He prepared the United States Fleet for the Spanish American War.

[1] Hichborn was trained as a shipwright at the Boston Navy Yard.

He started work with the Bureau of Construction and Repair in 1869, becoming Chief Constructor in 1893.

His son Philip was the first husband of poet Elinor Morton Hoyt.

[1][2] Philip Hichborn died at his home in Washington, D.C., on May 1, 1910, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.