Naval engineer; born in New York, Jan. 10, 1841; was educated in the public schools and at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute; entered the U. S. N. as third
assistant engineer on July 29, 1861; was promoted second
assistant engineer, Dec. 18, 1862; first
assistant engineer, Jan. 30, 1865; passed assistant engineer, Feb. 24, 1874; and chief engineer, March 4, 1881.
On Jan. 16, 1888,
Captain Melville was appointed chief of the bureau of steam engineering in the navy, with the relative rank of commodore, a post he has since retained.
On the abolition of the grade of commodore by the
Navy Personnel act in 1899 he was given the rank of rear-admiral during his occupancy of the office of chief engineer.
In 1879 he joined the
Jeannette polar expedition under the command of
Lieut. George W. De Long, and sailed from
San Francisco July 8.
The vessel was crushed by the ice and sunk June 12, 1881.
Melville and
De Long succeeded in reaching land 150 miles apart, with a portion of the crew.
De Long and all but two of his men perished from cold and starvation on the
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Map of the siege of Fort Meigs. |
banks of the
Lena.
The next spring
Melville with his companions explored the delta for traces of the missing party.
After finding the remains of
De Long and his companions he returned to the
United
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158]
States.
He has contributed largely to the building up of the new navy; designed the triple-screw machinery for the two swiftest cruisers,
Columbia and
Minneapolis; and invented many mechanical appliances.
He is president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and author of
In the Lena Delta.
See
Arctic explorations.
