Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Remarkable Connections - Darwin, FitzRoy, Hawkshaw & Wedgwood . . . .

In December 1831, Darwin joined HMS Beagle as a young naturalist. The ship was commanded by Captain Robert FitzRoy, an experienced naval officer and hydrographer. The expedition's principal purpose was surveying and charting the coasts of South America, but for Darwin it became an extraordinary opportunity to observe geology, plants, animals and human societies across the world.

The voyage lasted almost five years, from 1831 to 1836, taking the Beagle to South America and the Galápagos Islands.

Darwin and FitzRoy.

The relationship between the two men was an important part of the expedition. FitzRoy was responsible for the ship and its survey work, while Darwin was able to pursue his natural-history investigations wherever the voyage took him. Their different interests complemented one another : FitzRoy's surveys were producing accurate geographical information, while Darwin was building an extraordinary collection of observations and specimens.

The young Darwin returned to Britain in 1836 with notebooks, specimens and observations that would occupy him for the rest of his life. His experiences aboard the Beagle ultimately contributed to the ideas that culminated in On the Origin of Species, published in 1859.

The two men eventually followed very different paths. FitzRoy went on to establish Britain's Meteorological Office and pioneered the use of weather observations and forecasts to protect life at sea.

Following the disastrous Royal Charter Gale of 1859 FitzRoy developed a national Storm Warning Service which began in February 1861. Darwin, meanwhile, developed the theory of evolution by natural selection.