George W. Melville

George Wallace Melville
Born 10 January 1841 (1841-01-10)
New York City, New York
Died 17 March 1912 (1912-03-18)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Allegiance  United States of America
Service/branch United States Navy
Years of service 1861–1903
Rank Rear Admiral
Battles/wars American Civil War
Awards Congressional Gold Medal

Rear Admiral George Wallace Melville, USN (10 January 1841 – 17 March 1912) was an engineer, Arctic explorer and author. As chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, he headed a time of great expansion, technological progress and change, often in defiance of the conservative element of the Navy hierarchy. He superintended the design of 120 ships and introduced the water-tube boiler, the triple-screw propulsion system, vertical engines, the floating repair ship, and the "distilling ship." Appointed Engineer in Chief of the Navy, Melville reformed the service entirely, putting Navy engineers on a professional rather than an artisan footing.

Melville also established the Engineering Experiment Station (EES) near the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. As Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy, he fought hard to get an appropriation of $400,000 for an experiment and testing laboratory to be located at Annapolis. He argued that such a facility would be a dependable means for testing machinery and equipment before its installation in Navy ships and aid training engineering officers. Both, he surmised, would increase the efficiency of the Navy. When the Navy offered to have this facility named after him, Melville refused with characteristic modesty.

Melville made his first trip to the Arctic in 1873, when he volunteered to help rescue 19 survivors of the Polaris expedition. Six years later, he volunteered to accompany Lieutenant Commander George W. DeLong on board the USS Jeannette to the Bering Strait in search of a quick way to the North Pole. Jeannette became icebound and was eventually crushed; Melville, the 10 others in his small boat, and two from DeLong's boat, were the only survivors. Despite the extreme length and hardships of the trip, he returned in search of DeLong and others who might possibly still be alive. He found none but retrieved all records of the expedition. The United States Congress awarded Melville the Congressional Gold Medal for his gallantry and resourcefulness; the Navy advanced him 15 numbers on the promotion list. He wrote of the DeLong expedition in his book, In the Lena Delta, published in 1884.

Birth and Civil War

Melville was born in New York City on 10 January 1841, the son of Alexander Melville, a chemist, and Sarah Wallace.[1] He was educated at the School of the Christian Brothers, a religious academy, where he studied mathematics, and at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute.[2]

He entered the U.S. Navy on 29 July 1861 and became an officer of the Engineer Corps, with the rank of Third Assistant Engineer. His first year afloat was spent on the Great Lakes' gunboat Michigan, during which time he was promoted to Second Assistant Engineer. Melville served in the sloops of war Dacotah and Wachusett from mid-1862 until late in 1864, taking part in the capture of CSS Florida in October 1864. He finished the Civil War in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area working with torpedo boats and as an engineer on the gunboat Maumee. After the war was over, First Assistant Engineer Melville served aboard several ships, among them the experimental cruiser Chattanooga, gunboat Tacony, steam sloop Lancaster and Asiatic Squadron flagship Tennessee. For the remainder of his life, Melville belonged to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, serving as national commander-in-chief of the Loyal Legion from 1911 to 1912.

In 1867, Melville married Henrietta Beatty Waldron of Buffalo, NY. The couple had three children.[3]

Arctic exploration

In 1873 he volunteered for duty as Chief Engineer of Tigress for her rescue in Baffin Bay of 19 survivors of the Polaris expedition to the Arctic.

In the summer of 1879, he was an eager and daring volunteer when an Arctic expedition under Lieutenant Commander George W. DeLong left San Francisco on board the USS Jeannette on 7 August 1879 to try to find a quick way to the North Pole via the Bering Strait. Jeannette became icebound in September and, after two years of effort to save her, was crushed by ice floes in the Laptev Sea and sank 12 June 1881 — leaving the crew stranded on the ice floes in mid-ocean in three small boats and with scanty provisions.

Melville was the only boat commander to bring his crew to safety in the Lena delta in Siberia. Later, he set out in search of DeLong and his men, traveling over a thousand miles in the deadly cold of the Arctic winter only to find them dead. However, he was able to recover and bring back all the records of the expedition. The third boat, under the command of Charles W. Chipp, was never found and Chipp and seven other men were presumed dead.

The United States Congress rewarded Melville for his gallantry and resourcefulness by advancing him 15 numbers on the promotion list and awarding him the Congressional Gold Medal. The incredible hardships of the expedition are described in his book, In the Lena Delta, published in 1884.[4]

Melville was promoted to the rank of Chief Engineer during his time in the Jeannette and again went to the Arctic in Thetis in 1884 for the Greely Relief Expedition in search of the survivors of an Arctic expedition commanded by Army Lieutenant (later Major General) Adolphus Greely.

Bureau of Steam Engineering

Melville, between 1890 and 1910

Melville was an Inspector of Coal in 1884–1886, then performed his final seagoing duty in the new cruiser Atlanta. President Grover Cleveland appointed Melville Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering 9 August 1887, with the relative rank of Commodore.

