George W. Melville - Arctic Exploration

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.