 After stopping at Manila in the Philippines , the fleet set course for Yokohama , Japan . They encountered a typhoon on the way on 12 October , but no ships were lost ; the fleet was only delayed 24 hours . After three Japanese men @-@ of @-@ war and six merchantmen escorted the Americans in , festivities began . The celebrations culminated in the Uraga , where Commodore Matthew C. Perry had anchored a little more than 50 years prior . The ships then departed on 25 October . After three weeks of exercises in the Philippines ' Subic Bay , the ships sailed south on 1 December for Singapore ; they did not stop there , however , passing outside the city on 6 December . Continuing on , they stopped at Colombo for coal from 12 – 20 December before sailing on for the Suez Canal . It took three days for all 16 battleships to traverse the canal , even though it was closed to all other traffic . They then headed for a coaling stop at Port Said , Egypt , after which the fleet split up into individual divisions to call on different ports in the Mediterranean . The First Division , of which Connecticut was a part , originally planned to visit Italy before moving on to Villefranche , but Connecticut and Illinois were quickly dispatched to southern Italy on a humanitarian mission when news of an earthquake reached the fleet . Seamen from the ships helped clear debris and unload supplies from the U.S. Navy refrigerated supply ship Culgoa ; Admiral Sperry received the personal thanks of King Victor Emmanuel III for their assistance . 
