The Voyage Of The HMS Beagle The

The Voyage Of The H.M.S. Beagle: The Making Of A Naturalist Essay, Research Paper

Charles Robert Darwin was a man of many hats. He was a friend,

colleague, son, father, husband; but above all, he was a naturalist. Through his dedication and perseverance did he manage

to, in less than a generation, establish the theory of evolution as

a fact in peoples’ minds. In fact, “[t]oday it is almost impossible for us to return, even momentarily, to the pre-Darwinian

atmosphere and attitude” (West 323). Darwin formed the basis of his

theory during the voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, on which vessel he

was posted as it travelled around the globe. During that five-year

span, this young man saw foliage, creatures, cultures that he had

never known first-hand before. He was exposed to environments that

not many of his contemporaries saw and lived the life that few did.

Was his epic journey merely a series of trips to strange and exotic

lands, or was Darwin affected by his experiences in more profound

ways.

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809; the same day

that another great man, Abraham Lincoln, was born. He was no child

prodigy; he “was considered by all [his] masters and by [his] Father as a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in

intellect” (Barlow Voyage 28). The one trait in him that stands

out in his formative years is a taste for the outdoors; he loved to

gather

shells, seals, franks, coins, and minerals. The passion for collecting, which leads a man to be a systemic naturalist, a virtuoso, or a miser, was very strong in [him] and was clearly

innate, as none of [his] sisters and brother ever had this taste. (Barlow Autobiography 23)

He grew up in Shrewsbury, and attended the local grammar-school there. After graduating, he entered Edinburgh University with the intent of studying medicine, but he found anatomy boring and his lack of sketching skills hampered him. It was decided between Darwin and his father that he should pursue ecclesiasticalstudies at Cambridge. Those subjects did not enthuse him either, but he discovered a “spontaneous and exceptional interest in natural history” (Moorehead 25). Academically, “he scraped through…with a pass” (Moorehead, 25) but socially, he enjoyed himself greatly, as he had fallen in with a crowd of sportsmen and naturalists. As well, he developed strong ties with his botany and geology teachers, Professors Adam Sedgwick and John Henslow.

Henslow was indeed a true friend; he did Darwin the great

service of notifying him when, soon after graduation, the professor

learned of a great opportunity. Captain Robert FitzRoy of the H.M.S. Beagle was looking for someone to take the post of unpaid

naturalist while his ship did cartographic surveys of South America. “[Henslow] wrote Darwin candidly that he thought him the

best qualified person who would accept such a ’situation’” (Darwin

xiv). His father objected at first, but Darwin’s “Uncle Josiah Wedgwood…intervened and the coveted blessing was obtained” (Sears

30-31). In his interview, Darwin and FitzRoy got along famously and became good friends; the young nature-lover was accepted, and

he and the captain were to share a cabin.

Darwin was an easygoing man, and so he and his roommate got

along quite well. The captain had a dynamic temper and was subjected to fits of sullenness, but also “combined a strict sense

of duty with a very high sense of justice and regard for special

conditions. He had courage and was capable of magnificent seamanship under severe conditions” (Dibner 13). Darwin always held

his companion in the highest regard, even when they did not share

the same views.

Their five-year journey, originally to be two years in length, took them around the world. This trip reinforced in Darwin

a thousandfold his passion for botany and geology, and “his intention to become a priest…died a natural death on the Beagle

expedition” (Sears 31). They travelled to Brazil, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, the Gal pagos islands, Tahiti, New Zealand

and Australia. Darwin quite fell in love with the rainforest. His

first encounter with it was the fulfilment a long-held dream to travel to the tropics; “the delight Darwin felt amidst the quiet gloom of a tropical forest [was] indeed unspeakable, never to be forgotten, and certainly not to be described” (Dorsey 55). Hisappreciation of the natural world deepened daily; he gloried in

every detail. During a day in the jungle, he noted a “most paradoxical mixture of sound and silence pervad[ing] the shady parts of the wood…such a day…[brought] with it a deeper pleasure that he [could] ever hope to experience again” (Darwin 12). This passion brought out other sides to his own nature that

he had never seen before.

Darwin also found within himself a previously-unknown courage

of the physical kind. He “suffered greatly from seasickness” (Sears

31), but said little, for fear “that FitzRoy [found] him too soft

for the voyage….he could only complain as little as possible, set

his teeth and hold on” (M

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