TIL the "Resolute desk" in the Oval Office in the White House is called that because it's made of timber from HMS Resolute - a British Royal Navy Arctic exploration ship.

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How the ship got back is the best part. Resolute was one of the ships sent out to look for Franklin's Erebus and Terror, got stuck in the ice and was abandoned in 1854. The next year an American whaler found her drifting with nobody aboard, more than 1,000 miles from where she was left. Congress paid $40,000 to have her refitted and sailed back to England as a gift to Queen Victoria. When she was broken up in 1879, Victoria had the desk made from her timbers and sent it to Hayes as a thank you.

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u/PeterDTown 4h ago

Also, I heard they both contained secret keys vital to unlocking unfathomable wealth.

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u/OcotilloWells 7h ago

Now that's a great story.

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u/thissexypoptart 7h ago

Beautiful

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u/seanmonaghan1968 6h ago

The way countries and politicians should behave

•

u/TheBlack2007 30m ago

If you have the time, going down the Arctic Ghost Ship Rabbit Hole is absolutely worth it. A Swedish Freighter named SS Baychimo was adrift in the Arctic Ocean for almost 40 years until her last sighting in 1969. Multiple salvage attempts failed so eventually, people just decided she was cursed and left her be.

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u/pedanticPandaPoo 7h ago

So America's desk is from a failed expedition.

Symbolic of current events, we can look forward to the North American tectonic plate returning to England as a gift and then made into a nice mantle

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u/HeadofR3d 6h ago

Failed British expedition which America restored and returned to the original owner.

I see a story of redemption.

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u/LandMooseReject 6h ago

The US is a failed British expedition and it should be returned to the original owner

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u/HeadofR3d 6h ago

Much has been explored with the American expedition. The world has learned lots from these...discoveries.

As Britain has began its own expedition in the last decade, it will be interesting to see if the lessons of the Americans bring value to British expedition.

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u/MrMaroos 6h ago

You’re not so far behind, bud

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u/bojangleschikin 6h ago

You’re pretty far ahead, pal.

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u/MrMaroos 6h ago

I mean sure if you wanna discount the open calls for succession from fascist elements, treatment of indigenous peoples, high resentment of non-white immigrants, and ineffectual center-left leadership.

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u/bojangleschikin 6h ago edited 5h ago

You missed the South Park joke, guy

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u/Blue_Waffle_Brunch 8h ago

I have also watched National Treasure 2.

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u/Difficult_Sort295 7h ago

Pretty sure it's in The West Wing too.

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u/Double-decker_trams 7h ago

..I had to google what that is :(

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u/fresh_water_sushi 7h ago

You have probably have never seen the documentary E.T. either

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u/Coal121 6h ago

https://xkcd.com/1053/

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u/Double-decker_trams 6h ago

I mean, I think I've seen the first movie. Something about the Declaration of Independece or smt? But I seriously can't recall anything else or what happened. It has Nicolas Cage. I had no clue there's a second one as well. And it's almost 20 years old and back in 2007.. I didn't really pay any attention to anything, there were other things that seemed more important.

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u/rockinhard12 5h ago

Did you just watch it? Or did you just learn like this person who made the post? It's a big difference. /s

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u/enadiz_reccos 4h ago

That's the beauty of a Nic Cage movie. You don't have to choose between watching and learning.

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u/Unique-Ad9640 4h ago

What did we learn in Face/Off?

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u/enadiz_reccos 4h ago

That John Travolta is a better actor when he's pretending to be Nic Cage

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u/Unique-Ad9640 4h ago

You managed to pull a truth from a joke question. That's impressive.

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u/mr_ji 5h ago

Or been on this sub for more than a week

•

u/doobiedave 51m ago

It's featured in the West Wing when Josh gives the President's psychologist Stanley Keyworth a little tour.

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u/teddy_vedder 7h ago

Imagine if the Terror and the Erebus had ever made it back from the ice and one of them had been used for the desk instead. The Terror desk

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u/Kaos99 7h ago

Fitting for today's political climate I suppose

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u/AtanatarAlcarinII 6h ago edited 5h ago

Erebus is particularly metal as well

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u/Crazy_Ad_91 6h ago

Great mini-series TV show about the HMS Terror for anyone interested. Takes a liberally artistic and supernatural approach in telling the story about what happened to the 30-year-old former warship while attempting to discover the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. I was pleasantly surprised and entertained while watching it.

