Volume I Part 15 (2/2)
CHARLES DARWIN TO JS HENSLOW Devonport, December 3, 1831
My dear Henslow,
It is now late in the evening, and to-night I a to sleep on board On Monday we uess what a desperate state of confusion we are all in If you were to hear the various exclamations of the officers, you would suppose we had scarcely had a week's notice I am just in the same way taken all ABACK, and in such a bustle I hardly knohat to do The nus to be done is infinite I look forward even to sea-sickness with so must be better than this state of anxiety I aed for your last kind and affectionate letter I always like advice from you, and no one who it than yourself Recollect, when you write, that I ae of yours, and that it is your bounden duty to lecture ive you my direction; it is at first, Rio; but if you will send me a letter on the first Tuesday (when the packet sails) in February, directed to Monte Video, it will givea little Cae news Poor dear old Aloes I have littleyou how cordially I feel grateful for the kindness you have shown e life Much of the pleasure and utility which Ifor the tiain meet, and till then believe ed friend, CH DARWIN
Remember me most kindly to those who take any interest in me
CHAPTER 1VI -- THE VOYAGE
”There is a natural good-huy in his letters just like himself”--From a letter of Dr RW Darwin's to Prof Henslow
[The object of the ”Beagle” voyage is briefly described in”to coo, co in 1826 to 1830; to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and some island in the Pacific; and to carry a chain of chronole” is described as a well-built little vessel, of 235 tons, rigged as a barque, and carrying six guns She belonged to the old class of ten-gun brigs, which were nicknao down in severe weather They were very ”deep-waisted,” that is, their bulwarks were high in proportion to their size, so that a heavy sea breaking over theh the five years' work, in the ions in the world, under Commanders Stokes and Fitz-Roy, without a serious accident
When re-coe, she was found (as I learn from Admiral Sir James Sulivan) to be so rotten that she had practically to be rebuilt, and it was this that caused the long delay in refitting The upper deck was raised,her far more comfortable acco sheathing added to her bottoht up to 242 tons burthen It is a proof of the splendid seamanshi+p of Captain Fitz-Roy and his officers that she returned without having carried away a spar, and that in only one of the heavy storer
She was fitted out for the expedition with all possible care, being supplied with carefully chosen spars and ropes, six boats, and a ”dinghy;” lightning conductors, ”invented by Mr Harris, were fixed in all thejib-boom” To quote my father's description, written froe, says it is one of the grandest voyages that has alrand scale
Twenty-four chronoany; she is the ad is as prosperous as hu to the smallness of the vessel, every one on board was cramped for room, and h: ”I have just room to turn round,” he writes to Henslow, ”and that is all”
Admiral Sir James Sulivan writes to me: ”The narrow space at the end of the chart-table was his only acco; the ha over his head by day, when the sea was at all rough, that he ht lie on it with a book in his hand when he could not any longer sit at the table His only stowage for clothes being several s fro taken out when the hath for it, so then the foot-clews took the place of the top drawer For specimens he had a very small cabin under the forecastle”
Yet of this narrow room he wrote enthusiastically, Septereat alarm about my cabin The cabins were not then marked out, but when I left they were, and mine is a capital one, certainly next best to the Captain's and reht My companion most luckily, I think, will turn out to be the officer whom I shall like best Captain Fitz-Roy says he will take care that one corner is so fitted up that I shall be comfortable in it and shall consider it my home, but that also I shall have the run of his My cabin is the drawing one; and in the e table, on which o sleep in ha to be done, so that it will be quite a luxurious rooer than the Captain's cabin”
My father used to say that it was the absolute necessity of tidiness in the craive hile”, too, he would say, that he learned what he considered the golden rule for saving ti care of the minutes
Sir James Sulivan tells me that the chief fault in the outfit of the expedition was the want of a second smaller vessel to act as tender
This as so much felt by Captain Fitz-Roy that he hired two decked boats to survey the coast of Patagonia, at a cost of 1100 pounds, a suh the boats saved several thousand pounds to the country He afterwards bought a schooner to act as a tender, thus saving the country a further large amount He was ultimately ordered to sell the schooner, and was compelled to bear the loss himself, and it was only after his death that some inadequate compensation was h his zeal
For want of a proper tender, much of the work had to be done in small open whale boats, which were sent away froether, and this in a climate, where the creere exposed to severe hardshi+ps from the alether The coely due to the public spirit of Captain Fitz-Roy He provided at his own cost an artist, and a skilled instrument-maker to look after the chronometers (Either one or both were on the books for victuals) Captain Fitz-Roy's as to take ”souest, but this generous offer was only accepted byallowed to pay a fair share of the expense of the Captain's table; he was, moreover, on the shi+p's books for victuals
In a letter to his sister (July 1832) he writes contentedly of his iven you an account of how the day passes We breakfast at eight o'clock The invariable maxim is to throay all politeness--that is, never to wait for each other, and bolt off the , etc At sea, when the weather is calm, I work at marine animals, hich the whole ocean abounds If there is any sea up I ae or travels At one we dine You shore-going people are la on board We have never yet (nor shall we) dined off salt etables, and, with good bread, who could wantbut water comes on the table At five we have tea The midshi+pun-roole” consisted of Captain Fitz-Roy, ”Commander and Surveyor,” two lieutenants, one of whom (the first lieutenant) was the late Captain Wickham, Governor of Queensland; the present Admiral Sir James Sulivan, KCB, was the second lieutenant Besides the master and two mates, there was an assistant-surveyor, the present Adeon, two midshi+pmen, master's mate, a volunteer (1st class), purser, carpenter, clerk, boatswain, eight marines, thirty-four seamen, and six boys
There are not now (1882) many survivors of my father's old shi+p-mates