George Wallace Melville (January 10, 1841 – March 17, 1912) was a United States Navy officer, engineer and Arctic explorer.

[1] He was educated at the School of the Christian Brothers, a religious academy, where he studied mathematics, and at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute.

Melville served in the sloops of war Dacotah and Wachusett from mid-1862 until late in 1864, taking part in the capture of CSS Florida in October 1864.

He finished the Civil War in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area working with torpedo boats and as an engineer on the gunboat Maumee.

After the war was over, First Assistant Engineer Melville served aboard several ships, among them the experimental cruiser Chattanooga, gunboat Tacony, steam sloop Lancaster and Asiatic Squadron flagship Tennessee.

[4] In 1873, he volunteered for duty as chief engineer of USS Tigress for her rescue in Baffin Bay of 19 survivors of the Polaris expedition to the Arctic.

[5] In the summer of 1879, he volunteered for the Jeanette expedition under Lieutenant Commander George W. De Long and left San Francisco aboard USS Jeannette on August 7, 1879, to try to find a way to the North Pole via the Bering Strait.

The United States Congress rewarded Melville for his gallantry and resourcefulness by advancing him 15 numbers on the promotion list and awarded him the gold Jeannette Medal.

President Grover Cleveland appointed Melville Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering August 9, 1887, with the relative rank of commodore.

[3] During more than a decade and a half in that post, he was responsible for the Navy's propulsion systems during an era of remarkable force expansion, technological progress and institutional change.

Prior to his retirement, Melville headed a committee tasked with studying how to use fuel oil in Navy boilers instead of coal.

On November 18, 1910, the Secretary of Navy authorized "... the construction and equipment, at an estimated cost of $10,000.00, of a structure simulating a naval fireroom, for the purpose of instigating the subject of fuel oil burning in connection with the design of proposed oil burning battleships" in an existing building at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

He retired from active duty on January 10, 1903, and spent his final years in Philadelphia, where he continued to be engaged in matters relating to his profession.

Melville Hall, built in 1937 on the campus of the United States Naval Academy, was used as classroom and laboratory space for the steam and electrical engineering departments.