Part 8 (2/2)
”MY DEAR MOTHER--I have not felt oing to happen I spent a good deal of ot here, I knew, unless soot off Taku forts Sunday evening and the nextent inside; the channel is very narrow and soith torpedoes We struck one--an electric one--in coo off We were until 1030 PM in coht line, but nearly seventy by the river, which is only about one hundred feet wide--and we grounded ten times
”Well--at last we ineer, and I went to the hotel, and the first thing we heard was--that _peace was declared!_ I went back on board shi+p, and I didn't sleep much--I never was so blue in ive up the ghost, for I could never get away froht without sleep, and in the h a knot-hole I ave my letters to Pethick, an A He said he would fix them for oing up to see Li Hung Chang, I went along out of desperation We got in, and after a while were taken in through corridor after corridor of the Viceroy's palace until we got into the great Li, e sat down and had tea and tobacco and talked through an interpreter When it came my turn he asked: 'Why did you come to China?' I said: 'To enter the Chinese service for the war' 'How do you expect to enter?' 'I expect _you_ to give me a commission!' 'I have no place to offer you' 'I think you have--I have coet it' 'What would you like?' 'I would like to get the new torpedo-boat and go down the Yang-tse-Kiang to the blockading squadron' 'Will you do that?' 'Of course'
”He thought a little and said: 'I will see what can be done Will you take 100 a month for a start?' I said: 'That depends' (Of course I would take it) Well, after parley, he said he would put shi+p, and if I did well he would promote me Then he looked at me and said: 'How old are you?' When I told hiht he would faint--for in China a man is a _boy_ until he is over thirty
He said I would _never_ do--I was a child I could not know anything at all I could not convince him, but at last he compromised--I was to pass an exae, in all branches, and if they passed me I would have a show So we parted I reported for examination next day, but was put off--same the next day But to-day I was told to come, and sat down to a stock of foolscap, and had a pretty stiff exaunnery, navigation, nautical astronoonoral calculus I had only three questions out of five to answer in each branch, but in the first three I answered all five After that I only had time for three, but at the end he said I need not finish, he was perfectly satisfied I had done remarkably well, and he would report to the Viceroy to-morrow He examined my first papers--sea_, you need not fear I told the Consul--he was very well pleased--he is a nice man
”I feel pretty well now--have had dinner and aood Manila cheroot I wrote hard all day, wrote fifteen sheets of foolscap and ot pretty tired
”I have had a hard scraot in by the skin of ht--Thursday
”I did not hear fro I went up to the Admiralty and sent in my card He came out and received me very well--said I had passed a 'very splendid exaly to the Viceroy, as very e over at the arsenal had wanted o over at once? I _would_ It was about five reat rider here) went on steeplechase ponies--ere ferried across the Pei Ho in a s ride
There _is_ a path--but Pritchard insisted on taking all the ditches, and as my pony jumped like a cat, it wasn't nice at first, but I didn't squeal and keptof it at last and rather liked it I think I will keep a horse here--you can hire one and a servant together for 7 a month; that is 560 of our
”Well--at last we got to the arsenal--a place about four es, shot and shell, engines, and _everything_--are e is inside surrounded by a ht toI used to be at the U S N A _that_ won't keep hih a lot of yards till I was ushered into a rooreeted very warmly by the Director We took seats on a raised platform--Chinese style and pretty soon an interpreter came, one of the Chinese professors, as educated abroad, and we talked and drank tea He said I had done well, that he had the authority of the Viceroy to take unnery; in addition I ation or nautical astrono For this I was to receive ould be in our money 1,800 per annuold each month Besides, I will have a house furnished for my use, and it is their intention, as soon as I _show_ that I _know_ so, to considerably increase ive me 130 T per month (about 186) and house, but the Viceroy said I was _but a boy_; that I had seen no years and had only coht turn out an impostor But he would risk 100 T on me anyhow, and as soon as I was reported favorably on by the college I would be raised--the agreement is to be for three years For a fewshi+p--an ironclad that is in dry dock at present, until a captain in the English Navy comes out, who has been sent for to command her
”_So Here I am_--twenty-four years old and captain of a man-of-war--a better one than any in our own navy--only for a short ti time before I would command one at home
Well--I accepted and will enter on my duties in a week, as soon asveranda, very broad; with flower garden, apricot trees, etc, just covered with blossoms; a wide hall on the front, a roo; then back another rather larger, with a cupola skylight in the centre, where I a to put a shelf with flowers The Government is to furnish the house with bed, tables, chairs, sideboards, lounges, stove for kitchen
I have grates (American) in the rooood deal of ice in winter, but the therets below zero I have to supply my own crockery I will have two servants and cook; I will only get one and the cook first--they only cost 4 to 550 per , don't you think so? Noant you to get Ji, seaonometry, conic sections, calculus, mechanics, and _every_ book of that description I own, including those paperbound 'Naval Institute' papers, and put theether with any photos, etc, you think I would like--I have none of you or Pa or the faot in in time--didn't I? Another ould have been too late
