Ruth Ashby - Young Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle

A trip around the world! Twenty-three-year-old Charles Darwin couldnt believe his luck. He eagerly reread the letter from his friend and teacher, John Stevens Henslow:

August 24, 1831

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. The Voyage is to last 2 yrs & if you take plenty of Books with you, anything you please may be done. In short I suppose there never was a finer chance for a man of zeal & spirit.

His excitement growing, Darwin read on. A ship captain named Robert FitzRoy was seeking a companion on a scientific voyage from Britain to the coast of South America and across the Pacific Ocean to Australia and southeast Asia. The captain wanted a traveler who knew a lot about plants and animals and other aspects of natural history. He should be young. (FitzRoy himself was only twenty-six.) He should be a gentleman. And he should be ready for adventure!

You are the very man they are looking for, Henslow insisted. Charles Darwin knew his friend was right. Darwin was a natural-born scientist, enthralled by the world of plants and animals. Even as a boy in the English countryside, he had eagerly collected flowers, butterflies, rocks, and birds. In college, where he was trained by some of the best biologists, botanists, and geologists in the country, he had searched for sponges and corals on the coast and gained a passion for collecting beetles.

Since graduating from Cambridge University the previous spring, Darwin had been searching for adventure. His father, Dr. Robert Darwin, had already decided that his son would enter the ministry and become a clergyman in a country church. But before he settled down, Charles longed to see the world. He planned to take a sea trip to the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa, where he could explore tropical rain forests and climb the sides of an ancient volcano. But the arrangements fell through, and Charles had to make do instead with a walking tour of Wales to collect rock samples and prehistoric bones. When he returned on August 29, 1831, he found Henslows letter waiting for him.

Charless response was immediate. Of course he would go!

Not so fast, his father warned. The voyage would be long and dangerous. It would keep Charles from starting his career and making a living as a clergyman. It required an experienced naturalist, which Charles was not. And besides, his father pointed out, other more-qualified men had already been offered the position and turned it down. Clearly they knew that this so-called trip of a lifetime was nothing but a wild scheme!

Disheartened, Darwin wrote Henslow a sad refusal. As far as my own mind is concerned, I should certainly most gladly have accepted the opportunity, which you kindly have offered me. But my father, although he does not decidedly refuse me, gives such strong advice against going, that I should not be comfortable if I did not follow it.

Then his father threw him a lifeline.

If you can find any man of common sense who advises you to go, Dr. Darwin told his son, I will give my consent.

Charles knew just the manhis Uncle Jos, a manufacturer who ran the famous family pottery business. Josiah Wedgwood was greatly respected for his kindliness and common sense. If his father listened to anyone, if would be Josiah.

Impulsively, Charles jumped on a horse and rode the twenty miles to Uncle Joss estate. He outlined the plan to his uncle and his Wedgwood cousins. They thought it was a marvelous venture, not to be missed on any account. Josiah scribbled a letter to the doctor, dismissing Dr. Darwins objections one by one. Most important of all was the flourish that ended the note. The voyage, Josiah wrote, would give his nephew such an opportunity of seeing men and things as happens to few.

To Charless intense joy, his father gave in. Charles Darwin would have his grand voyage!

The next few months were a blur of activity as Charles prepared for the voyage. There were supplies to buy, shipmates to meet, farewells to make to family and friends. Above all, he had to prepare himself mentally for the challenges to come. He was determined to make every moment count. If I have not energy enough to make myself steadily industrious during the voyage, he wrote in his journal, how great & uncommon an opportunity for improving myself shall I throw away. May this never for one moment escape my mind.

Finally, on December 27, 1831, HMS Beagle sailed out of Plymouth Harbor into the great unknown. What happened during the next five years has passed into legend. The observations that Charles Darwin made on the Beagle led to his development of the theory of evolution and to a new era in science. Years later, Darwin himself admitted,

The Voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole Career. I have always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real training or education of my mind; I was led to attend closely to several branches of natural history, and thus my powers of observation were improved.

With this one spectacular voyage, Charles Darwin would transform the study of biology forever.