious
landings at Veracruz took place. His return to the U.S. gave his superiors the chance to finally give
him orders to succeed Commodore Conner in command of the Home Squadron. Perry returned to
the fleet, and his ship supported the siege of Veracruz from the sea. After the fall of
Veracruz, Winfield Scott moved inland, and Perry moved against the remaining Mexican port cities.
Perry assembled the Mosquito Fleet and captured Tuxpan in April 1847. In July 1847 he attacked
Tabasco personally, leading a 1,173-man landing force ashore and attacking the city of San Juan
Bautista from land,[10] defeating the Mexican forces and taking the city.

Perry Expedition: opening of Japan, 1852–1854[edit]

See also: Perry Expedition and Bakumatsu
Japanese woodblock print of Perry (center) and other high-ranking American seamen
In 1852, Perry was assigned a mission by American President Millard Fillmore to force the opening
of Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary.[11] The
growing commerce between the United States and China, the presence of American whalers in
waters offshore Japan, and the increasing monopolization of potential coaling stations by European
powers in Asia were all contributing factors. Shipwrecked foreign sailors were either imprisoned or
executed,[12][13][14] and the safe return of such persons was one demand. The Americans were also
driven by concepts of manifest destiny and the desire to impose the benefits of western civilization
and the Christian religion on what they perceived as backward Asian nations.[15] The Japanese were
forewarned by the Dutch of Perry's voyage but were unwilling to change their 250-year-old policy
of national seclusion.[15] There was considerable internal debate in Japan on how best to meet this
potential threat to Japan's economic and political sovereignty.
On November 24, 1852, Perry embarked from Norfolk, Virginia, for Japan, in command of the East
India Squadron in pursuit of a Japanese trade treaty. He chose the paddle-wheeled steam
frigate Mississippi as his flagship and made port calls at Madeira (December 11–15), Saint
Helena (January 10–11), Cape Town (January 24 – February 3), Mauritius (February 18–
28), Ceylon (March 10–15), Singapore (March 25–29) and Macao and Hong Kong (April 7–28),
where he met with American-born Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams, who provided Chinese
language translations of his official letters, and where he rendezvoused with Plymouth. He continued
to Shanghai (May 4–17), where he met with the Dutch-born American diplomat, Anton L. C.
Portman, who translated his official letters into the Dutch language, and where he rendezvoused
with Susquehanna.
Perry then switched his flag to Susquehanna and made call at Naha on Great Lewchew Island
(Ryukyu, now Okinawa) from May 17–26. Ignoring the claims of Satsuma Domain to the islands, he
demanded an audience with the Ryukyuan King Shō Tai at Shuri Castle and secured promises that
the kingdom would be open to trade with the United States. Continuing on to the Ogasawara
islands in mid-June, Perry met with the local inhabitants and purchased a plot of land.[16]

First visit (1853)