Leaving Syracuse, February 27, for Malta, and touching at this island, Captain Perry sailed, March 13, for Alexandria, having on board the Reverend and Mrs. Kirkland and Lady Franklin and her servants. Her husband, Sir John Franklin, afterwards world-renowned as an Arctic explorer, was at this time taking an active part in the Greek war of liberation. Perry’s acquaintance with the noble lady deepened into a friendship that lasted throughout his life. It was, most probably, through her admiration of the discipline and ability of the American officers and crews, that she, in after years, appealed to them as well as to Englishmen to rescue her husband. Nevertheless, as Chaplain Jenks noticed, the rose had its thorn. “Captain Perry had a trial of his patience with Lady Franklin, whom he took on board when he went to the Mediterranean. Lady Franklin was full of her husband; and, of course, at each meal the whole company had to hear theories and successes and memories repeated on the one theme. Captain Perry bore it all with great gentleness.”
Arriving at Alexandria, March 26, the Concord remained until April 23. The officers of the ship were invited to dine with Mehemet, the Viceroy of Egypt, afterwards the famous exterminator of the Mamelukes and of the feudal system which they represented and upheld. He had conquered Soudan, built Khartoum, and founded the Khedival dynasty. The officers were splendidly entertained by this latest master of the “Old House of Bondage.” The thirteen swords, presented to the party, were afterwards sent to Washington and placed in the Department of State. These weapons, still to be seen in the section devoted to curiosities, are of exquisite workmanship. The “Mameluke grip” was afterwards adopted on the regulation navy swords.
The Concord, raising anchor, April 3, sailed for Milo, where the famous statue of Venus had been found a few weeks before, and passed Candia, going thence to Napoli, the capital of Greece, saluting the British, French and Russian fleets, and the Greek forts. On his way to Smyrna, a rich American vessel received convoy. Another was met which had been robbed the night before by a party of fifty pirates in a boat.
In hopes of catching the thieves, and naturally enjoying a grim joke, Perry put a number of sailors and marines in hiding on the richly-laden merchantman, hoping to lure the pirates to another attack. The vessel, however, got safely to Paros without special incident of any kind. He then visited a number of the robbers’ haunts and scoured the coasts with boat parties, but without securing any prizes. The Concord then went to Athens to bring away the Rev. Mr. Robertson, an American missionary there, together with the property of the American Episcopal Mission, which had been broken up by the war.
In accordance with the excellent naval policy of President Jackson, our flag was shown in every Greek and Turkish port. Wool, opium and drugs were the staples of export carried in American vessels, and most of those met with were armed with small cannon and muskets. Arriving at Port Mahon, the home of our military marine, June 25, 1832, Perry reported a list of the vessels convoyed. It was found that in the eighty-two days from Alexandria, the Concord had visited twelve islands, anchored in ten ports, and that the ship had lain in port only sixteen days, being at sea sixty-four days. As strict sanitary regulations had been enforced, the health of the crew was unusually good.
At the transfer of the few invalids and of those whose terms of service had expired, the bugler struck up the then new, but now old, strain of “Home, Sweet Home,” which brought tears to many of the sailors’ eyes. The sight, so unusual, of a crying sailor, suggested to a visitor on board that these tears were of sorrow for leaving the Concord, than of joy for returning home. The surrounding cliffs sent back the notes in prolonged and saddened echoes. The heart-melting Sicilian air, without whose consecrating melody, the stanzas of John Howard Payne might long since have sunk into the ooze of oblivion, seemed then, as now, the immortal soul of a perishable body.
CHAPTER XI
A DIPLOMATIC VOYAGE IN THE FRIGATE BRANDYWINE.
In his next cruise which we are now to describe, Perry was to take a hand directly in diplomacy, and rehearse for the more brilliant drama of Japan twenty years later.
It was part of the foreign policy of Jackson’s administration to compel the payment of the long standing claims for spoliations on American commerce by the great European belligerents. During the years from 1809 to 1812, the Neapolitan government under Joseph Bonaparte and Murat, kings of Naples, had confiscated numerous American ships and cargoes. The claims filed in the State Department at Washington amounted to $1,734,993.88. They were held by various Boston and Philadelphia insurance companies and by citizens of Baltimore. The Hon. John Nelson of Frederic, Md. was appointed Minister to Naples, and ordered to collect these claims. Even before the outbreak of the war in 1812, contrary to the general opinion, the amount of direct spoliations upon American commerce inflicted by France and the nations then under her influence exceeded that experienced from Great Britain. The demands from our government, upon France, Naples, Spain and Portugal had been again and again refused. Jackson, in giving the debtors of the United States an invitation to pay, backed it by visible arguments of persuasion. He selected to co-operate with Mr. Nelson and to command the Mediterranean squadron, Commodore Daniel Patterson who had aided him in the defense of New Orleans in 1815. This veteran of the Tripolitan campaigns, who in the second war with Great Britain had defended New Orleans, and aided Jackson in driving back Packenham, was now 61 years old. He was familiar with the western Mediterranean from his service as a Midshipman of over a quarter of a century before. At Port Mahon, August 25th, 1832, he received the command from Commodore Biddle. The squadron there consisted of the Brandywine, Concord and Boston.
This was “the Cholera year” in New York, and pratique, or permission to enter, was refused to the American ships at some of the ports. For this reason, an early demonstration at Naples was decided upon. Patterson’s plan was that one American ship should appear at first in the harbour of Naples, and then another and another in succession, until the whole squadron of floating fortresses should be present to second Mr. Nelson’s demands. The entire force at his command was three fifty-gun frigates and three twenty-gun corvettes. This sufficed, according to the programme, for a naval drama in six acts. Commodore Biddle was to proceed first with the United States, then the Boston and John Adams with Commodore Patterson were to follow.