HMS Resolute
The HMS Resolute was in 1850 by the Royal Navy acquired British polar research - Glider , which stood until 1879 in service.
history
The barque (ex- Refuge , ex- Ptarmigan ) was reinforced and retrofitted with heating at Smiths Dock Company in 1851 and was part of an expedition in 1852 in search of the missing Franklin expedition . The Resolute and one of its sister ships got stuck in the arctic ice at Viscount-Melville-Sound and were emptied and abandoned in 1853. Two years later the Resolute was found by the American whaler George Henry .
Eventually it got stuck again in the ice of Davis Strait by Baffin Island , 1,200 miles from where it was abandoned. The Americans freed the Resolute from the ice and brought it to New London, Connecticut, where the United States Congress purchased it for $ 40,000 and presented it to Britain's Queen Victoria on December 17, 1856 as a sign of peace.
The HMS Resolute served the Royal Navy for over 20 years until it retired in 1879 and was dismantled.
Reuse
Queen Victoria hired a carpenter to make a desk from the beams of the ship's planks. This was given to the American President Rutherford B. Hayes on November 23, 1880 as a token of gratitude. This desk, known as the “ Resolute Desk ”, has since been used by all American presidents with the exception of Lyndon Johnson , Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford . John F. Kennedy first brought the desk to the Oval Office of the White House , the official study of the US President. Most presidents there have been using it since then; some, like George HW Bush , had him taken to their private study in their home.
Victoria also had a desk made for herself from the planks of the Resolute , which stood for many years in Buckingham Palace . In contrast to the fictional plot of the film “ The Legacy of the Secret Book ”, this table looks different from the one given to the USA. Replicas of the US desk, however, exist in four presidential libraries, such as the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum (see picture) .
Trivia
The expedition cruise ship Hanseatic was after the takeover by the Canadian shipping company One Ocean Expeditions in memory of the HMS Resolute in RCG Resolute renamed.
literature
- Martin W. Sandler: Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest Passage and John Franklin, and the Discovery of the Queen's Ghost Ship. New York: Sterling, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4027-5861-4 . (engl.)
- Lincoln P. Paine: Ships of Discovery and Exploration. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. ISBN 0-395-98415-7 . (engl.)
