coin he ever received from his parents. His tastes as a boy were for juvenile books and the study of engineering. His parents were strictly moral but not religious. He was an apprentice in the engineering works of James Binns in Brooklyn for a short time; but on July 29, 1861, when less than twenty-one years old he entered the United States naval service as naval and marine engineer; and he served from third assistant engineer to engineer-in-chief with the rank of rear-admiral. His service during the Civil war was chiefly on the West India, Brazil and China stations; and he reached the rank of first assistant engineer, January 30, 1865.
His service as an explorer of the Arctic seas began in 1873 when he was made chief engineer of the Tigress sent in search of the wrecked Polaris. He was chief engineer of the Jeannette which left San Francisco, California, July 8, 1879, in the expedition commanded by Lieutenant George W. DeLong, fitted out by James Gordon Bennett for polar exploration. When the Jeannette was crushed in the ice, June 13, 1881, the officers and crew were obliged to take to their sledges and move their provisions and three boats to the open sea. They were five hundred miles from the delta of the Lena river, and this appeared to be their only haven of safety. They traveled over the ice to what they named Bennett Island, after a journey that had consumed forty-one days, and they were within three hundred and fifty miles of their destination. They had cut roads, built bridges and rafted across open water where a bridge was impossible. The force was so small, decimated as it was by sickness and accidents, that they could move but one sledge at a time; and this necessitated repeating the trip to and fro thirteen times. Melville remained strong and well, and on him fell the burden of the work. After resting at Bennett Island for nine days, recuperating the exhausted men, they started southward by boat, there being considerable water leads in sight. De Long commanded one boat with Doctor Ambler as his chief companion; Lieutenant Chipp the second, and Melville the third, which was a whale boat. The way was constantly blocked by floating ice and progress was slow as the boats had to be hauled up, pulled over the ice, and relaunched. After five weeks of this progress, they reached an open sea on September 11, and the Delta was but ninety miles away. They set all sail and keeping close together forged ahead before an increasing gale. The whale boat being the better sailer gained on the slower crafts and De Long
