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800Years IrishPolitical, Literary&MilitaryHistory - 15thApril2014
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HMSResoluteandtheSearchforFranklin
Adespatchballoonmessage, paintedonwhite silk, nowdiscoloured.
‘DispatchedbyBalloon/HMSResolute/ InLat. N. LongW. To Sir JohnFranklin/ Provisions left at…/ Steering for…/ Intending toWinter at…or in the
Vicinity
These silkmessage shipswere printedonboardHMSResolute and attached toballoons and released in the hope of one finding the lost expeditionof Sir
JohnFranklin.
HMSResolutewas aRoyalNavyBarque purchasedby theRoyalNavy for the taskof findingFranklin, reinforced for the arctic conditions. The shipwas
involved in twoexpeditions to find the ill-fatedFranklins. Franklinhad ledanexpedition to find thenorth-west passageabove theCanadianArchipelago
connecting theAtlantic andPacific oceans. It departedEngland in1845, butmounting concerns pressedbypetitions fromFranklin’swife led theAdmi-
ralty todispatch the resolute in1850.
IncompanywithHMSAssistance,Pioneerand Intrepid, the ships searched theeasternarctic tonoavail.Later itwouldbe found thatFranklinhadbecome
trapped in sea iceoffKingWilliam Island. 24officers and110menwere toperish.
The ships returninghomewithout newswere refitted, andunder the commandof SirEdwardBelvedere,HMSResolute set forthagainon theirmission to
thearctic ice.Misfortunebefellher inApril 1854.Trapped in sea iceSirBelvedereorderedherabandonedandherofficersandclerkswere transferred to the
ships in company.Draftingas aghost ship shewas eventually foundbyanAmericanwhaler and inDecember 1855 shewasbrought toNewYorkharbour.
PurchasedbyAct ofCongress, theResolutewas repaired and refitted and returned toQueenVictoria as a gift from theAmericanpeople. Reinstated into
theNavyshecontinuedserviceuntil1879whenshewasbrokenup.Timbers fromherhullwereused tocreated threedesks,one forQueenVictoria, theoth-
eragift to theAmericanPresident, theresolutedeskhasbeen inusebyAmericanPresidents in theOvalOffice fromFranklinD.Roosevelt to J.F.Kennedy.
€800 - 1000
