George W . Melville Rear Admiral George Wallace Melville , USN ( 10 January 1841 – 17 March 1912 ) was an engineer , Arctic exploration 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 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 . 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 and the others in his small 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 . After graduating from Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute , 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 boat s and as an engineer on the gunboat " Maumee " . In the years after the Civil War ' s conclusion , First Assistant Engineer Melville served aboard several ships , among them the experimental cruiser " Chattanooga " , gunboat " Tacony " , steam sloop " Lancaster " and Asiatic Squadron flagship " Tennessee " . 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 . 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 . Bureau of Steam Engineering . 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 battleship s " in an existing building ( Bldg . 47 ) at the Philadelphia Navy Yard . This facility , the Fuel Oil Testing Plant , grew into NAVSSES . Leaving active duty on 10 January 1903 , Rear Admiral Melville spent his last years in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , where he died on 17 March 1912 . 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 – . 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 .