The Beagle Project Blog

Stokes's Journal

2009-07-11T14:46:00.007+01:00

What remains of Pringle Stokes's HMS Beagle journal went under the hammer last month. The Brisbane Times had the story.

Pringle Stokes was the ill-fated first captain of the Beagle, who took his own life off the coast of Patagonia in 1828. Unfortunately for poor Stokes, his pistol-aim was far from true, and he took 12 days to die a painful death.

This all happened during the first Beagle voyage. It was Stokes's suicide, combined with a fear of a hereditary suicidal trait, which convinced Robert FitzRoy that he should take a gentleman companion with him when he captained Beagle on her second voyage. As we all know, Charles Darwin was selected for the role.

So, putting it rather simplistically, no Stokes suicide; no On the Origin of Species.

As a Brit, I have to say it irks me somewhat that Stokes's journal - an important artefact of British maritime history - has ended up in Australia (where, admittedly, it was rediscovered in 1977, having been taken there by Stokes's shipmate, Philip Parker King). Having said that, as a Brit, I probably shouldn't complain too much about important historical artefacts' being housed in other countries.

The Cambridge Darwin Festival

2009-07-07T09:42:00.003+01:00

This week I'm at the Cambridge Darwin Festival - probably the biggest single Darwin event in this big Darwin year - where I'm wearing both my NHM Darwin200 science coordinator and Beagle Project hats. There are lots of juicy talks and sessions planned, plus evening events and a fringe festival. In addition to all of this I'm determined to take in Endless Forms at the Fitzwilliam Museum and Anthony Smith's bronze of the young Darwin.

I will be tweeting the festival here: @kejames ...and you can see a stream of all festival tweets here: #DarwinFest.

Go South young Grrl!

2009-07-05T22:26:00.006+01:00

As you may have noticed, the Beagle Project's tag-line is "bringing the adventure of science to life". Now, with your support, Beagle Project supporter and science blogger GrrlScientist will be doing just that in February 2010. Grrl is in a competition to become the official blogger on a trip to Antarctica and to get there she needs our votes! There is one vote per valid email address (and if you're like me you've got more than one... *cough*).

As a proponent of adventure blogging it's great to hear that this journey is going to be blogged and I cannot think of a better person to bring this personal and scientific adventure to life for all of us than GrrlScientist. She is a brilliant and consistent blogger, an excellent photographer, and is endorsed by The Digital Cuttlefish.

Follow this link to vote for GrrlScientist.

Coming soon: Beagle Project website re-boot and FAQ

2009-07-01T11:49:00.005+01:00

Thanks to Tony in comments (and others by email) for your interest in updates and information about The Beagle Project. As a result of personal, professional and other issues (not least preparing for our upcoming British Council-funded feasibility study in Brazil), we're in a bit of a communication lull right now but we are acutely aware that our fans and followers are wanting news and that our website is out of date.

We are planning to relaunch our website soon with the help of a generous offer of support by Sanphire Design, and this will include a Frequently Asked Questions page to answer the ...well ...the most frequently asked questions, but to briefly answer Tony's question: the construction of the new Beagle has not yet begun; we are still fundraising, and we are as committed as ever to ushering in a new age of science under sail aboard the new Beagle!

'An aweful & solemn sound'

2009-06-28T19:45:00.006+01:00

It wasn't all plain sailing on Darwin and FitzRoy's Beagle voyage. The ship frequently sailed into unknown territory. Her crew were on their own, many days from help.

One-hundred and seventy-five years ago today, Beagle's crew buried one of their colleagues at sea. Darwin recorded the event in his Beagle diary:

On the 27^th [June, 1834] the purser of the Beagle, M^r Rowlett expired; he had been for some time gradually sinking under a complication of diseases; the fatal termination of which were only a little hastened by the bad weather of the Southern countries. M^r Rowlett was in his 38_th year; the oldest officer on board; he had been on the former voyage in the Adventure; & was in consequence an old friend to many in this ship; by whom & everyone else he was warmly respected. — On the following day the funeral service was read on the quarter-deck, & his body lowered into the sea; it is an aweful & solemn sound, that splash of the waters over the body of an old ship-mate.

It seems incredible that the oldest officer on board Beagle was just 37 years old. Great responsibility was placed on young shoulders in those days. I suppose it still is.

