Perry had already made his reputation as a scientific student. His motto was “_semper paratus_.” He was ever in readiness for work. The British Admiralty and the United States government were desirous of fuller information about the tides and currents of the Atlantic ocean, especially those off Rhode Island and in the Sound. Chosen for the work, Perry received orders, June 1st, to spend a lunar month on Gardiner’s Island. The congenial task afforded a pleasant break in the monotony of life in the navy yard, and revived memories of the war of 1812. The careful observations which he made during the month of June, embodied in a report, were adopted into the United States and British Admiralty charts. He returned home June 29. Though Commodore Ridgley was officer-in-chief in the yard, upon Perry fell most of the active clerical and superintending work. The frigate, _United States_, was fitting out for service in the Mediterranean, and one of the young midshipmen ordered to report to her was the gentleman who afterwards became Rear-Admiral George H. Preble, a gallant soldier, fighter of Chinese pirates, and author of the _History of the American Flag_ and of _Steam Navigation_. He reported to the Navy Yard, May 1, 1836, in trembling anxiety as to his reception by his superiors. The commandant was absent at the horse-races on the Long Island course, so young Preble returned to New York, to his hotel, and again reported May 3. His first impressions of Master Commandant Perry are shown in the following doggerel, written in a letter to his sister: “Charley again was at the race, But I was minded that the place Should own me as a Mid. And since the Com. was making merry, Reported to big-whiskered Perry The Captain of the Yard. “‘Mat’ looked at me from stem to stern, His gaze I thought he ne’er would turn, No doubt he thought me green. For I had on a citizen’s coat Instead of a uniform as I ought, When going to report. “At last he said that I could go, There was no duty I could do, Until the next day morning. So I whisked o’er and moved my traps, And made acquaintance with the chaps Who were to live with me.” Perry at this time wore whiskers, and for some years afterwards cultivated sides in front of the ear. In later life he shaved his face clean. The fashion in the navy was to wear only sides, as portraits of all the heroes of 1812 show. The younger officers were just beginning to sport moustaches. These modern fashions and “such fripperies” were denounced by the older men, who clung to their antique prejudices. Hawthorne, in his American Note Book, August 27, 1837, gives an amusing instance of this, couched in the language with which he was able to make the commonest subject fascinating.