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Resolute desk

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Resolute desk
Resolute desk While I was visiting Ronald Regan Presidential Library the most impression on me was left by resolute desk. The Resolute desk is a big, nineteenth-century partners' desk frequently chosen by presidents of the United States for use in the White House Oval Office as the Oval Office desk. It was built from the timbers of the British Arctic Exploration ship Resolute and it was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. HMS Resolute was part of a five-ship group under Edward Belcher sent from Britain in April 1852 to search for the missing British explorer Sir John Franklin, who had departed Britain in 1845 in search of the fabled Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. In September 1855 an American whaler named James Buddington, saw the lost English ship Resolute floating in the parcel of ice. He split his crew and sailed Resolute back to New London, arriving home on Christmas Eve. The relationship between Britain and America was on the brink of their third war when Buddington rescued Resolute. President Pierce spoke I front of the Congress to say he had ended diplomatic relations with Britain and that he closed the British embassies and sent the ambassadors home. Unexpectedly, one of the greatest warmongers, Senator James Mason, from Virginia, proposed a bill in Congress to buy Resolute, refurbish her, and sail her back to Britain as a present. Mason bill passed and The Resolute was sent back to Britain. Resolute was towed to Cowes so that the Queen and Prince Albert could tour her, Captain Harstene presented the ship to Queen Victoria as a gesture of peace and good-will. Soon the talk of war ceased, and the gift of Resolute was seen as instrumental in the easing of these tensions. After the Resolute was fragmented, Queen Victoria asked for several desks to be built from her timbers. The queen had two desks made for her. One is given to the president and people of the United States and he is currently in
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