I don't do threads, but this was interesting to me: Just finished Paul Watson’s "Ice Ghosts" and was surprised to learn that the desk in this photo of John Kenny and JFK Jr is linked to one of the most famous – and tragic – expeditions in the history of the Artic.

Under the leadership of Captain Sir John Franklin, HMS Terror & HMS Erebus set sail from England in 1845, in search of the Northwest Passage. It did not go well. Both ships & the entire crew were lost, and very few clues were available re: their fate.

In the early 1850s, the HMS Resolute was sent as part of an expedition to find the missing Franklin expedition. Like the Erebus and Terror, the Resolute became locked in the Arctic ice, unable to move and drifting uncontrollably in the floes as the ice thickened around it.

The captain ordered the crew to abandon the Resolute in 1853, leaving it to endure the vice-grip of the ice alone. The likely outcome would have been that the ice would slowly crush the ship.

But, the ice melted, and the Resolute sailed – ghost-ship style – all the way to Baffin Bay where it was found by an American whaling ship, the George Henry, 1200 miles from where it has been originally abandoned, in 1855.

When the British were notified that their ship had been located, the official response was “you can keep it.” However, at the direction of Congress, the Americans restored the ship while at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, and they returned it to the British in 1856.

Queen Victoria was pleased with the restoration, and when the ship was decommissioned years later, she remembered the gracious efforts of the Americans.

Queen Victoria had a desk made from the timbers of The Resolute and presented the desk to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.

The Resolute Desk has been used by almost every U.S. President since then. Once locked in unforgiving ice, then sailing sans crew throughout the Arctic, the ship’s final destination – at least part of the ship – would be in the Oval Office.

Sidenote: The modesty panel was added at the request of Franklin D. Roosevelt so that the public could not see his leg braces.

Finally, I highly recommend Watson's "Ice Ghosts" about the 150 year search for the Erebus & Terror. Also, Dan Simmon's The Terror, a thoughtful fictionalized account of the Franklin expedition. Simmons' description of the ice & its impact on the ships & crew is truly horrifying.

The Kennedy typo in the first tweet is killing me.