ame
vessels of Japan which lately swept those of Russia from the sea, was
commanded by a young graduate of the American Naval Academy. This young
man, who, at the time of the battle of the Yalu, was thirty-three years
old, was Captain Philo Norton McGiffin. So it appears that five years
before our fleet sailed to victory in Manila Bay another graduate of
Annapolis, and one twenty years younger than in 1898 was Admiral Dewey,
had commanded in action a modern battleship, which, in tonnage, in
armament, and in the number of the ships' company, far outclassed
Dewey's _Olympia_.

McGiffin, who was born on December 13, 1860, came of fighting stock.
Back in Scotland the family is descended from the Clan MacGregor and the
Clan MacAlpine.

"These are Clan-Alpine's warriors true, And, Saxon--I am Roderick Dhu."

McGiffin's great-grandfather, born in Scotland, emigrated to this
country and settled in "Little Washington," near Pittsburg, Pa. In the
Revolutionary War he was a soldier. Other relatives fought in the War of
1812, one of them holding a commission as major. McGiffin's own father
was Colonel Norton McGiffin, who served in the Mexican War, and in
the Civil War was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania
Volunteers. So McGiffin inherited his love for arms.

In Washington he went to the high school and at the Washington Jefferson
College had passed through his freshman year. But the honors that might
accrue to him if he continued to live on in the quiet and pretty old
town of Washington did not tempt him. To escape into the world he
wrote his Congressman, begging him to obtain for him an appointment to
Annapolis. The Congressman liked the letter, and wrote Colonel McGiffin
to ask if the application of his son had his approval. Colonel McGiffin
was willing, and in 1877 his son received his commission as cadet
midshipman. I knew McGiffin only as a boy with whom in vacation time I
went coon hunting in the woods outside of Washington. For his age he was
a very tall boy, and in his midshipman undress uniform, to my youthful
eyes, appeared a most bold and adventurous spirit.

At Annapolis his record seems to show he was pretty much like other
boys. According to his classmates, with all of whom I find he was very
popular, he stood high in the practical studies, such as seamanship,
gunnery, navigation, and steam engineering, but in all else he was near
the foot of the class, and in whatever escapade was risky and re