The Vancouver Maritime Museum has a collection of more than 170,000 objects including 35,000 artifacts, 20,000 books, 262 original paintings/artwork and 114,000 photographs This online collection gives you access to just a few of our hidden and not so hidden treasures.

 

Category Index > Category: Ships, World Famous > Artifact: Tin Playing Cards from HMS RESOLUTE
Tin Playing Cards from HMS RESOLUTE
Category: Ships, World Famous


HMS RESOLUTE is a ship made famous not for her loss in the Arctic but rather her dramatic resurrection, recovery and subsequent fame as the source of wood for the Presidential desk in the Oval Office of the White House. These playing cards, made from tin cans used to preserve food for the long Arctic voyage, were used in the damp environment of the ship during the long Arctic winters. They were found on a table, one last hand unplayed, by the salvage party that discovered Resolute in September 1855. They were donated to the Vancouver Maritime Museum by a descendant of the whaling captain who rescued the ship. Part of a five ship, 222-man expedition sent by the British Admiralty to search for news or relics of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, RESOLUTE joined Captain Sir Edward Belcher's "Arctic Squadron" in 1852. Nearly wrecked on her arrival, Resolute survived being caught in the ice when the steamer Intrepid managed to pull her free. Stuck in the ice by winter, the entire Squadron waited for news as sledge parties fanned out across the Arctic. They found no news of Franklin, but a party led by Lieut. Bedford Pim rescued the stranded crew of HMS INVESTIGATOR, which had sailed into the Arctic from the west only to be trapped. In the spring of 1854, Belcher decided to abandon all of his ships save one, HMS NORTH STAR, and flee the Arctic. His captains protested, but Belcher's orders stood. On August 27, 1854, NORTH STAR, joined by the supply ship TALBOT and the steamer PHOENIX departed, leaving RESOLUTE and three other ships (not counting HMS INVESTIGATOR, hopelessly stuck and already abandoned by her captain, Robert McClure). Upon reaching Britain, Belcher and his captains were court-martialed for abandoning their ships. It was quickly proved that the responsibility rested on Belcher's shoulders alone, and although acquited, his actions did not rest lightly. He never again received command of a ship. The controversy over the abandonment was spurred further by the discovery of RESOLUTE, adrift on her own, in the North Atlantic, a thousand miles from where she had been abandoned. On September 10, 1855, the whaler George Henry sighted RESOLUTE in the drifting ice. After following her for six days, Captain Buddington ordered George Tyson and other men to cross the ice and board the derelict. Tyson found a ghost ship "in a deplorable state." The ship's water tanks had burst, the hold was partially flooded, and the vessel bore the effects of "the intense hyperborean frost...everything presented a mouldy appearance." And yet the wardroom table still held wine decanters and half-filled glasses. Tyson took a sip and then raised a toast with his mates to the late officers and crew of HMS RESOLUTE. Captain Buddington decided to salvage RESOLUTE - she would fetch a valuable award - and sailed her with eleven of his crew to the United States. News of the discovery astounded the world. The British Admiralty relinquished all claim to the ship, and the Congress of the United States purchased her. The US Navy refitted RESOLUTE "with such care and devotion," wrote her former master, "that not only had the ship's stores, even to flags, been replaced, but even the officers' libraries, musical boxes, pictures &c." In December 1856, the United States presented RESOLUTE to Queen Victoria as a gesture of goodwill by the American people. The gift was warmly received, but RESOLUTE never returned to service, and was finally broken up in 1878. The Queen, however, wanted to commemorate the return of RESOLUTE. Timbers from the ship were used to make three desks -one was presented to Lady Jane Franklin, another to Captain Buddington (it is now on display at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts) and the third, a 1,300 pound oak desk carved with Arctic scenes - was presented without fanfare - or warning - to Rutherford B Hayes, the President of the United States, on November 23, 1880. After a long and varied history of use in the White House, the desk was rescued by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy for the President's use in the Oval Office, where it remains to this day. The desks, these tin cards, and a bulkhead clock from HMS RESOLUTE are among the relics of this Arctic exploration ships' incredible odyssey.

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