On April 4, the crew of a Unit­ed States Naval Ship, the USNS Grap­ple, will take part in a cer­e­mo­ny to reded­i­cate the Per­ry Gate on the north side of Lapey­rouse Ceme­tery Port-of-Spain. Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives and US Em­bassy of­fi­cials will joint­ly host a memo­r­i­al in ho­n­our of US Com­modore Oliv­er Haz­ard Per­ry for whom the gate­way was named.

Born in 1785, Per­ry served in the war of 1812 against Britain, and earned the ti­tle "Hero of Lake Erie" for lead­ing Amer­i­can forces in a de­ci­sive naval vic­to­ry in the Bat­tle of Lake Erie. When his flag­ship was heav­i­ly dam­aged, the British ex­pect­ed him to sur­ren­der.

In­stead, he es­caped to an­oth­er ves­sel and con­tin­ued to fight-and even­tu­al­ly forced the en­tire British squadron to sur­ren­der. His vic­to­ry helped pro­tect the Unit­ed States from in­va­sion. In 1819, on a mis­sion to Venezuela, Per­ry suc­cumbed to yel­low fever en route to Trinidad. Gov­er­nor Sir Ralph Wood­ford en­sured he was giv­en a hero's fu­ner­al and he was buried at the Lapey­rouse Ceme­tery.

Six years lat­er, his re­mains were tak­en back to the US and in­terred in New­port, Rhode Is­land where he was born. Per­ry was one of the most cel­e­brat­ed Amer­i­can naval he­roes, and sev­er­al cities and coun­ties across the US are in his name. He al­so gave his name to a class of frigate in the US Navy.

The Per­ry Gate­way at Lapey­rouse Ceme­tery was ded­i­cat­ed on East­er Mon­day, 1925 to mark the place where Per­ry's body en­tered the ceme­tery. The gate­way was marked by two bronze plaques and dec­o­rat­ed with the Coats of Arms of the US and the Unit­ed King­dom. Al­though pre­vi­ous­ly re­stored, the gate­way has again fall­en in­to dis­re­pair.

New plaques are be­ing cre­at­ed to re­place the old ones, which are miss­ing, and the Coat of Arms of Trinidad and To­ba­go will be added. The US Em­bassy said in a re­lease, "Since this year is both the 200th an­niver­sary of the War of 1812 and the fifti­eth an­niver­sary of the in­de­pen­dence of Trinidad and To­ba­go, it is the ide­al time to re­store and reded­i­cate the gate­way."

The Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion, the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture and the crew of the Grap­ple have worked to­geth­er to re­store the land­mark. The re­lease said the gate­way is "an en­dur­ing sym­bol of the deep ties of friend­ship be­tween the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca."