Lot Essay
HMS Resolute (Captain Henry Kellett) had sailed with the Intrepid, Assistance and Pioneer on the Admiralty's 1852 Franklin Search expedition commanded by Sir Edward Belcher. On Belcher's orders Kellett abandoned his frozen-in ship at Dealy Island in June 1854 and returned to England in the North Star. The deserted Resolute was found by an American whaler drifting in ice in Baffin Bay the following year, and, following the thaw, was taken to New London, Connecticut. After the British government waived all claim to the ship, the American government bought her from the whalers for $40,000. She was refitted at the American government's expense in the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the intention of presenting her to the British government "on behalf of the people of the United States as a token of the friendly feelings by which our country is actuated." She was repainted from stem to stern, her sails and most of her rigging replaced with new and new flags were made in the Navy Yard to replace those which had rotted away. The books in the captain's library, the pictures in his cabin and the musical box and the organ belonging to the other officers were all preserved. She was returned to England by Commander Hartstein of the U.S. Navy on 12 December 1856 and towed into Cowes Harbour on the 15th where she was visited by Queen Victoria.