This figure is most likely Sam Patch. Sam Patch, as his fellow sailors called him (his name may well have been Sampachi), was a Japanese castaway who had made his way to California. He was one of several Japanese castaways who agreed to join the American expedition. We know that Perry's official "interpreter" was S. Wells Williams, a China scholar who had learned some Japanese. While not an official interpreter, Sam played a key role as a go-between for the Americans. At the conclusion of the expedition, Sam was invited to remain in Japan. However, as it was a crime for Japanese to return to Japan, he was fearful of what would happen to him if he stayed. Sam returned to the United States on the Mississippi and later went to school in the U.S.

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