America's Resolute Desk

I am going to make the claim that the wood from which the main desk used by U.S. presidents almost certainly came from my native Forest of Dean.

This is a drawing of the desk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk#/media/File:Secretaire_made_from_the_timbers_of_the_British_Arctic_ship_%22Resolute,%22_and_presented_by_Queen_Victoria_to_the_President_of_the_United_States_LCCN99471788.jpg 

Most U.S. presidents in the last sixty years have used what is known as the Resolute Desk as their main working desk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk#/media/File:Barack_Obama_sitting_at_the_Resolute_desk_2009.jpg 

The desk has long been representative of the ties between the U.S. and Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk#/media/File:Thatcher_at_Oval_Office_desk_with_Carter.jpg 

In the late Nineteenth Century a wooden British ship, HMS Resolute, was decommissioned and dismantled. Some items were constructed from the wood of the ship, since such ships were built of high-quality hardwoods.

Among those items was a desk that was gifted to the United States by Queen Victoria. It is the desk used by most presidents today as their main desk.

Britain is a densely-populated land, without a lot of forest. But, in the days of wooden ships, a naval power was absolutely dependent on having a supply of trees that were suitable for building ocean-going ships.

My native Forest of Dean was recognized as having the best-quality ship timber. The wood that built the Mayflower was cut from within walking distance of where I was born. The Forest of Dean was long Britain's strategic timber reserve, which is no doubt why it ended up being as well-preserved as it has.

Britain's two most prominent naval figures from the days of wooden ships, Sir Francis Drake and Admiral Nelson, were both very protective of the Forest of Dean.

Admiral Nelson wrote a long letter to the king explaining how essential it is to protect this forest. Admiral Nelson gave his view that more oaks must be planted because acorns often get eaten by animals before they have the chance to grow into trees. He even requested that the navy be given supervision over this essential forest.

My conclusion is that it can be stated with near-certainty that the wood which comprises America's Resolute Desk, where some of the world's most important decisions are made and paperwork signed, originally came from the Forest of Dean.

We saw the northern part of the Forest of Dean in the posting on this blog, "Placid Britain".

https://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2017/06/placid-britain.html