Matthew Calbraith Perry - "The Father of the Steam Navy"

More than 150 years ago Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy achieved lasting fame as the man who was able to open up US trade with the isolated and fertile land of Japan without actually firing a shot. Certainly this non-violent achievement as a result of his almost non-stop negotiations, with the implied threat of military force always on the table, is how most Americans remember Commodore Perry and earns him his place in military history.

However, long before he was deployed by then President Millard Fillmore to secure favorable trade terms with the Japanese, Perry had enjoyed a long and distinguished Naval career. Coming from a family of sailors; his father was the former privateer turned US Naval Captain Christopher Raymond Perry and his older brother the well respected Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, known as the “Hero of Lake Erie” for his War of 1812 exploits; the younger Perry was anxious to see action in the War of 1812 but other than assisting in the sinking of a British ship during the build-up to the actual declaration of war, he saw little actual fighting.

While the “persuasion” of Japan to open its ports to US vessels is of incomparable historical value Perry was also an outspoken proponent of steam power, so much so that he was dubbed “The Father of the Steam Navy” for his insistence on the value of developing and deploying steam powered vessels. Arguably, this aspect of his many gifts to posterity may have had a much greater long-term impact not only on the United States Navy, as well as other navies of the world, but on the world of shipping as a whole.