The Icy Story Of The HMS Resolute
Wikimedia CommonsAn illustration of the HMS Resolute, a British ship that became trapped in Arctic ice in the mid-19th century.
The British Royal Navy first commissioned the HMS Resolute to search for the lost Franklin expedition, two British ships that had gone missing in the Arctic in the 1840s while searching for the Northwest Passage.
Considering the grim circumstances, officials specifically outfitted the new vessel to withstand the brutal conditions of the Arctic.
The HMS Resolute was officially launched in 1850, and the crew ended up discovering minor clues as to where the Franklin expedition had gone. The Resolute then returned safely to Britain.
Sir Edward Belcher commanded the ship’s next voyage to the Arctic. This time, the orders were to find Sir John Franklin or figure out his fate.
In 1852, the Resolute departed from Britain and arrived in the Arctic a few months later. Though there were other ships included in this expedition, the Resolute went the farthest west, traveling all the way to Dealy Island, which is located in what is now part of Nunavut, Canada.
According to the U.S. Naval Institute, the Resolute was driven away from its base at Dealy Island in August 1853 during a storm. Ice floes began moving along with the ship, and the vessel soon became trapped in the ice.
Public Domain/Wikimedia CommonsIn a strange twist, the timbers from the HMS Resolute ended up being used to create this Oval Office desk.
As the months passed, the ship’s crew realized that the vessel wouldn’t be freed from the ice anytime soon. By May 1854, the men had abandoned the Resolute and made a perilous journey on foot across the ice to find the other ships in their expedition. Fortunately, they did.
Later, in September 1855, the crew on the American whaler George Henry rediscovered the abandoned Resolute just outside of Baffin’s Bay, about 1,200 miles away from where the crew abandoned it.
The U.S. government paid $40,000 for the vessel, restored it to its original condition, and presented it to Queen Victoria as an act of goodwill in 1856.
The Resolute was later broken up in 1879, and the British government decided to create desks from the timbers. Interestingly enough, one of those desks ended up being gifted to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes — the Resolute Desk, which remains in the Oval Office to this day.
