He was detached from the academy and was waiting orders on June 10, 1879, before he was assigned to USS Adams, a single-screw, wooden-hulled, bark-rigged steamer, on August 12.

During the hurricane, Gibbons and some of his shipmates went up the mast and formed a human wind-sail, in an effort to prevent the vessel from being driven ashore.

The following year, he was detached and returned home, "to be ready for sea" on May 1, 1895, then assigned six weeks later to the cruiser USS Raleigh on June 13.

[3] Gibbon was transferred to the cruiser USS Newark on May 21, 1898 and saw service in Cuban waters, during the Battle of Manzanillo and the bombardment of Morro Castle.

[4] Gibbons was transferred to the battleship USS Oregon on May 4, 1901, returned home and waited for orders on June 24, before being assigned to the Branch Hydrographic Office in Buffalo, New York, on August 5.

It was at this office that hydrographic surveys were conducted, which is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, etc.

Dolphin, under the command of Gibbons, was part of the review of the North Atlantic Fleet of the United States Navy in 1905.

He was named aide to Rear-Admiral Charles H. Stockton at the Conference of the International Prize Court in London, England, on July 29, 1908.

He was ordered detached from the General Board on May 15, 1911, and placed on duty for three years as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, from 1911 to 1914.

By the end of June 1914 Utah steamed back to the New York Navy Yard, with the exploits of the bombardment and the taking of Vera Cruz, Mexico in April vividly ingrained in the minds of the American people.

It was in vain that Theodore Roosevelt stated that Gibbons was "in every position a man of marked efficiency -- one of the most useful men in the Navy", and that "from the standpoint of the country, I regret very greatly that there is danger of our losing his services."

In a letter to the New York Times, in which he embodied the aforementioned quotations from a letter written to him by Colonel Roosevelt, Richard Harding Davis, the noted war correspondent, who had come from Mexico on the Utah, vigorously defended Captain Gibbons' "practically unimpeachable record", and wrote, "This year the 'Plucking Board' has eliminated officers of such value to the service that hereafter undoubtedly the 'Plucking Board' itself will be eliminated."

Three years later, after the furor of the "Plucking" episode had died down, Captain Gibbons was recalled for service, as the United States had officially entered the First World War on April 6, 1917.

He was posted to the Office of Naval Intelligence, Navy Department, in Washington, D.C., on May 22, 1920, returning home and relieved of all active duty on July 31.