George W. Melville
Rear Admiral George Wallace Melville, USN was an 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 watertube boiler, the triplescrew 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 was born in New York City onJanuary 1841, the son of Alexander Melville, a chemist, and Sarah Wallace. 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.
Source: Wikipedia