HMS Beagle
- For other RN ships of this name, see HMS Beagle (disambiguation).
HMS Beagle was a British Royal Navy ship, made famous for the second voyage she made with Charles Darwin aboard.
On May 11, 1820, Beagle was launched as a 90 ft (27 m), 10 gun brig from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames. There was no immediate need for Beagle so she was kept in reserve for five years.
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First Voyage
On September 27, 1825, Beagle docked at Woolwich for repairs and fitted out for her new duties. Her guns were reduced from ten cannons to six and her deck was raised by 18 inches (457 mm), these alterations were done to increase the space below decks. A mizzenmast was added to improve her manoeuvrability thereby changing her from a brig to a barque.
On May 22, 1826, Beagle set sail for her first voyage, a survey mission of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. She was under the command of Captain Pringle Stokes and also on board was Lieutenant Robert FitzRoy.
While surveying Tierra del Fuego, Captain Pringle Stokes shot himself and died 11 days later. Robert FitzRoy was put in temporary command of the Beagle.
Beagle ended her first voyage when she returned to Plymouth, England on October 14, 1830.
Second Voyage
It was originally intended that Chanticleer would make the second South American Survey, but due to her poor condition Beagle was substituted for the voyage. On June 25, 1831 Robert FitzRoy was re-appointed as commander of Beagle.
Beagle was originally scheduled to leave on October 24, 1831 but because of delays in her preparations the departure was delayed until December. Beagle attempted to depart on December 10 but ran into bad weather. Finally, on December 27 at 2:00 pm, the Naturalist Charles Darwin and the Beagle left Plymouth harbour on what was to become a groundbreaking oceanographic expedition. On January 7, 1835, the Beagle anchored off the coast of the Chonos Archipelago.
Third Voyage
The third voyage of Beagle took place between 1837 and 1847 under the command of Commander John Wickham. During this voyage she made the first charts of large parts of the coast of Australia.
Final years
Towards the end of her working life, the Beagle was used by Customs and Excise as an anti-smuggling patrol vessel along the Essex coast - particularly along the marshes south of Burnham-on-Crouch. In 1870, she was sold to local scrap merchants, and - according to reports in the Observer newspaper (15 February 2004) - she may subsequently have been abandoned to sink into the mud on the north bank of the River Roach.
See also
- Beagle 2 - Mars space probe named after HMS Beagle, which unsuccessfully landed December 25, 2003
External links
- The Voyage of the Beagle (http://www.darwin-literature.com/The_Voyage_Of_The_Beagle/index.html) - HTML indexed, searchable etext.
- The Voyage of the Beagle (http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-voyage-of-the-beagle/) Charles Darwin
- The Voyage of the Beagle (http://charles-darwin.classic-literature.co.uk/the-voyage-of-the-beagle/) in easy to read HTML format.
- Observer newspaper article, 15 February 2004, on Beagle's apparent final resting place (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1148523,00.html)
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Categories: Royal Navy ships