In The Lena Delta – A Narrative of the Search for Lieut-Commander Delong and His Companions – Followed by an Account of the Greely Relief Expedition and a Proposed Method of Reaching the North Pole – Signed And Inscribed By George W Melville

Author: Melville, George Edited By Melville Philips
Price: £2000
Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin And Company
Publication Date: 1884
Edition: First US edition
Format: Original cloth gilt
Condition: Fine
Pages: xiii + 497

Description:

First edition. Octavo. Original cloth, blocked in gilt to the spine and in black to the front board. pp. xiii + 497. Inscribed by Melville to: ‘C. H. Walling Esq, Principal of Oceanic Public School, Oceanic, New Jersey. With the compliments of the Author, Geo. Melville, Rear Admiral + Engineer in Chief, U.S. Navy, August 8th, 1903 – Washington D.C.’ followed by a manuscript quote by Melville from a poem by Thomson Illustrated throughout with engravings. A detailed account of the tragic expedition of the Jeannette. Very slightly rubbed. Very short closed tear to the hinge of the title page. Binding nice and tight and very clean. Pages and illustrations very nice and clean. A fine tight, bright, clean copy. An exceptional copy of the scarce first edition inscribed by the author.

George Wallace Melville: A Short Biography

George Wallace Melville was the United States Navy’s pre-eminent steam engineer of the late nineteenth century and a central figure in American polar exploration. Chief Engineer on the Jeannette (1879–81), he led survivors to safety after the ship was crushed in the Arctic pack and then mounted a dogged, winter search that recovered his commander’s journals—primary records of the expedition. Later, as Engineer-in-Chief (Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering), he modernised the Navy’s propulsion, testing regimes and adoption of new boiler and engine technologies during the “New Steel Navy” era.

Early life and entry into the Navy

• Birth: 10 January 1841, New York City.
• Training: Apprenticed as a practical engineer and machinist—a background that shaped his methodical approach to ship propulsion and field survival.
• Commission: Entered the U.S. Navy as a young engineer during the American Civil War, gaining shipboard experience with steam plants under combat conditions. The combination of hands-on engineering and seamanship became his signature strength.

The Jeannette expedition (1879–1881)

• Objective: Under Lt. George Washington De Long, USS Jeannette attempted a high-latitude push via the Bering Strait, part exploration and part scientific programme. Melville served as Chief Engineer and a senior decision-maker.
• Drift and loss: The Jeannette was beset in Arctic ice for nearly two years and finally crushed in June 1881. The crew hauled boats and supplies over the floes and took to open water, aiming for the Lena Delta in Siberia.
• Leadership under pressure: Melville navigated one of the three ship’s boats to the delta through severe weather and surf landings, secured aid from local Yakut communities, and immediately organised rescue efforts for the missing parties.
• Search in the Lena Delta: Through the following months—often in extreme cold—he led multiple sledging forays, eventually finding De Long’s remains and, crucially, recovering the expedition journals and instruments. These materials preserved the scientific and narrative record of the voyage and the crew’s final marches.
• Aftermath: Melville’s seamanship, logistical planning and moral authority saved lives and secured the historical record. Congress formally thanked him and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for “gallantry and enterprise”.

Author and communicator

• In the Lena Delta (1885): Melville’s book remains a model of clear reporting: exact routes, temperatures, rations, local assistance, and decision-points are laid out with an engineer’s precision.
• Public lecturing: He used lectures to translate technical risk and polar realities for general audiences, emphasising preparation, realistic margins of safety, and the value of accurate observation.

Engineer-in-Chief and the modernisation of the Navy (late 1880s–1903)

• Bureau leadership: As head of the Navy’s Bureau of Steam Engineering, Melville oversaw design standards, trials and procurement for machinery across a rapidly expanding fleet.
• Technical stance:
  • Advocated rigorous acceptance testing and standardisation.
  • Championed more efficient triple-expansion engines and the careful, evidence-based adoption of water-tube boilers as designs evolved.
  • Insisted on documentation and reproducible trials—practice that improved reliability and reduced catastrophic failure at sea.
• Mentorship and corps reform: He cultivated a generation of naval engineers fluent in both shipboard practice and laboratory methods, lifting the professional status of engineering in a traditionally line-officer-dominated service.

Character and working method

• Temperament: Physically tough, organised, and calm in crisis; decisive but not reckless.
• Method: Engineer’s checklists—fuel, weight, spares, instruments—married to seaman’s instincts for weather and ice.
• Leadership: Built trust by sharing hardships, giving clear reasons for orders, and crediting subordinates and local collaborators.

Honours and commemorations

• Congressional Gold Medal and Thanks of Congress for the Jeannette services.
• Professional honours from scientific and geographical societies in recognition of his polar work and engineering reforms.
• Two U.S. ships named in his honour: USS Melville (AD-2), a World War I–era tender, and later USNS Melville (AGOR-14), a research vessel—fitting tributes to a man who married engineering to exploration.

Later life and death

Melville retired from active bureau leadership in 1903 but remained an authority on marine engineering and polar history. He died on 17 March 1912, and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia. His reputation endures as the Navy engineer who proved himself in the most unforgiving field laboratory on Earth: the Arctic pack and the Siberian winter.

Selected writings

• In the Lena Delta — narrative and logistical analysis of the Jeannette ordeal, with primary documents and maps.
• Technical papers and official reports on steam machinery standards, fuel economy, and sea-trial methodology.

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