175 years after his untimely death, I sit at my computer screen and raise a glass to poor George Rowlett (1797–1834).

Twelve days

2009-06-18T23:48:00.004+01:00

...is far, far too much time between blog posts, for which we apologise, dear readers and blogpeeps.

My fellow Beagle bloggers will, no doubt, have their own very good excuses; as for me, though, you can direct your ire squarely in the direction of twitter. I've been bit by the twitter bug, big time, swept off my feet in a frenzied flurry of blue feathers.

But this twelve days thing is a wake up call. I've gone too far to the microblogging extreme and it's time to seek balance before I forget how to write paragraphs. So, with hand on heart, I promise to resist the 140-character siren song long enough every week to post something substantive here.

...uh, well, except for next week when I'll be away on a technology-free holiday in the mountains - you know, those big, pointy, rocky things you sometimes see when you go outside in certain parts of the world.

"My Dearest Catherine" (Part III)

2009-06-07T00:51:00.000+01:00

Simmons Buntin has kindly agreed to let us reproduce his series of three poems as imagined letters from Darwin to his sister Catherine when he was aboard the Beagle. They are published in his book of poems Riverfall (Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2005). They also appeared in MIT Press's anthology on evolution and progress. We've already posted the first and second; here is the third:

Letter from Charles Darwin to His Sister, Catherine

Simmons B. Buntin

9 October, 1835
My Dearest Catherine,

We have sailed from the anarchy
of Lima and Peru
for the drier anarchy of the Galapagos,
where volcanic craters burn
without lava—
their regular forms jutting
from the archipelago
like the great iron-foundries
at Staffordshire.
And though there are no plumes,
the slight vapour blends
with low sky so that once again
the world is gray.

It is gray in the mutinied captain’s
skull found among salt-green
succulents, in the oppressive
heat of absent wind, and
in dusky hues of equatorial finches.
Perhaps it is my mood which is truly
gray, as Fitzroy turns
madder with the days
and crewmen yearn for British seas.

Yet we are here, among these
curious rocks, and surely there is hope
in their exploration.

25 October, 1835
What joy in the cloudless skies,
in these barren isles! Though I have found
few species, it is their rarity
which excites. On Albemarle,
the largest island, I have tossed
a remarkable lizard by tail into the sea.
And always he returns!
On Chatham Island
I have balanced unsteadily
upon the giant back of a tortoise grazing
the sweet red fruit of cactus!
And of thirteen species
of finch, where I was drowning
in the dullness of feather,
I now sail on the varied waves
of their beaks!
Come sail with me
Catherine—take the wind west
to these juvenile isles and dance
among the gray feathers
that make up the brilliance of life.
If I appear too drunk to write
with steady hand and level mind
it is because I am too
undernourished not to go on.
Though sailors laugh
as I sketch the remarkable shapes
flourished since just one finch
lit upon Indefatigable’s jagged
beach, I am aware only of life’s
ability to persevere,
and evolve.

But in man’s own wilderness,
void of cottages and cobblestone
and into the saline deck
of navigator’s ship, perseverance
usurps evolution, discarding it quite
entirely. No, you should not dance here.
Dare say that I should not, either—
but for these birds and vines
and islands. And the faint memory
of a distant home.

In loving passage,
Charles

Three things Big Ben and the Beagle have in common:

2009-05-31T19:55:00.012+01:00

1. They're both British icons.

2. The the clock that faithfully triggers Big Ben's oh-so-recognisable chime (for "Big Ben" is actually the name of the bell, not the clock or the tower), has been ticking for 150 years today, and On the Origin of Species - the book that got its start in Darwin's notebooks aboard the Beagle - was published 150 years ago this year.

3. The man who built the clock, Edward Dent, also made a chronometer for HMS Beagle.

The Beagle had a whopping 22 chronometers, which enabled, as Fitzroy put it in his narrative of the 1831-1836 voyage, "a connected chain of meridian distances around the globe, the first that has ever been completed, or even attempted, by means of chronometers alone." This and other survey-related undertakings were the Beagle's chief purpose - not, as hindsight might tempt us to believe, to carry a young Charles Darwin around the world.

Bow of the sprit to @friendsofdarwin.