During more than a decade and a half in that post, he was responsible for the Navy's propulsion systems during an era of remarkable force expansion, technological progress and institutional change. Melville superintended the design of 120 ships of the "New Navy". Among the major technical innovations that he helped introduce, often in defiance of the conservative opinion within the naval establishment, were the water-tube boiler, the triple-screw propulsion system, vertical engines, the floating repair ship, and the "distilling ship."

Promoted to Rear Admiral 3 March 1899, he was appointed Engineer in Chief of the Navy 6 December 1900. Melville entirely reformed the service, putting Navy engineers on a professional rather than an artisan footing.

The Annapolis laboratory was a brainchild of Melville. As Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy, he fought hard to get an appropriation of $400,000 for an experiment and testing laboratory to be located at Annapolis. In 1903, he finally was successful in obtaining the appropriation for the Engineering Experiment Station (EES).

His primary argument for the establishment of an experiment station was that it would increase the efficiency of the Navy. His idea was to establish a dependable means for testing — before installation — machinery and equipment designed for Navy ships. His secondary argument was that it could aid in training engineering officers, and therefore, it should be located in Annapolis near the Naval Academy. With characteristic modesty, Melville refused to have EES named in his honor.

Prior to his retirement, Melville headed a committee tasked with studying how to use fuel oil in Navy boilers instead of coal. They strongly recommended that a testing plant be developed to test methods of burning fuel in Navy boilers. On 18 November 1910, the Secretary of Navy authorized "... the construction and equipment, at an estimated cost of $10,000.00, of a structure simulating a naval fireroom, for the purpose of instigating the subject of fuel oil burning in connection with the design of proposed oil burning battleships" in an existing building (Bldg. 47) at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. This facility, the Fuel Oil Testing Plant, grew into NAVSSES.

Retiring from active duty on 10 January 1903, Melville spent his final years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he continued to be engaged in matters relating to his profession.

His first wife having died in 1882, Melville married Estella Smith Polis in 1907. She died two years later. There was no issue from their marriage.

Melville was the recipient of many honors during his lifetime, both in the United States and internationally. He was one of the 33 founding members of the National Geographic Society.[5] He died in Philadelphia on 17 March 1912.

Memberships

Melville was a companion of the District of Columbia Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States - a military society of naval officers and their descendants. In 1886 he became a companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and served as its commander from 1908 to 1909. He also served as national commander-in-chief of the Order from 1911 to 1912.

Legacy

The U.S. Navy has named two ships in honor of George W. Melville: Melville (Destroyer Tender #2, later AD-2), 1915–1948; and the oceanographic research ship Melville (AGOR-14), 1969–present. The fuel depot at the Newport Naval Station in Portsmouth, Rhode Island was named Melville Point. A nearby elementary school is named Melville School.

Melville Award

The Navy's George W. Melville Award recognizes outstanding engineering contributions in the applications of knowledge toward research and development of materials, devices, and systems or methods; including design, development, and integration of prototypes and new processes.

Melville Medal

The Melville Medal is awarded periodically by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in honor of the best original paper from its transactions.

Melville Hall

Melville Hall, built in 1937 on the campus of the United States Naval Academy, was used as classroom and laboratory space for the steam and electrical engineering departments. The hall housed an internal combustion engine laboratory, working engines, and a heat laboratory.[6] It was razed in 1982 to make space for the Academy's new Alumni Hall.[7][8] Melville's name lives on as the new hall's Melville Entrance.[9]

Statue

There is a statue of Admiral Melville in Navy Park at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Gallery

Dates of rank

Further reading

References

Wikisource has original works written by or about:
George Wallace Melville
  1. ↑ Compton, Samuel Willard. "Melville, George Wallace". American National Biography Online. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  2. ↑ http://suvcw.org/mollus/pcinc/gwmelville.htm
  3. ↑ "Obituary: George Wallace Melville". The Stevens Indicator 29: 162-7. 1912.
  4. ↑ Melville, George Wallace (1892). In the Lena Delta. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
  5. ↑ Hunter, Cathy. "George Melville: A Survivor, A Rescuer, A National Geographic Founder". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Earle, Lawrence P (1981). "U.S. Naval Academy, Melville Hall, Building 116" (pdf). Historic American Buildings Survey. Naval Facilities Engineering Command. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  7. ↑ "History of the Mechanical Engineering Department". US Naval Academy. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  8. ↑ Killand, Taylor Baldwin. "A Walk in the Yard: A Self-guided Tour of the U.S. Naval Academy". Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. p. 147. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  9. ↑ Arbuthnot, Nancy. "Guiding Lights: Monuments and Memorials at the U.S. Naval Academy". Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. Retrieved 31 May 2014.

External links

"Obituary: George Wallace Melville," The Stevens Indicator, Vol 29 (1912): 162-7.

"George Henry Wallace". ASME. Retrieved 30 August 2015. 

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