HMS Resolute

Sir, the closing scene of my most pleasant and important mission has now to be performed. And permit me to hope that, long after every timber in her sturdy frame shall have perished, the remembrance of the old Resolute will be cherished by the people of the respective nations. I now, with a pride totally at variance with our professional ideas, strike my flag, and to you, sir, give up the ship. Mit diesen Worten übergab Captain Henry J. Hartstein die HMS Resolute am 30. Dezember 1856 an Admiral Sir George Seymour. Die Amerikaner hatten das im Packeis gescheiterte Schiff gefunden und wieder aufgerüscht. Hat den US Congress als Geschenk der Freundschaft an die Engländer richtiges Geld gekostet. Die Resolution zur Wiederherstellung der Resolute im Kongress war sehr wortreich:

Whereas it has become known to Congress, that the ship 'Resolute', late of the navy of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on service in the Arctic Seas in search of Sir John Franklin and the survivors of the expedition under his command, was rescued and recovered in those seas by the officers and crew of the American whale-ship, the 'George Henry', after the Resolute had been necessarily abandoned in the ice by her officers and crew, and after drifting still in the ice for more than one thousand miles from the place where so abandoned—and that the said ship 'Resolute', having been brought to the United States by the salvors at great risk and peril, had been generously relinquished by them to Her Majesty's government.

Now, in token of the deep interest felt in the United States for the service in which Her Majesty's said ship was engaged when thus necessarily abandoned, and of the sense entertained by Congress of the act of Her Majesty's government in surrendering said ship to the salvors: Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby requested to cause the said ship 'Resolute', with all her armament, equipment, and property on board when she arrived in the United States, and which has been preserved in good condition, to be purchased of her present owners, and that he send the said ship with everything pertaining to her as aforesaid, after being fully repaired and equipped at one of the navy-yards of the United States, back to England under control of the secretary of the navy, with a request to Her Majesty's government, that the United States may be allowed to restore the said ship 'Resolute' to Her Majesty's service—and for the purchase of said ship and appurtenances, as afore-said, the sum of forty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be required, is hereby appropriated, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Und was machen die Limeys? Sind sie dankbar? Nö, die machen kein Museumsschiff draus wie aus der ➱Cutty Sark. Die zerlegen die HMS Resolute zwanzig Jahre später. Aber ein klein wenig von dem Schiff geben sie doch wieder an Amerika zurück. Dreimal dürfen Sie raten, aus welchem Holz dieser Schreibtisch da oben geschnitzt ist!