The Voyage of HMS Beagle (1831-36)
"After having been twice driven back by heavy south-western
gales, Her Majesty's ship Beagle a ten-gun brig, under the
command of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N., sailed from
Devonport on the 27th of December, 1831. The object of the
expedition was to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del
Fuego ... — to survey the
shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific — and to
carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the World."
"Crossing the Line"
Darwin, like others
crossing the Equator
for the first time, was visited by King Neptune and his court. "They
then lathered my face &c mouth with pitch and paint, & scraped
some of it off with a piece of roughened iron hoop, - a signal being
given I was tilted head over heels into the water, where two men
received me &c ducked me, - at last, glad
enough, I escaped."
Sunday Service at Sea by Augustus Earle
Believed to be aboard HMS Beagle, of which Earle was ship's artist. Captain Robert FitzRoy reading the service at center; Charles Darwin contemplating the Bible (or Principles of Geology ?) at lower left. [From Browne (1995) Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Knopf.]
Text
material
© 2004 by Steven M. CarrSunday Service at Sea by Augustus Earle
Believed to be aboard HMS Beagle, of which Earle was ship's artist. Captain Robert FitzRoy reading the service at center; Charles Darwin contemplating the Bible (or Principles of Geology ?) at lower left. [From Browne (1995) Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Knopf.]