Philo McGiffen

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Philo Norton McGiffen (December 12/13, 1860-February 11, 1897) was a late 19th century American naval officer later serving in Chinese service as a naval advisor during the First Sino-Japanese War. Although primarily skilled as an instructor and administrator, he proved a talented tactician during the Battle of the Yalu as well as the first American to command a modern battleship in wartime.

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[edit] Early life

Born to Civil War officer Colonel Norton McGiffin and Sarah Quail in Washington, Pennsylvania, McGiffin attended local Washington and Jefferson College before transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1877. While at Annapolis, he gained a reputation as a practical joker. McGiffin served in the Pacific Squadron aboard the steam frigates USS Hartfordand USS Pensacola for two years, following his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1882. After his tour of duty, McGiffin qualified as a passed midshipman (or ensign) but was among several classmates who were discharged with one year's pay when there no available positions in the body of commissioned officers (in those days, several years of sea duty were required before receiving a commission. In an era of limited U.S. naval spending, only a few commissions were available to each graduating class. Unfortunately for McGiffin, when he took the exam in 1884 he did not score highly enough and so did not obtain one of the few commissions available that year).

[edit] Service to Imperial China

Arriving in China soon after and seeking employment, McGiffin was able to earn a commission as a lieutenant in the newly modernizing Imperial Chinese navy under Li Hung-chang in early 1885. In the midst on the Sino-French War, McGiffin was said to have captured a French gunboat in June before the end of the war that same year. A professor at the Chinese Naval College in Tientsin (Tianjin) for the next nine years, McGiffin was also said to have served as naval constructor supervising the construction of four ironclad warships in Great Britain before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in August 1895.

[edit] Later career

Assigned to Admiral Ting Ju ch'ang's Peiyang or Northern Fleet (which would be partially organized and trained by McGiffin), McGiffin would serve as an executive officer aboard the Chinese battleship Chen Yuen during the Battle of the Yalu and, with effective control and skillful maneuvering, he was able to force the Japanese to withdraw on September 17. Severely wounded during the battle however, McGiffin returned to the United States. Suffering from mental instability due to his wounds, McGiffin was eventually committed to the Post Graduate Hospital in New York City where, after tricking hospital orderlies into giving him a revolver from his trunk, he committed suicide on February 11, 1897.

[edit] Folk Hero

At the United States Naval Academy, Philo McGiffen is a folk hero akin to Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyon. In the most commonly told tale, McGiffen could not sleep one evening and decided since he could not sleep, no one else should, so he collected all the cannon balls in the Academy yard, hauled them up to the top floor of the quarters (which probably would have been what was then known as the “New Quarters”), and rolled them down the stairs to the bottom floor. Since the heavy iron balls were wreaking havoc, no one could stop him until the Officer of the Watch shinnied up a drainpipe and apprehended him from behind. Only half mythical, according Richard Harding Davidson's biographical sketch of McGiffen quoted in Real Soldiers of Fortune, the cannonballs were already in a pile on the top floor of the quarters. For this prank he was sent to the Santee (an old hulk of a sailing ship that served as the confinement barracks for Midshipmen being disciplined) where he befriended an old man-o-warsman named Mike. When Philo returned to the Regiment of Midshipmen from the Santee, Mike gave him six charges of powder, which he loaded into six of the Mexican War cannon scattered about the Yard and fired a salute on July first, shattering windows all over the Academy.

Another popular Naval Academy urban legend concerns the most exacting inspection at the Academy, the inspection for the members of the oncoming Watch, traditionally held each evening in the Rotunda of Bancroft Hall. Popular lore has it that McGiffen waited, hidden on the balcony above the Watch Squad, until the very second before the Officer of the Watch left his office to inspect the Squad, at which point he stood up and dumped a bag of flour all over the Watch Squad. This is extremely unlikely as the legends place this action in the Rotunda, which did not exist in Philo’s day and there is no indication that there even was a Watch Squad inspection in the late 1870’s/early 80’s; in fact, given the rather casual attitude toward uniforms prevalent in those days, it was quite unlikely.

[edit] Legacy

In addition to several works which discuss his actual exploits, McGiffin is memorialized in the comic novel The Return of Philo T. McGiffin, written by Naval Academy graduate David Poyer and published in 1997 by the Naval Institute Press. The book tells of the misadventures of a namesake plebe, Philo T. McGiffin, during his first year at the Academy.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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