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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Bon Voyage Charles

 
On this day in 1831 Charles Darwin set sail from Plymouth Sound (England) on the newly refitted brig HMS Beagle. Its mission was to explore South America and survey its coast.

The ship returned to England on October 2, 1836 after circumnavigating the globe.

When the ship left England, Darwin was officially the companion of the captain, Robert FitzRoy, but by the time it returned Darwin was the official naturalist.


[Image Credit: The HMS Beagle Project]

7 comments :

Jeffrey Shallit said...

Wow, 105 years. That was a long voyage.

Anonymous said...

Good spot Jeffrey. A career in mathematics beckons!

Bora Zivkovic said...

HMS Beagle was built in 1819/20 and launched on my birthday, 11 May 1820.

Wavefunction said...

Alan Moorehead's "Darwin and the Beagle" is a great book with some excellent original illustrations by Darwin.

Steve LaBonne said...

Imagine living and working for 5 years in a space the size of a fairly modest closet. Then imagine doing this while being violently seasick much of the time. And yet accomplishing the vast amount of observing, collecting and thinking that Darwin did during that voyage. Amazing.

Anonymous said...

Sounds much like my office!

Steve LaBonne said...

You get seasick in your office? ;)