In 1845 Sir John Franklin and his officers and Crew set sail in two ships, HMS’s Erebus and Terror in search of the Northwest Passage. Most people know of how they disappeared into the Canadian High Arctic only to perish a long lonely way from home. Many people also know that it was the search for the expedition that mapped most of the arctic and ultimately led to the successful transit of the Northwest Passage. But few know of the connection between this search and the Oval Office in the White House.
April of 1852 saw the departure of a large Royal Navy expedition to the Arctic to search for the Erebus and Terror. Five ships, the Assistance, Resolute, North Star, Pioneer and Intrepid, made up the expedition. The Assistance was the Flag Ship of the expedition, which was under the command of Sir Edward Belcher.
The Resolute itself, was Captained by Captain Henry Kellett, and she spent the first winter in Arctic ice at Melville Island (Along with the Intrepid which was acting as her tender). Late that fall a sledging party found a cairn from the HMS Investigator, which was stuck in the ice off Banks Island. The Investigator, commanded by Robert McClure was also part of the search for Franklin. Sailing in 1850 it had rounded Cape Horn to search the NorthWest Passage from the opposite (Western) end.
Kellett sent out an earlier than normal sledging party in the spring of 1853 to the Investigator, rescuing the crew before they abandoned her to march south a la the crews of the Erebus and Terror. Kellett then had McClure and his crew on board when they spent a second winter near Cape Cockburn, Bathurst Island.
In the spring of 1854 Belcher ordered Kellett to abandon the Resolute and Intrepid and make their way to Beechey Island. Kellett protested, as he didn’t feel that they would stay locked in the ice, but had to give way and follow orders. So the crews of the Resolute, Intrepid and the Investigator made their way over ice to Beechey Island. Belcher also abandoned his two ships, the Assistance and Pioneer, which were in ice in the Wellington Channel, and thus the crews of six ships made their way back to England on the North Star.
McClure thus became credited with being the first to complete the Northwest Passage (and the first to circumnavigate the Americas) and he and his crew were awarded the £10,000 prize. Most people, including many of McClure’s men, argued that Kellett and his crew deserved a share of the prize, but McClure successfully argued that he would have survived and made it without their help (which was unlikely).
In 1855 an American Whaler, the John Henry, operating out of New London Connecticut, and Captained by James Buddington, was operating in the Davis Strait east of Baffin Island. In August of that year they came across a ship floating in the pack, and after drifting closer to it over the course of some days, Buddington and others made their way over the pack to the ship. It was the Resolute.
Buddington and the others must have found the scene surreal for the Resolute was exactly as she had been, when she was abandoned, right down to wine still in glasses from the officer’s last meal on board. The men drank from the ships stores and play fought with the officer’s swords. Buddington made the decision to salvage the vessel and he and eleven others of his crew piloted the ship south to Connecticut. It must have been quite a voyage as it took them over two months and at one point they were blown south to the Bahamas.
Although Buddington felt he was entitled to her salvage rights the whaling company had other ideas and said that as he was in their employ the ship belonged to them. Britain relinquished any claim on the Resolute and the United States Congress purchased her from the whaling company for $40,000.00. They then had the ship refitted and presented her to Queen Victoria in December of 1856.
The Resolute saw limited service with the Royal Navy after that, and in 1879 she was decommissioned and broken up. Queen Victoria, however, had timbers salvaged from her built into an ornate desk which was given to President Rutherford B. Hayes, as a token of appreciation for the return of the ship to Britain. When John F. Kennedy became President he had the desk moved from the President’s study to the Oval Office. It was made a popular icon as the result of this picture, of John Kennedy Jr. peering out from under his father’s desk (or infamous by an intern also playing under the desk).
And that is how Sir John Franklin helped furnish the White House, with this desk that sailed some 100 kilometres north of here, and drifted back in the ice.
Comments
7 responses
I already knew the history about the desk in the Oval Office – but I had to post a comment about the picture on your banner. That’s a beautiful shot!
That’s fascinating. I had no idea the Oval Office desk was made out of a ship.
Thank you for sharing this great story.
Kia ora Clare,
Cheers for that history lesson. What happened to the original guys from the ships Erebus and Terror? Am I mistaken or are there written accounts on how they all basically starved, or did any return?
Ka kite ano,
Robb
Thanks for that awesome story!
Thanks Trudie, it was taken last fall.
Hi John, It is a fascinating story, one of my favourite arctic stories, so I figured it was time that I blogged about it.
You’re welcome Arctic Focus.
Robb, The story of Franklin and the rest of the Erebus and Terror would probably require it’s own post, several actually. But long story shorter, all the crew was lost, mostly from starvation but also from disease. They spent their first winter at Beechey Island and three crew died (TB & Disease) and are buried there. The following season they were trapped in the ice north of King William Island. By the time they abandoned ship (the first time some may have gone back to one or both of the ships) I believe 16 more had died, including Franklin. Popular theories are that the rest perished in 1849, but Inuit witnesses have at least some alive in 1851, perhaps later. 128 souls were lost altogether.
You’re welcome Dave. It is a pretty cool story, worthy of more detail than I put in here.
thanks for this great story.
this picture is so cute.