IN 1845, Sir John Franklin departed Britain with two ships, HMS EREBUS and TERROR in search of the Northwest Passage. By 1848, when he had not returned, the Royal Navy began searching for him. Many others joined the search, both American and British. (Since the search for the North West Passage, as well as the search for Franklin have been covered many times by many excellent writers, I won't go into this part of the story in any depth, but I will make a list of recommended reading if you want to know more.)

In1852, the Royal Navy sent 5 ships to search for Franklin under the command of Sir Edward Belcher. Admiralty records show him to have been a sadistic man; earning his nickname of "Hell Afloat" Belcher, he made every ship he commanded a living hell. ( see photo page)The five ships were: HMS ASSISTANCE (the flag ship upon which Belcher sailed), HMS NORTH STAR, which stayed at Beechey Island to be a depot ship, HMS RESOLUTE, captained by the kind and respected Henry Kellett, from County Tipperary, Ireland (see photo page), HMS PIONEER, a steam tender for  ASSISTANCE, captained by Sherard Osborn, and experienced Arctic, and HMS INTREPID, captained by Leopold McClintock, the man who eventually found the definitive proof of Franklin's death when he was later the captain of the FOX.

RESOLUTE, INTREPID, ASSISTANCE, and PIONEER had already been on a Franklin search in 1850 under Austin. The combination, for the first time used in the Arctic, of steam tenders partnering sailing vessels proved so beneficial then that the teams were sent out again in 1852. The only change was the Admiralty added the NORTH STAR, as a depot ships for the others to come back to if they encountered disaster.

The NORTH STAR stayed at Beechy Island and the rest of the sqadron split in two: ASSISTANCE and PIONEER traveled north up the Wellington Channel, and RESOLUTE and INTREPID headed west, to make for Winter Harbour on Melville Island, where Parry had camped in 1822. No other Europeans had made it back there since and when RESOLUTE & INTREPID got close to Melville Island, they could not quite make it into Winter Harbour, so they stopped at Dealy Island.

They proceeded to make winter camp. One mistake I have seen repeatedly on the internet is reference to the ships being "stuck in the ice" for the winter. They were not stuck! They had planned to be in the Arctic for 2 - 3 years. By September they were in the locations they planned to be for setting up their winter camps. They cut a dock in the land ice to protect the ships from the floe ice, and built the snow and ice up around the sides of the vessels for insulation. (see photo page) The yards and masts were taken down, except for the lowest sections of the masts. The men used these to make a tent over the deck, so that they would have a protected place to exercise when the weather was so bad that they could not go out on the ice.

While these preparations were ongoing, the autumn sledging parties prepared to leave. They spread out over Melville Island, creating cairns of supplies, so that when the spring came, they would be able to search as far as those cairns, and then that much farther again. It was during this autumn activity that a cairn was discovered containing information from Captain McClure, on HMS INVESTIGATOR. It gave their location and that they had not been able to free themsleves from the ice for 2 years. McClure and Collinson, on ENTERPRISE, had been sent into the Arctic from the west by the Admiralty to search for Franklin. Belcher's orders,apart from searching for Franklin, included finding McClure and Collinson and re-supplying them if possible or needed. When the news of McClure's whereabouts were made known onboard RESOLUTE, several of the men wanted to go to him right away. But Kellett knew that it was no longer safe to do that, so he ordered the men to stay, and made sure that helping McCure would be the highest priority of the traveling parties in the spring.

The men came prepared for  the long, dark winters with books, musical instruments, and their sailors' sense of fun. McDougall, RESOLUTE's master, was central in setting up the Arctic Theatre Royal, which gave 2 performances during the first winter. Kellett, in keeping with his being a kind captain interested in the welfare of his men,  was in charge of the theatre committee; others organized a lecture series.

In the spring the sledging parties fanned out, with Lt. Pim setting off for McClure and his men. Once they were found, Kellett determined, through medical examination, that the men were not fit to stay another winter onboard INVESTIGATOR, and ordered McClure to abandon his ship. All the Investigators now joined the Resolutes for the remainder of the time they spent searching for Franklin.

During the winter of 1853-4 RESOLUTE and INTREPID were not able to make camp in the stationary land ice, but did manage to cut secure docks into a large piece of the floe ice, which moved very slowly towards the east. During that winter things went from bad to worse for the men under Belcher in ASSISTANCE and PIONEER. As soon as spring travel was possible, Belcher sent his captain Richards to the RESOLUTE to suggest verbally to Kellett that he abandon the 2 ships under his command. Kellett refused. Belcher then wrote a private letter to Kellett making the same suggestion. Kellett refused. Even though he had 3 ships companies on 2 ships, he had plenty of food because his men had hunted whenever possible, his men were in good health, the ship was in good shape, and he did not feel justified in abandoning the ships. Finally, Belcher sent a written order, which Kelleett could not refuse. However, he only abandoned RESOLUTE under protest. All the Resolutes, Intrepids, and Investigators sledged back to Beechey Island, where NORTH STAR and several other ships waited to take them back to Britain. There is not room in this summary to go into the courts martial that took place (as a matter of routine when a ship is lost), suffice it to say, all were acquitted by the Admiralty for abandoning their ships: Kellett willingly and with a commendation, Belcher reluctantly and with the shame of being given back his sword in cutting silence. (Belcher never received another active commission again.)

Nor is there is room to go into the complex political situation between America and Britain in 1855 -56 in this nutshell, but my research shows that the 2 countries were on the very brink of war at about the same time as Captain Buddington (see photo page), from New London, CT was whaling in Baffin Bay (September 1855). He was hunting in the whaler GEORGE HENRY, one of the ships in the fleet of the Perkins and Smith firm. (I go into the history of this major whaling firm in my book, but again...the nutshell calls to me!)

