George Melville 1st 1885 In the Lena Delta Voyage of the Jeannette Greely Relief

Up For Sale Today is

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
by
George W Melville, Chief Engineer, USN
Edited by Melville Philips

Hardcover. 8vo. Published by Longmans, Green and Company, London, UK. 1885. xiii, 497 pgs. Illustrated. First Edition/First Printing.

Bound in grey cloth boards with titles present to the spine and front board. Boards have shelf-wear present to the extremities (Corners bumped and worn, small tears present along the edges of the spine). No ownership marks present.  Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid.

Melville was Chief Engineer on the original Jeannette expedition. This expedition launched only shortly after the famous wreck of the Jeannette, captained by Lieut. Commander DeLong. Greatly detailed and an important historical account.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

George Wallace Melville (January 10, 1841 – March 17, 1912) was an American engineer, Arctic explorer, 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 an engineering experiment station near the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. 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.

He 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. De Long on his Jeannette expedition, an arctic expedition on board USS Jeannette to the Bering Strait in search of a quick way to the North Pole. Jeannette became icebound and was eventually crushed; Melville, the 10 others in his small boat, and two from De Long's boat, were the only survivors.

Despite the extreme length and hardships of the trip, he returned in search of De Long and others who might possibly still be alive. He found none but retrieved all records of the expedition. Congress awarded Melville the Congressional Gold Jeannette Medal for his gallantry and resourcefulness; the Navy advanced him 15 numbers on the promotion list. He wrote of the De Long expedition in his book, In the Lena Delta, published in 1884.