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