return, he established for China a modern
naval college patterned after our own. In those days throughout China
and Japan you could find many of these foreign advisers. Now, in Japan,
the Hon. W. H. Dennison of the Foreign Office, one of our own people, is
the only foreigner with whom the Japanese have not parted, and in China
there are none. Of all of those who have gone none served his employers
more faithfully than did McGiffin. At a time when every official
robbed the people and the Government, and when "squeeze" or "graft"
was recognized as a perquisite, McGiffin's hands were clean. The shells
purchased for the Government by him were not loaded with black sand,
nor were the rifles fitted with barrels of iron pipe. Once a year he
celebrated the Thanksgiving Day of his own country by inviting to a
great dinner all the Chinese naval officers who had been at least in
part educated in America. It was a great occasion, and to enjoy
it officers used to come from as far as Port Arthur, Shanghai, and
Hong-Kong. So fully did some of them appreciate the efforts of their
host that previous to his annual dinner, for twenty-four hours, they
delicately starved themselves.

During ten years McGiffin served as naval constructor and professor
of gunnery and seamanship, and on board ships at sea gave practical
demonstrations in the handling of the new cruisers. In 1894 he applied
for leave, which was granted, but before he had sailed for home war with
Japan was declared and he withdrew his application. He was placed
as second in command on board the _Chen Yuen_, a seven-thousand-ton
battleship, a sister ship to the _Ting Yuen_, the flagship of Admiral
Ting Ju Chang. On the memorable 17th of September, 1894, the battle of
the Yalu was fought, and so badly were the Chinese vessels hammered that
the Chinese navy, for the time being, was wiped out of existence.

From the start the advantage was with the Japanese fleet. In heavy guns
the Chinese were the better armed, but in quick-firing guns the Japanese
were vastly superior, and while the Chinese battleships _Ting Yuen_ and
_Chen Yuen_, each of 7,430 tons, were superior to any of the Japanese
warships, the three largest of which were each of 4,277 tons, the gross
tonnage of the Japanese fleet was 36,000 to 21,000 of the Chinese.
During the progress of the battle the ships engaged on each side
numbered an even dozen, but at the very start, before a decisive shot
was fired by either con