MIT Visualizing Cultures
Commodore Perry’s Far East Squadron, 1853 & 1854


MIT Visualizing Cultures

Notes
1. The 1853 expedition was comprised of the Mississippi, Susquehanna, Saratoga, and Plymouth. The 1854 expedition was made up of nine vessels (the Plymouth did not accompany the second voyage).


2. The three steamships in the squadron were the Mississippi, Susquehanna, and Powhatan. The Susquehanna and Powhatan had two 31-foot-diameter paddlewheels, driven by two “inclined direct-acting condensing engines.” The Mississippi’s paddlewheels were driven by “side-level engines.”

3. All of the wind-driven ships were three-mast, square-rigged vessels.

4. During the Japan expedition, crews did not necessarily achieve full complement.

This table is adapted from Roger Pineau, ed., The Japan Expedition, 1852-1854: The Personal Journal of Commodore Matthew C. Perry (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968), p. 225.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology © 2008 Visualizing Cultures
A Cross-section of the “Susquehanna”