My funds were getting loould not have had _anything_ before long
The U S Consul, General Bromley, is much pleased The interpreter says it was all in the way I did with the Viceroy in the interview
”I will have a chance to go to Peking and later to a tiger hunt in Mongolia, but for the present I aet a raise I aunnery, and I _, both practically and theoretically But it will be good foris, that if I were put back into the Navy I would be in a dileet my 'influence' to work, and I want you people at home to look out, and in case I _am_--if it were represented to the Sec thate professionally--ive me two years' leave on half or quarter pay Or, I would be willing to do without pay--only to be kept on the register in my rank
”I rite more about this Love to all”
It is characteristic of McGiffin that in the very san service he plans to return to that of his own country This hope never left him You find the same homesickness for the quarterdeck of an Ah his later letters At one time a bill to reinstate the midshi+pmen who had been cheated of their coress Of this McGiffin writes frequently as ”our bill” ”ItI have hoped so long And if it should,” he adds anxiously, ”there may be a time limit set in which a man must rejoin, or lose his chance, so do not fail to let me know as quickly as you can”
But the bill did not pass, and McGiffin never returned to the navy that had cut hi cadets how to shoot Almost all of those who in the Chinese-japanese War served as officers were his pupils As the navy grew, he greith it, and his position increased in ier houses, and buttons of various honorable colors were given him, and, in return, he established for China a e patterned after our own In those days throughout China and japan you could find n advisers Now, in japan, the Hon W H Dennison of the Foreign Office, one of our own people, is the only foreigner hom 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 Governnized 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 Areat occasion, and to enjoy it officers used to co 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 the ten years McGiffin served as naval constructor and professor of gunnery and seaave practical de of the new cruisers In 1894 he applied for leave, which was granted, but before he had sailed for home ith japan was declared and he withdrew his application He was placed as second in command on board the _Chen Yuen_, a seven-thousand-ton battleshi+p, a sister shi+p to the _Ting Yuen_, the flagshi+p of Ad On the memorable 17th of Septeht, and so badly were the Chinese vessels ha, iped out of existence
Froe ith the japanese fleet In heavy guns the Chinese were the better aruns the japanese were vastly superior, and while the Chinese battleshi+ps _Ting Yuen_ and _Chen Yuen_, each of 7,430 tons, were superior to any of the japanese warshi+ps, 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 shi+ps engaged on each side numbered an even dozen, but at the very start, before a decisive shot was fired by either contestant, the _Tsi Yuen_, 2,355 tons, and _Kwan Chiae_, 1,300 tons, ran away, and before they had ti Wei_ were in flaht by eight Chinese shi+ps against twelve of the japanese Of the Chinese vessels, the flagshi+p, co, and her sister shi+p, which iht was for four hours coressors, and in consequence received the fire of the entire japanese squadron Toward the end of the fight, which without interruption lasted for five long hours, the japanese did not even consider the four s around the two ironclads in a circle, fired only at them The japanese themselves testified that these two shi+ps never lost their formation, and that when her sister ironclad was closely pressed the _Chen Yuen_, by herYuen_, and, in fact, while she could not prevent the heavy loss the fleet encountered, preserved it froht this shi+p was almost continuously on fire, and was struck by every kind of projectile, from the thirteen-inch Canet shells to a rifle bullet, four hundred times
McGiffin himself was so badly wounded, so beaten about by concussions, so burned, and so bruised by steel splinters, that his health and eyesight were forever wrecked But he brought the _Chen Yuen_ safely into Port Arthur and the remnants of the fleet with her
On account of his lack of health he resigned from the Chinese service and returned to A in body without cessation thethat tie On the splintered, gaping deck of the _Chen Yuen_, with the fires below it, and the shells bursting upon it, he had shown to his Chinese crew the courage of the white man who kneas responsible for thereater and e he shohile alone in the dark sick-room, and in the private wards of the hospitals
In the letters he dictates from there he still is concerned only lest those at home shall ”worry”; he reassures them with falsehoods, jokes at their fears; of the people he can see from theof the hospital tells them foolish stories; for a little boy who has been kind he asks thee staer, knowing he never will be stronger
The doctors had urged upon him a certain operation, and of it to a friend he wrote: ”I know that I will have to have a piece about three inches square cut out of my skull, and this nerve cut off near the middle of the brain, as well as my eye taken out (for a couple of hours only, provided it is not mislaid, and can be found) Doctor ------ and his crowd show a bad memory for failures As a result of this operation others have told e of deaths, which does not e have becoht”
While threatened with insanity and co a pain drugs could not azine_ the only complete account of the battle of the Yalu
In a letter to Mr Richard Watson Gilder he writes: ” now, and a the article under difficulties I yet hope to place it in your hands by the 21st, still, if roorse------”