President Fillmore’s letter also asked that men who had been shipwrecked on Japanese shores be treated with kindness. Whale oil was essential for lighting and for lubricating machinery. (See Appendix A.)Īmerica had invested seventeen million dollars in the Pacific whaling industry, and it needed Japanese ports to replenish coal and provisions for the whalers. Perry expected to deliver a letter from President Millard Fillmore to the Emperor of Japan, proposing “that the United States and Japan should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other.” 2 The letter requested that ports be opened so that American ships could obtain coal and provisions. It had been slammed shut against all but a few Dutch and Chinese traders, the only ones officially allowed in for over 200 years. He hoped to be a peacemaker who would make the isolated Empire of Japan a member of “the family of civilized nations” 1 of the world. The Japanese referred to these four vessels as “The Black Ships of the Evil Men.”Ĭommodore Matthew Calbraith Perry was in command of the squadron. The Plymouth and the Saratoga were three-masted sailing ships in tow behind the steamers. The Mississippi and the Susquehanna were steam-powered. The Susquehanna was a steam-powered sailing ship.įOUR SHIPS AND 560 MEN of the U.S.
