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 "Griffins" 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
Drawn aboard HMS Beagle by ship's artist Augustus Earle (1793 - 1838). Captain Robert FitzRoy reads the service at center; Charles Darwin contemplates the Bible (or Principles of Geology ?) at lower left. Other officers present included First Officer Lieutenant John Clements Wickham (1798 - 1864) and Bartholomew James Sulivan (1810 - 1890) [later "Sir Bartholomew, KCB"] [From Browne (1995) Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Knopf.]
Text material © 2020 by Steven M. Carr"Sunday Service at Sea" by Augustus Earle
Drawn aboard HMS Beagle by ship's artist Augustus Earle (1793 - 1838). Captain Robert FitzRoy reads the service at center; Charles Darwin contemplates the Bible (or Principles of Geology ?) at lower left. Other officers present included First Officer Lieutenant John Clements Wickham (1798 - 1864) and Bartholomew James Sulivan (1810 - 1890) [later "Sir Bartholomew, KCB"] [From Browne (1995) Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Knopf.]