Abitibi's New Name: A Portent of Things To Come?

After considering hundreds of possible monikers, newsprint giant AbitibiBowater has chosen the name of a ship that was trapped in the Canadian Arctic, abandoned, rescued by Americans, and broken up by the British.

Is that a prediction of things to come or just a failure to know history?

AbitibiBowater (AKA AbitibiUnderwater) announced today that it will become Resolute Forest Products on November 7 as it tries to leave behind its debt-burdened past and find a name that customers can pronounce.

"Resolute" means being determined or having a single-minded resolve. The word most famously appears in the name of the HMS Resolute, a British exploration ship that was abandoned in 1854 after being trapped in ice. American whalers freed her from the ice the next year and sailed her to the U.S.; the American government presented the ship to Queen Victoria the following year in a show of friendship.

After the British navy decommissioned the Resolute, the ship was broken up, with some of the timbers being used to make a pair of desks -- one for Queen Victoria and one for the U.S. President (and still in the Oval Office). Replicas of the American desk have appeared in various movies about the White House -- most prominently in "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets," in which a hidden compartment contains an important clue.

Related article: Suggestions for AbitibiBowater's New Name.