"My Dearest Catherine" (Part II)

2009-05-31T00:43:00.000+01:00

Simmons Buntin has kindly agreed to let us reproduce his series of three poems as imagined letters from Darwin to his sister Catherine when he was aboard the Beagle. They are published in his book of poems Riverfall (Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2005). They also appeared in MIT Press's anthology on evolution and progress. The first one is here, and today we post the second:

Letter from Charles Darwin to His Sister, Catherine

Simmons B. Buntin

Letter No. 2
9 June, 1834
My Dearest Catherine,

Our course lays due south, a new passage
through the Straight
of Magellan, and I cannot fathom
what strange currents lurk
beneath the iron clouds. Once
I captured the alien
view of Southern glaciers:
inverted domes rimmed with purest
white (oh, how the stars must be jealous!);
but Catherine, it is their blue
which holds me.
Fitzroy remarked
these are the frozen flames of Vulcan,
though I questioned the atmosphere
and found other evidence: ice
crystals gathering and refracting
the light. A simple combination
of muted sky and sea.

Yet I fear this voyage
is leaving me too scientific—it is not
some chemical reaction or
ice cones permeated by tropospheric rays.
There is more; and
I can only say, when I see these glaciers,
I am reminded of mother’s eyes.

Beneath heavy skies,
however, we are threatened
by harrowing winds and black
fingers of basalt.
These are unexplored waters,
so I am braced by the cartography, the geology—
yet I must fear
a wooden hull’s limitations.

28 July, 1834
Valparaiso!
We have anchored
(both our wind-tattered sails
and our restless feet) at the chief
seaport of Chile, the city
whose fragrances recall the intricate
tropical gardens of St. Cruz in Teneriffe.
And if the dense green
forests of Brasil cause your eyes
to ache, then Aconcaqua
and the long chain of Andes
will leave you blind!

I am reminded again
of the numerous species
which make up the grandeur of life:
I have seen, in the high
hills of Patagonia,
a bird larger in wingspan
than a British skiff’s sails, and more
buoyant. I have seen on the uneven
playas of Tierra del Fuego a dumb and
flightless bird six hands higher than my brow.
And I have seen, weaving
the icy Antarctic waters, a slick
bird whose wings
are more efficient
than the finest pair of fins. And I have found
a striking likeness in their thin bones,
in dry feathers...
Every evening I ask the Creator,
How long are the days of the Genesis,
oh Lord? Yet I cannot discuss
such a heresy with Fitzroy, who nearly abandons me
upon a lifeless rock in the Pacific;
but with you, I can leave
these questions, and more...

In loving passage,
Charles

A new CafePress shop in support of The HMS Beagle Project

2009-05-25T01:49:00.009+01:00

Sometimes I think, "that'd make a cool t-shirt". What can I say, I'm geeky like that. So to quench my creative thirst and make some more dough for The HMS Beagle Trust (UK Charity No. 1126192), I've created a new CafePress shop - Periphera - to complement The Beagle Project Shop. Here's the goods:

The Darwinius design is inspired by raw indignation and John Wilkins' blog post
and is available on t-shirts and a mug

Front (left) and back (right) of t-shirts commemorating the first tweet from space.

"My Dearest Catherine" (Part I)

2009-05-24T00:24:00.005+01:00

Letter from Charles Darwin to His Sister, Catherine

Simmons B. Buntin

21 January, 1832

My Dearest Catherine,

Passage to the Cape Verde Islands,
a minor stopover for the Beagle,
but a major one for myself.
Oh, if you could have seen my face—
the color of stitched linen at Downs
(where last I have seen either you or Susan).
How can I explain my misery at that time?
The tormenting waves, the incessant rocking,
always rising and collapsing
as my stomach did the same.
Fitzroy is a fine man,
as he would look in on me while
I lay idle at sick bay;
But Wickham, his first mate,
knew no friendship for me.
My quarters fare little better—
I share the poop cabin,
and have my drawers; the two others
(officers both) have lockers.

16 March, 1832

Finally it is Spring—
it seems as if even these vast seas
know the changes. They are richer,
though I knew well before we reached the mainland
we were there. A single leaf, a barkless twig,
a clod of saturated grass, still living—all signals.
No beauty exists in all the world
such as in these tropical lands.
In all my days of studying,
under Henslow or even Sir Adam Sedgwick,
I was never prepared for the absolute
numbers and grand diversity of life—
of species. I have been able to collect,
though I must have killed
hundreds of insects, small mammals, and birds.
(Do not worry, Catherine, I know how
you love life. These species are too numerous
for my sampling to harm.)
One butterfly must be named for you—
its wings are the majesty's blue blazoned
with scarlet, violet, and even silver.
How much it reminds me of your favorite brooch.
These lands have too many more to describe,
the brilliantly colored parrots, the gay
primates swinging on twisted branches...
Father must accuse me
of lizard-catching now, as well.

