there we buried them; and surely heroes never found a fitter resting place."
Melville had been the singer of the Jeannette; and now, physically worn, brain weary, and heart sick, he leaned his head upon the tomb, and half unconsciously and yet with noble pathos there came from him his last song of the dead, three stanzas of Wolfe's monody on "The Burial of Sir John Moore." Before leaving for home, the faithful companion and friend outlined the entire coast of the Delta and entered the mouths of all its streams in his last search for the remains of the party in command of Lieutenant Chipp, whose boat he saw go down, vainly hoping to be able to give Christian burial to their bodies cast upon the shore.
He received tardy promotion in the United States navy by special act of the fifty-first Congress, September, 1890, by being advanced fifteen numbers, and he was given a gold medal, eight years after the promotion was earned. He reached home September 13, 1882, just one year after the parting of the boats in the gale.
He volunteered as chief engineer of the Thetis, flagship of the Greely relief expedition under Commander W. S. Schley, United States navy; and on June 23, 1884, the remnant of the Greely party were rescued at the verge of death. The navy department had by letter dated September 14, 1883, received an offer from Melville, that if they would land him at Cape York, he would lead a party to Littleton Island to communicate with Greely, and if the party were sufficiently strong (as they were at that time) to lead them back to the base of supplies at Cape York; but the naval board rejected the proposal as impractical. This closed his service afloat in the United States navy.
He was made chief of the bureau of steam engineering with the relative rank of commodore, August 8, 1887, and was advanced to engineer-in-chief of the navy, January 16, 1888, being given the rank of captain, March 3, 1899, his position as engineer-in-chief giving him the relative rank of rear-admiral while holding the office, and his term of service expired by age limit, January 10, 1903. He was retired with the rank of rear-admiral senior grade. He was honored on his return from the Delta by the Czar and Czarina of Russia who gave him a private audience at the palace of Peterhoff; the mayor and common council gave him the freedom of the City of New York, and a public reception was tendered him in the Governor's room of
