Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/360

 MELVILLE

MEMMINGER

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Polaris in 1873, and was chief engineer of the Jeaunette in the expedition commanded by Lieut. George W. DeLoug. that left San Francisco, Cal., July 8, 1879. When the Jeannette was crushed in the ice, June I'd, 1861, he was given command of

one of the boats car- rying the shipwreck- ed crew out of the itre-pack to the mouth of the Lena river, whioh refuge he reached after intense suffering, Sept. 17, 1881, and with his companions awaited the arrival of the other boats. His search for the miss- ing boats resulted in his finding the huts and records left by DeLong, but it was not till March 22, 1882, that he discovered the bod- ies of Lieutenant DeLong, Dr. Ambler and seven others, and he gave to the remains the rite of Christian burial and erected a rude cairn tomb to protect the bodies from wild beasts. He was chief engineer on the Thetis, flagship of the Greely relief expedition, in 1884. By special act of cofigress he was given a gold medal and ad- vanced fifteen numbers in September, 1890, for hi.s arctic services. He was chief of the bureau of steam engineering, with the rank of commo- dore, Aug. 8, 1887, and he served as engineer-in- chief of the navy from Jan. 16, 1888, his last com- mission being captain, March 3, 1899, and his position as chief of the bureau of steam engineer- ing giving him the rank of rear-admiral while holding the office. He invented a torpedoand de- signed many other naval appliances, includ- ing triplescrew machinery ustid on the Coluvi- bia and Minneapolisfi. In July, 1901, Admiral Mel- ville, constructed a number of casks which were set adrift from the U.S. revenue cutter Bear in the Arctic ocean, with the object of determining the existence of ocean currents crossing the pole. The casks contained messages in five languages, directing the finder to communicate to the near- est U.S. consul the time and place where picked up. His term of service in the U.S. navy expired by age limit, Jan. 10, 1903. He was elected pres- ident of the American Society of Meclianical Engineers and a member of various scientific societies at home and abroad. He re<*eived the honorary degrees: Doctor of Engineering from Stevens. 1896: M. Sc. f rom Columl>ia, 1899; LL.D. from Georgetown, 1899. and Sc.D. from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. 1901. He is the author of: In the Lena Delta (lb8oj.

MELVILLE, Herman, author, was born in New York city, Aug. 1, 1»I9; sou of Allan and Catherine (Gansevoort) Melville; grandson of Maj. Thomas Melville, a member of the Boston tea- party, and of Gen. Peter Gansevoort (q.v.). Allan Melville, a wealthy merchant, and a man of literary tastes, travelled extensively; he died in 1832. Herman spent his youth in Albany and Greenbush, N.Y., with his mothers relatives, and at the age of eighteen shipped as a sailor on a voyage to Liverpool, England. In 1841 he sailed on the Acxishnet, a whaling vesseT, on a cruite to the South Pacific ocean, but in 1842, owing to cruel treatment, deserted the ship on reaching Nukahiva in the Marquesas group. With his com. panion he was captured by cannibals, held prisoner for four months, rescued by an Australian whaling vessel after a bloody contest, remained in the Pacific on board his rescuer's ship until 1843, and returned by way of the Hawaiian islands, where he joined the crew of the U.S. frigate United States and reached Boston in 1844. He went to Lansingburg, N.Y., where he wrote his novel, " Typee," which was sold to John Murray, the English publisher, was issued as " Melville's Marquesas Islands" (1845) and passed through several editions. He removed in 1850, to Pittsfield, Mass., where he met Hawthorne. He made a voyage around the world in 1860, and on his re- turn in 1863 resided in New York where in 1866 he took a position in the United States custom- house, which failing health obliged him to re- linquish in 1886. He was married, in 1847, to Elizabeth, daughter of Chief-Justice Lemuel Shaw. He is the author of: Tyjiee: a Peep at Polynesian Life during a Four-Months Residence in a Valley of the Marquesas (2 parts, 1846); Omoo: a Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847); Mardi and a Voyage lliither (1849); Redburn (1849); White Jacket; or. The World in a Man-of-war (1850); Moby Dick; or, the White Whale (1851); Pierre; or, the Ambiguities (1852); Israel Potter: his Fifty Years of Exile (1855); Piazza Tales ( 1856); TJte Confidence Man (1857); Battle-Pieces and As2)ects of the War (poems, 1866); Clare!: a Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (a poem, 1876). John Marr and Other Sailors (1888) and Timoleon (1891) were issued at the instance of Arthur Stedman, who, in 1892 edited an edition in four volumes, of Typee, Omoo, Moby and White Jacket, prefacing the set with a critical biography. Herman Melville died in New York city, Sept. 28. 1891.

MEMRINQER, Charles Qustavius, secretary of the C.S. treasury, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, Jan. 17, 1803. His father died when he was an infant and his mother immigrated to the United States and settled in Charleston, S C. At her death in 1812 he was adopted by Governor