The lookout on GEORGE HENRY saw a ship in the distance, listing to port. Buddington hailed it, but got no response. From the fact that the rigging was mostly down below, and that no one returned his signal, he concluded that either the men on board this mystery ship were in very bad shape, or that the ship had been abandoned. An abandoned vessel was worth quite a bit of money, probably more than if he a full hold of whale bone and oil. It took several days for the ice floes to bring the ship within reach. Buddington sent some of his men to find out what they could about  what they had begun to call "the ghost ship". What they saw when they went onboard probably made their hair stand on end. In the captain's cabin of the deserted ship, the wine goblets still stood on the table where Kellett and the other officers had toasted the ship just before leaving her. They determined that ship was the RESOLUTE from the ship's bell, and brought this news home to the captain.Miraculously, the ship was 1,200 miles from the place of her abandonment.

It took the George Henries a week to pump the 7 feet of water from RESOLUTE's hold, and to find enough good sail to rig the courses. Buddington split his crew, taking 13 men with him to sail RESOLUTE back to New London. He had only a faulty compass, his watch, and an outline he had drawn on foolscap of the North American coast to navigate with on his way home. The ships got separated in a storm, though they had planned to sail home together. Buddington met with foul weather: storms forced him all the way down to Bermuda before he could start heading north again towards New London. The GEORGE HENRY beat them back, and the towns people and whaling families waited anxiously for Buddington and his men: hoping that the violent storms had not caused the RESOLUTE to founder. Depending on which account you accept, RESOLUTE appeared outside the harbour on either Little Christmas Eve, or Christmas Eve. By the time she anchored, the dock was covered by folks carrying torches to welcome her home.

Now a political battle ensued. With the relationship between Britain and America at the breaking point, the tensions shifted to RESOLUTE. A series of curt letters went back and forth between the British government and the whaling firm regarding who had the ownership rights to RESOLUTE. Eventually, Queen Victoria waived her rights to the ship. Very gallant of her! it was not really hers to give, the rules governing maritime salvage were clear and remain the same today: an abandoned ship is salvage that rightly belongs to anyone who finds the ship and manages to get it home in one piece. By the beginning of the summer the Perkins and Smith were in ownership of RESOLUTE. But not for long!

Senator Mason, from Virginia (and it is very significant in relation to the politics swirling around this story, that he was a southerner) presented a Bill to Congress. He proposed that the US government buy RESOLUTE from the whaling firm, refit her like she was brand new, and sail her back to Britain as a present. This is particularly ironic since he had been one of the most vocal war mongers calling for war against Britain!!! Congress approved, took RESOLUTE to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, refitted her, and sailed her back to Britain under the command of another southerner, Hartstene (See photo page). Queen Victoria graciously accepted the gift, all talk of war began to recede, and all was well.

In 1879, when RESOLUTE went to the breaker's dock at Chatham, Queen Victoria had several desks made from the ship's timbers. The most famous one is the one in the Oval Office. She also had a small writing desk made for her private yacht, and I was fortunate enough to use this for my lecture and book signing at the Royal Navy Museum, Portsmouth in February, 2008. (see photo page.) Several of the accounts I have found on the web are incorrect in telling the history of the desk, after it arrived at the White House. Nutshell: President Kennedy was the first president to use it in the Oval Office, followed by Presidents Carter, Regan, Clinton, G W Bush; and now Obama who also decided to keep it in the Oval Office.

Why is this story so significant? It is unique in maritime history: RESOLUTE is the only ship abandoned in the Arctic to survive, the only ship to travel 1,200 miles in the ice and not get crushed. It is an  interesting enough story just left at that. But HMS RESOLUTE helped to prevent the war that was brewing between the USA and Britain in 1855 -56 and the desk from her timbers symbolizes the special relationship between the two countries that was born in 1856 when the ship was gifted to Quen Victoria. From this point onwards these nations would always settle their differences diplomatically and would become firm allies. The symbolism of RESOLUTE continues into 2009 with the gift of RESOLUTE's commissioning document to President Obama by Prime Minister Brown.

There are many versions of the RESOLUTE story cropping up on the internet these days, many of which contain significant errors. Therefore, I offer the above nutshell, which is based on original research that I conducted both in America and Britain, beginning in 1997. There are 2 books out at the moment about RESOLUTE. One non-fiction version, which unfortunately is so full of errors it has been badly reviewed by both Arctic and Maritime historians, though unsuspecting readers seem to enjoy it. The second book published about RESOLUTE is my novel, which is described and sold on this website. I am currently writing a non-fiction version of the RESOLUTE story, which will correct the mistakes in the only published non-fiction book to date. My new book (the first chapter of which is on this website on the "New Book" page) will contain all the research I collected and which formed the basis for my novel. 

If you are interested in more details, you can check out my book (you can look inside it on Amazon, and the first chapter is published on this website). I also give an educational and entertaining lecture about RESOLUTE at  clubs, schools and museums. I will be giving my lecture this autumn at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, as part of their yeat long exhibit: THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE: AN ARCTIC OBSESSION (see events page for more details) I am acknowledged by other Arctic and maritime historians as the leading expert on the RESOLUTE story. If you have any questions, you can also post an entry on the RESOLUTE BLOG page, or send me a query on the guest book page, and I will answer you in a timely fashion.

HUZZAH FOR THE RESOLUTE!!!!!!

---- Elizabeth Matthews ----