Rear Admiral George W. Melville, 1841 - 1912, served as Engineer in Chief of the U.S. Navy from 1887 to 1905. His vision and ability led to the Navy’s adoption of watertube oil-burning boilers and forced draft. He founded the Naval Boiler and Turbine Laboratory and served as Vice President of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers from 1894 to 1912. Known as the "Father of NAVSSES," he founded the original fuel oil testing plant near this site in 1910, a plant that became the forerunner of NAVSSES. Melville also served as Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering and achieved lasting fame as an arctic explorer.