For
years every naval power had been building these new engines of
war, and in the battle which was to test them the whole world was
interested. But in this battle Americans had a special interest, a
human, family interest, for the reason that one of the Chinese
squadron, which was matched against some of the same 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.
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