For this metaphorical parboiling of “the literary Dutchman in Van Buren’s cabinet,” Perry was largely responsible. Steam had come to stay, and with it the engineer, despite the Rip Van Winkles in and out of the service. Officers call Perry “the father of the steam navy.” An old engineer says, “He certainly was, if any man may be entitled to be so called.” Another writes “It was largely through his influence and representations, that the _Mississippi_ and _Missouri_, then the most splendid vessels of their class, were built.” A beginning of two steam war vessels had been practically determined on, soon after Perry’s return from Europe. He was summoned to Washington in May 1839 to preside at the Board of Navy Commissioners to consult concerning machinery for them. The sessions from 9 A. M. to 3.30 P. M. were held from May 23d to 28th. The practical wisdom of Captain Perry’s decision in regard to the engines most suitable for our first steamers—the superb _Missouri_ and the grand old _Mississippi_—is seen in the fact that when ready for service, the _Mississippi_ had no superior on the sea for beauty, speed and durability. Probably out of no vessel in the navy of the United States, was so much genuinely good work obtained as out of the _Mississippi_, during her twenty years of constant service in all the waters. Had she not been burned off Port Hudson in the river whose name she bore, in 1862, she might have lived a ship’s generation longer. Her praises are generously sung in the writings of all who lived on board her. Captain Parker speaks of “The good old steamship _Mississippi_, a ship that did more hard work in her time than any steamer in the navy has done since and she was built as far back as 1841.” What the _Constitution_ was among the old heavy sailing frigates, the _Mississippi_ was to our steam Navy. On the outside of Commodore Foxhall Parker’s book on _Naval Tactics Under Steam_ is fitly stamped in gold a representation of the _Mississippi_.[11]