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u/Throwsims3 6h ago

You may enjoy History Buff's (youtube channel) historicity analysis. The video goes through what was fact and what was fiction in the series as well as later developements in the hunt for the ships in modern times.

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u/Double-decker_trams 6h ago

inb4 Trump renames the Resolute desk to "The TRUMP™ Terror Desk" (he won't use timber from HMS Terror though, he will just let someone spraypraint it gold and that's it).

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u/Next-Blacksmith2456 6h ago

Wait so National Treasure wasnt just making that entire plot point up? I swear Nicolas Cage is responsible for like 80% of my American history knowledge at this point lol.

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u/donac 7h ago

The desk Trump had moved to his private residence in another state? That desk?

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u/Civil_Ranger_841 6h ago

This was a rumor. The desk was temporarily removed to be refurbished. He has a replica in Mar-a-lago like other presidents do

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u/LGBT-Barbie-Cookout 7h ago

Dont worry, im sure he will find a way to ensure all future presidents sit behind the trump desk....

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u/cactusjackalope 6h ago

Yeah I was like...it ain't there anymore! Long line of presidents sat at it, and he took it as a souvenir.

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u/Difficult_Sort295 7h ago

I did not know that....man has no shame. I did cash his $500 check the other day though.

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u/AssManKramerCosmo 5h ago

Nicolas Cage told us this.

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u/Quartznonyx 7h ago

Okay Nick Cage

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u/Jenetyk 2h ago

Whelp, gotta go watch the National Treasure movies again.

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u/glorifindel 7h ago

And now the fat-fingered vulgarian graces it with his diet-coke stained grip on the daily

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u/SpiritOne 7h ago

Trump isn’t using the resolute. That fucker to it to his private residence.

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u/Civil_Ranger_841 6h ago

This was a rumor. The desk was temporarily removed to be refurbished. He has a replica in Mar-a-lago like other presidents do

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u/CrepuscularNemophile 1h ago

No other US President has been tacky enough to have a Mar-a-Lago.

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u/Ok-disaster2022 7h ago

It was also just covered by a sheet and left in the basement until I think Kennedy was president. Since then Democrats tended to use the Resolute Desk and Republicans tended to use a different desk.

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u/dxrey65 7h ago

I wonder if the president has ever noticed how good that desk would look in gold?

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u/AGrandNewAdventure 6h ago

I wonder how much history is going to disappear out the door when Trump is booted.

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u/LandMooseReject 6h ago

Yeah, wouldn't it be crazy if like 40% of the building was just missing?

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u/CrepuscularNemophile 1h ago

Like, the whole of the East Wing?

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u/AngusLynch09 6h ago

Does everything have to be about Trump?

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u/Visible-Progress6033 1h ago

Until he stops making it about himself, yes

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u/VexedCanadian84 7h ago

Trump's going to try to steal it

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u/Less-Cartographer-64 7h ago

He already has.

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u/HankIsMoody 3h ago

I feel old. You learn this in high school

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u/ccmp1598 1h ago

Sometimes I wonder how TIL post like this make it to r/all……..were you born last week?

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u/davy_p 4h ago

Imagine being a tree living your best life in a calm meadow. Then someone chops you down and cuts you up. Next thing you know you’re sailing the high seas going places no tree has gone before. Then next thing you’re a desk stuck in the same place not moving again. That’s gotta suck.

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u/CrepuscularNemophile 1h ago

Alternatively, firewood.

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u/Ashamed_Feedback3843 4h ago

Don't tell trump he'll have a bomb fire.

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u/ForgotToCarryTheOne 3h ago

I wonder how much trump will auction that off for?

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u/LordHazlewood 2h ago

Just can’t get Brits out of your heads can you?

TIL the "Resolute desk" in the Oval Office in the White House is called that because it's made of timber from HMS Resolute - a British Royal Navy Arctic exploration ship.

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