With the Crimean War brewing in the eastern Mediterranean between Russia and an alliance of Turkey, Britain and France, a small Russian fleet of four ships commanded by Rear-Admiral Efimi Vasilievich Putiatin sailed into Nagasaki just a few weeks after U.S. Commadore Matthew Perry's "Black Ships" left Uraga in mid-July 1853.
Like Perry's, Putiatin's mission was to demand that Japan open its ports for trade -- and also fix a demarcation line separating Russian and Japanese territories among the islands north of Hokkaido.
Just a few days after Putiatin temporarily left Nagasaki, a British squadron led by Rear-Admiral James Stirling then entered the Kyushu port on Sept. 7, 1854. Stirling told the Nagasaki magistrate that his squadron came to ensure Japan would not give shelter to Russian warships. During his stay, in late September, Stirling succeeded in concluding between Great Britain and Japan a treaty similar to Perry's.