HMS Resolute

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Timbers from HMS Resolute used in the Oval Office desk.

HMS Resolute was an Arctic exploration ship of the British Royal Navy.

Originally named Ptarmigan, Resolute was purchased in 1850 and commissioned into the Navy. The ship was designed and built for polar conditions, with especially strong timbers and an internal heating system.

In 1852, Resolute was part of an expedition under Edward Belcher investigating the fate of the John Franklin expedition. Resolute ended up stuck in the pack ice of Melville Sound and was abandoned there in 1853. The empty ship was found by an American whaler on September 16, 1855, stuck in the ice of Davis Strait off Baffin Island, 1200 miles away from where she was abandoned; the Americans freed the ship from the ice and took her to New London, Connecticut. The ship was then repaired, refitted, and sailed to England, where she was turned back over to the British with much celebration, including a visit by Queen Victoria.

When Resolute was retired up in 1879, Victoria ordered some of the timbers of the ship to be made into a desk, and gave it to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes. Since then, it has been used by every president (except for Johnson, Nixon and Ford).