| Name: | PTARMIGAN |
| Type: | Sailing Vessel |
| Launched: | 04/01/1850 |
| Completed: | 1850 |
| Builder: | T & W Smith |
| Yard: | St Peter's, Newcastle |
| Yard Number: | |
| Dimensions: | 500tonsb; (1850: 424tonsb, 115.0 x 28.5 x ?ft) |
| Engines: | None |
| Engines by: | n/a |
| Propulsion: | Sail, rigged as a Barque |
| Construction: | Wood |
| Reg Number: | |
| History: | |
| 1850 | T & W Smith; registered at Newcastle |
| 03/1850 | The Admiralty; renamed REFUGE |
| 1850 | Renamed RESOLUTE |
| 1879 | Broken up |
| Comments: | 07/03/1850: PTARMIGAN had already loaded a part cargo of coals for Calcutta on |
| the Tyne and had intended to complete the cargo with "light goods", when she was purchased by the Admiralty for £10,622. | |
| The Admiralty purchase was so urgent that, without any builder's trials she sailed to Woolwich where she discharged the coals and went to R & H Green's shipyard at Blackwall for modifications to strengthen her for Polar work. | |
| She had been acquired to form part of a squadron being sent to search for Franklin's North West Passage Expedition which had disappeared after last being sighted by whalers in the Arctic on 26/07/1845. | |
| 10/09/1855: RESOLUTE had to be abandoned in the ice at position 74.41N - 101.22W | |
| However she subsequently drifted free and was found by the American whaler GEORGE HENRY off Baffin Island. She was then refitted and returned to the UK | |
| 12/12/1856: Arrived in the UK and laid up at Chatham | |
| 16/08/1879: Breaking up completed at Chatham |