THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



© Burnell Poole 



GETTING READY FOR A NEW DRESS 



After a ship has been dry-docked and the bottom freed of barnacles it is washed down 

 thoroughly with fire-hose. Then the painters take charge, and in a little while she comes out 

 as spick and span, with her war paint on, as though she had just come from the ways. 



Father of the Steam Navy." He revived 

 the use of the ram in naval warfare. He 

 founded the naval apprentice system. He 

 was active in suppressing the slave trade 

 on the Guinea Coast. He adjusted the 

 Canadian fisheries dispute in 1852. 



He helped greatly in removing duelling, 

 grogging, and flogging from the navy. 

 In 1847 ne commanded the largest squad- 

 ron which up to that time had ever been 

 assembled under the Stars and Stripes. 

 It was the first American fleet governed 

 without the lash, flogging having been 

 abolished by Secretary Graham. It was 

 that fleet which decided the day at Vera 

 Cruz and started General Scott on his 

 victorious way to the City of Mexico. 



The triumph of Perry upon which his 

 fame chiefly rests was the opening of 

 Japan to the world, one of the most im- 

 portant events in our history. The story 

 of Perry's voyage to Japan has all the 

 glamour of the stories of the Orient, and 

 is fascinating beyond the imagination of 



the most fertile novelist. Armed with a 

 letter from the President of the United 

 States to his Imperial Majesty the Em- 

 peror of Japan, saluted as a "Great and 

 Good Friend," Commodore Perry made 

 a thorough study of Japan and the Japan- 

 ese character before starting on his 

 epoch-making voyage. 



TAKING WESTERN INVENTIONS TO JAPAN 



He carried as presents specimens of 

 the products of the farm and factory, 

 which he thought by their novelty and 

 usefulness would interest the people of 

 Japan. A miniature locomotive, with 

 tracks and rails to be laid down, one mile 

 of telegraph line with Morse instruments, 

 photo-cameras, printing-presses, puzzles 

 and toys, some of the newest things in 

 America, were in the cargo. 



The story of his wisdom, his patience, 

 his consummate diplomacy, going into 

 weeks and months and years, the em- 

 ployment of every art that statesmanship 



