Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-08-05
BRAVE MAN LEAVES NAVY.
Rear Admiral Melville, the Renowned
Fighter, Retired for ACE.

Washington. August 4.-The most
picturesque officer in the navy and one
of the boldest in speech, retired last
Saturday. He Is Rear-Admiral George
w. Melville, Chief of the Bureau OF
Steam Engineering. He is 62 years old
having been born in New York CITY in
1S41.
The Admiral is a big man in a
physical sense, and from the fact thar
he wears his hair as long as it will
grow and ii is snow white, he is a man
who would be noticed by all persons in
crowd.
The retiring officer is one of the Mel
villes of Sterling, Scotland, all noted
for directness and bluntness of speech.
even back in the times when the
Stuarts We're tyrants in undisputed
control over the lives and fortunes of
their subjects. One of them told James
T. that he was Gods silly vassal, and
lived to have his boldness in answering
the King talked about for many years
afterward.
Admiral Melville was sixty-two
years old last January, but the fact was
ignored at the time because he had
only a few more months of four years
term as head of the Engineering
Bureau to serve. He was continued on
active duty in order that he might
finish it, but tomorrow he quits his
desk and the active service for good
An incident in the long service which
began in 1861, when the Admiral and
three brothers entered the navy stands
out with great clearness in all accounts
of ho nf hn of T@
was his plan for the destruction of the
Confederate cruiser Florida in the har-
Dor of Bahia, Brazil.
While Melville was serving on the
Wachusett which was refitting in the
Brazilian port, the Floridascame in the
anchored within five-eights of a mile
from the anchorage of the Federal ves-
sci. She cleared decks fer action, but
the Brazilian vessel got in between the
belligerents and the Brazilian forts
trained their guns upon the American
ships.
The Florida declineda challenge from
the Wachusett to come outside and
fight a duel. Thereupon Capt. Collins.
of the Waehusett called a council OF
his officers, and it waSdecided that the
way to dispose of tie confederate
cruiser was to ram her while she lay
at her anchorage. To this the objection
was made that the shock of impact
would tear the boilers from their lash
ings andfcause the death of every man
below decks.
Il do not think the boilers will break
loose" interposed young Melville, but
if they do there need be but one man
sacrificed. for, after the engines are
started, I can work them alone, and
win order all hands on deck
"a the preparation for the attack
Melville volunteered and succeeded in
going aboard the Florida and ascer-
tanning the location of her machinery
and the strength fiber batteries. This
he did ifls rgwboat, and the Florida's
officers OF the deck seized him and
threw him soverboard with an injunc-
tionsto get out or be shot
At 2 A. NJ, Oct. I, 1864, the Wachusett,
with lights out, was under way. Be-
low decks were only Melville and a fire.
man, named Bradley, who refused to
leave his post. The affair was all over
in twenty minutes. y
Then a hawser was made fast to the
Florida's foremost, and while the Bra
lillian forts were wasting ammunition
in perfunctionary fire, the Florida
was towed out to sea. On the
Wachusett only three men We're
Melville receiving a cut
across the left hand. From the view
point of international law it was an
outrageous violation of the rights OF
neutrals; from a sailorman's standard
it was highly courageous and
patriotic act.
Melville is fighter, and one of the
last acts he did was to have the Kear-
SCARCE ordered to make a record run
across the Atlantic for the purpose of
showing that the kind of boilers he had
approved for her are all right and will
stand the strain that practically de-
stroyed another kind of boiler.