Journey Of The Beagle

The HMS Beagle was the name of the ship Charles Darwin was on when he made his journey to the coast of South America. This was actually the second voyage of this ship and Darwin served in the unpaid post of naturalist on the journey. The departure date had originally been planned for October 24, 1831, but the ship was not ready for departure at this time and was not able to leave until December 27. The journey was supposed to last for two years, but it actually lasted five years. The main purpose of the expedition was to chart the coastline of South America, including the Falkland and Galapagos Islands. From there, the ship was to sail to Tahiti and Australia for the purpose of verifying existing chronometer readings.

During the journey of the Beagle, Charles Darwin kept a journal of his experiences. The journal started on the volcanic island of St. Jaco in the Cape Verde islands, which was the ship’s first stop. It was intended to stop in Tenerife, but the ship was not allowed in port because of a current cholera outbreak in England. While on St. Jaco, Darwin went ashore and saw for the first time the vegetation of South America. He also saw the white band of seashells that supported the findings of Lyell, which he had read about, that the Earth’s crust did indeed rise and fall.

He was enthralled with the tropical rainforest of Brazil, but was enraged about the slavery he witnessed. The ship continued its journey down the coast to Rio de Janeiro. At every stop, Darwin went onshore and collected specimens, but he always took time out to get to know the people of the places he visited. He started shipping the specimens back to England, with detailed descriptions of the environment in which he found each one.

The Beagle continued its work of charting the coastline, while Darwin often made long inland journeys. On several occasions, when he saw sights from the ship, he made plans to return to that location once the ship put into port. One example of this is when he saw fossilized bones of gigantic mammals at Puna Alta. He returned to this site and excavated a large skull, which he later discovered to be that of a mammal closely related to the rhinos of Africa.

The ship stopped at Montevideo and at Tierra del Fuego, where once again he was appalled at the plight of the slaves. This experience, combined with a friendship with a freed black slave back in England, was the inspiration for his later book, The Descent of Man. On the Falkland Islands, Darwin studied the relationship of the habitat to the species and in Rio Negra, Argentina, he discovered a rare species of Rhea.

The Beagle sailed through the straits of Magellan to the western side of South America. At Valparaiso, he bought horses and proceeded to explore the Andes, but an injury forced him to return to the ship where he spent a month recovering. On his second trip to this area, he did succeed in making the trip and discovered fossilized seashells in the rocks and a fossilized forest.

The Beagle reached the Galapagos Islands in September 1835. Here he collected many specimens of birds, but thinking they were all of the same species, his notes were not as methodical as they should have been.

Having completed its South American, the journey of the Beagle continued on to Tahiti and Australia and finally returned home to England in October 1836.