Charles Darwin: The Voyage on HMS Beagle

On October 1831 at the age of twenty-two, Charles Darwin boarded the HMS Beagle; a ship whose job was to travel around the southern hemispheres of the globe to test clock’s for the British Navy. This was a very important job because during the 19th century, because the clocks the ship was testing provided sailors a precise way to use time to navigate in the open sea.

The twenty-seven year old Captain, Robert FitzRoy, was known to contain a sharp knowledge in Math and Science and was a passionate Christian aristocrat. Captains were notorious in those days to not socialize to their crew, which lead to many captains to go mad. To stop this from happening, FitzRoy wanted a companion. Strange enough, Darwin was not his first choice or even his

Darwin was raised in Shropshire surrounded by nature, and spent his childhood collecting pebbles and birds. His mother, Susannah, was from a wealthy background. Although Robert, his father a doctor, was not as wealthy as his mother he soon became rich because by lending money to his patients. At the age of sixteen, Robert sends both of his sons to study medicine in Edinburgh- even though years later neither one of the boys becomes a doctor. Charles quit before his brother but put off telling his father for fear of confrontation, a fear that he never overcomes and continues to ovoid in his adult life. When he finally told his father about how he was studying natural history and zoology, his father was furious. He told his son that he was going to be a disgrace and would be the family shame. Robert then told his son that if he couldn’t be a doctor, he had to become a preacher because in Britain religious brought respect and security. He then sent Charles to Cambridge to study theology, where he met mentors and learned about other naturalist that would influence Origin of Species. When Darwin’s father finds out about his son’s offer to go on the expedition, he was worried. He felt that if his son took the opportunity, he would risk any chance of being appointed to a parish, or that his son might even drown and not make the journey back home. The only reason that Charles was even allowed to

Generations upon generations, early organisms have drastically changed to fit their environments, something that Darwin himself was never eager or knowledgeable enough to answer how so many animals could drastically change over a small period of time. New species branched off older ones, and scientist keep continuing to redraw what they believe to be the “Tree of Life”; a hypothesis that offers a simple interpretation of the genetic sequence of life. Scientists now compare entire gnomes of hundreds of species to find common