Carol Sommer
As James Monroe Buddington approached the Connecticut shoreline on Christmas Eve, 1855, he noted that New London “didn’t make a dot much bigger than my hand … but it was a dot I was glad to see.” After a harrowing voyage through violent storms, he’d sailed the HMS Resolute, an abandoned British barque, from the Davis Strait near the Arctic circle into New London harbor. It was a feat that surprised everyone, including himself. The next day, excited crowds walked out on the frozen Thames River for a look at this unexpected arrival.
In May, James had sailed out of New London on the whaler George Henry. The trip was plagued by severe weather, damage to the ship by ice, and a scarcity of whales. When the crew caught sight of the Resolute, unmanned but in surprisingly good condition, James decided to curtail the disappointing whale hunt and salvage the ghost ship. He divided his crew so both the George Henry and the Resolute could be sailed home. It was an achieve