Fossils, Finches and Fuegians: Charles Darwin’s Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle. Richard Keynes
After some effective wire-pulling at the Admiralty, their Lordships were persuaded to appoint FitzRoy to command the Beagle once again for a second surveying cruise.
The greatest of hydrographers, Captain Francis Beaufort, who had taken charge of the Hydrographic Office in 1829, embraced with enthusiasm the opportunity of filling in some of the many blank spaces in the existing maps of the coast of Argentina and Tierra del Fuego, and extending the naval charts to cover not only Argentina and the Falkland Islands, but also more of the coasts of Chile and Peru as far north as Ecuador. FitzRoy would also be entrusted with the task of carrying a chain of meridian distances, which measured the difference in longitude between an established location and a new one, all the way round the world by sailing back across the Pacific. The Beagle was therefore instructed to return via the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia – calling at Port Jackson observatory in Sydney, Hobart, and King George Sound – the Cocos Keeling Islands, Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, St Helena, Ascension, and so home. Beaufort’s long Memorandum to FitzRoy,39 carefully explaining this plan, included a note forbidding senior officers whom he might encounter to take from him any of his instruments or chronometers; instructions for sedulous observations of the eclipses of Jupiter’s third and fourth satellites; and advice on the best way of handling natives. Lastly, the Beagle was the first ship in the Navy to be issued with Beaufort’s list of the Figures, still in popular use today, to denote the force of the wind, based at the lower end on the speeds at which a man-of-war with all sails set would be driven, and at the upper end on what set of sails could just be carried safely at full chase. A second list of letters was drawn up to describe the state of the weather, but this has now fallen out of use.
The Beaufort Scale
While the Beagle was being extensively refitted at Devonport in preparation for her long voyage, FitzRoy, remembering his resolution to recruit a geologist should he pay another visit to Tierra del Fuego,30 set about finding ‘some well-educated and scientific person who would willingly share such accommodations as I had to offer, in order to profit by the opportunity of visiting distant countries yet little known’.40 He began by consulting the most appropriate person at the Admiralty, Francis Beaufort, who being closely in touch with the scientific reformers at Cambridge and in the Royal Society was keen to modernise and bring more science into the Hydrographic Office, and was immediately sympathetic. Beaufort accordingly wrote to his mathematical friend George Peacock at Trinity College, Cambridge, telling him of the opening for ‘a savant’ on a surveying ship. Early in August, Peacock passed the news on to Henslow, although he had not perfectly interpreted the situation in speaking of a vacancy specifically for a naturalist, and in later correspondence placed greater emphasis on FitzRoy’s need for a companionable and gentlemanly scientist:
My dear Henslow
Captain Fitz Roy is going out to survey the southern coast of Terra del Fuego, & afterwards to visit many of the South Sea Islands & to return by the Indian Archipelago: the vessel is fitted out expressly for scientific purposes, combined with the survey: it will furnish therefore a rare opportunity for a naturalist & it would be a great misfortune that it should be lost:
An offer has been made to me to recommend a proper person to go out as a naturalist with this expedition; he will be treated with every consideration; the Captain is a young man of very pleasing manners (a nephew of the Duke of Grafton), of great zeal in his profession & who is very highly spoken of; if Leonard Jenyns could go, what treasures he might bring home with him, as the ship would be placed at his disposal, whenever his enquiries made it necessary or desirable; in the absence of so accomplished a naturalist, is there any person whom you could strongly recommend: he must be such a person as would do credit to our recommendation.
Do think on this subject: it would be a serious loss to the cause of natural science, if this fine opportunity was lost.
The ship sails about the end of Septr.
Poor Ramsay!* what a loss to us all & particularly to you.
Believe me / My dear Henslow / Most truly yours /
George Peacock
7 Suffolk Street / Pall Mall East
My dear Henslow
I wrote this letter on Saturday, but I was too late for the post. What a glorious opportunity this would be for forming collections for our museums: do write to me immediately & take care that the opportunity is not lost.
Believe me / My dear Henslow / Most truly yours /
Geo Peacock
7 Suffolk St. / Monday41
As has already been seen, Leonard Jenyns was another clerical naturalist, brother-in-law of Henslow and vicar of Swaffham Bulbeck near Cambridge. After a day’s consideration of the offer, Jenyns decided regretfully that he could not leave his parish. Henslow therefore turned to Charles Darwin as the obvious alternative choice, and on 24 August wrote:
My dear Darwin, Before I enter upon the immediate business of this letter, let us condole together upon the loss of our inestimable friend poor Ramsay of whose death you have undoubtedly heard long before this. I will not now dwell upon this painful subject as I shall hope to see you shortly fully expecting that you will eagerly catch at the offer which is likely to be made you of a trip to Terra del Fuego & home by the East Indies. I have been asked by Peacock who will read & forward this to you from London to recommend him a naturalist as companion to Capt Fitzroy employed by Government to survey the S. extremity of America. I have stated that I consider you to be the best qualified person I know of who is likely to undertake such a situation. I state this not on the supposition of yr being a finished Naturalist, but as amply qualified for collecting, observing, & noting anything worthy to be noted in Natural History. Peacock has the appointment at his disposal & if he can not find a man willing to take the office, the opportunity will probably be lost. Capt. F wants a man (I understand) more as a companion than a mere collector & would not take any one however good a Naturalist who was not recommended to him likewise as a gentleman. Particulars of salary &c I know nothing. The Voyage is to last 2 yrs & if you take plenty of Books with you, any thing you please may be done – You will have ample opportunities at command – In short I suppose there never was a finer chance for a man of zeal & spirit. Capt. F is a young man. What I wish you to do is instantly to come to Town & consult with Peacock (at No 7 Suffolk Street Pall Mall East or else at the University Club) & learn further particulars. Don’t put on any modest doubts or fears about your disqualifications for I assure you I think you are the very man they are in search of – so conceive yourself to be tapped on the Shoulder by your Bum-Bailiff* & affecte friend /J.S. Henslow42
This letter was reinforced in similar terms two days later by another from Peacock. Although both Peacock and Henslow said in their letters that FitzRoy was looking for a naturalist, it is evident that at some point in FitzRoy’s original conversation with Beaufort a geologist had been mentioned, for Henslow’s candidate for the post was described by FitzRoy himself as ‘Mr. Charles Darwin, grandson of Dr. Darwin the poet, a young man of promising ability, extremely fond of geology, and indeed all branches of natural history.’43 That FitzRoy thought he was primarily getting a geologist would be consistent with his gift to Charles on their departure from Plymouth of the first volume of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology. Moreover in his first report to the Royal Geographical Society on the Beagle’s return to England in 1836 he said that ‘Mr Charles Darwin will make known the results of his five years’ voluntary seclusion and disinterested