HMS Resolute
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Image:HMS Resolute.jpg 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 Hayes. Since then, it has been used by every president (except for presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford). President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a kneeboard bearing the nation's seal built. This was done to cover his infirmities at the time. The most memorable picture of the Resolute desk is John F. Kennedy Jr. exposing his head from the kneeboard door. The second change made to the desk is from Ronald Reagan, who asked for the desk to be raised two inches to make room for his leg clearance. This was done by adding a separate, uniform base to the desk to make way for his personal chair. After Reagan's tenure, George H.W. Bush used the desk prior to his oval office customization. Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush also made use of the desk.
The Resolute desk is available for custom reproductions by numerous carpentry artisans. Such reproductions are costly and can amount to some 10,000 dollars. Presidential chairs are also available. These reproductions have been used for the Carter, Reagan and Clinton Presidential libraries.