Yet in all of this beauty, one thing
remains disturbing. Here
on Bahia, on the Northeastern coast
of Brasil—chiseled into the delirious
greenness of rainforest—
man holds man captive.
Nothing plays enchanting in blood
mixing with sweat on the whip-cuts
of the negroes. Nothing enchanting
in the deep brown skin
chained with iron coils.
You must see the difference.
I collect a few specimens for knowledge,
for all—it is my passion, no man sees harm.
But these men, vulgar and cruel,
they act as if they transcend the Creator,
though He who created such solitudes
surely must not agree.

We depart for the South
in but a short while. I cannot say
I will be home soon—the Beagle
shelters my bed now, much as
the tropical canopy is secure in the mist.
You cannot know
unless you see these forests
and breathe this air...

With loving passage,
Charles

Originally published New Mexico Humanities Review.

It's never too late in the week for sex

2009-05-22T21:47:00.003+01:00

It's sex week at Deep Sea News! I know, I know, the week's almost over, but that just means there's even more good sea sex to read about than if I had posted this on Monday. "We are very excited for this theme week," wrote Beagle Project supporter and Deep Sea News contributor Kevin Zelnio in a recent email. "We have put a lot of time and effort into it," he continued. I'll bet they have. Now get on over there and read about underwater sex ...all in the name of science of course.

Space and ocean exploration win!

2009-05-22T00:08:00.007+01:00

Those of you who follow me on twitter will know I've been just a teeny tiny bit obsessed by the space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope scheduled to land tomorrow in Florida after an uber-successful mission. This fixation is part of my steadily building ~~addiction to~~ interest in NASA's doings ever since Mike Barratt emailed me almost exactly two years ago to suggest a NASA-Beagle Project collaboration (now codified by an International Space Act Agreement).

I've been watching as much of the live and recorded mission video* as life and work allow, and have come across some fantastic moments, which I've been tweeting. But there's one video in particular that's worth a nice fleshy blog treatment simply because it is absolutely chock-full of win:

STS-125 - ATLANTIS MEDIA EVENT FLIGHT DAY 11
(Source: NASA TV as archived at Space-Multimedia)

My personal highlights are:

1:10 - 'Why should I care about Hubble?'

ABC's Charlie Gibson asks Commander Scott Altman how he would answer someone who asked him to give a brief answer to the question above. Altman's answer included this: "Hubble, as a scientific instrument, takes incredible scientific observations that are cutting-edge, rewriting the textbooks, but at the same time bringing galaxies that are billions of light-years away into our own homes and hearts for us to look at and marvel at the beauty of this universe."

4:22 - Ingenuity, teamwork and perseverance

In response to Gibson's question about the now infamous sticky bolt, Mike Massimino (@Astro_Mike) says, "I remember coming back toward the airlock to fetch some tools because we couldn't get that bolt to go, and I was feelin' pretty sad about what was happening and concerned if we would be able to do the repair. And I remember looking up to the window ... of the shuttle and I saw my buddy Drew Feustel ... and he was just giving me thumbs-up and smiles and telling me - no one could hear but I could read his lips - "We're gonna be okay. We're gonna get it done."

7:30 - Questions from schoolchildren & twitterers

Megan McArthur and Drew Feustel answer schoolkids' questions about what it's like in space. You get the feeling that they're not ever going to forget the day they had a phone call with astronauts. Then the reporter asks a question that had been submitted via twitter. More questions from California science students at 18:24.

10:58 - Advice to rookie spacewalkers (and everyone)

A CBS reporter asks veteran Hubble spacewalker John Grunsfeld what was the most important advice he gave to the first-time spacewalkers. He said the most important advice is, "Don't hurry, manage frustration, and don't get crushed by the robotic arm." That's great advice for all of us ...well except maybe for the robotic arm, which isn't a particularly common workplace hazard for most of us.

16:52 - Oceanographer-turned-astronaut Megan McArthur on Earth's oceans

NBC News Washington notes that Megan has a doctorate in oceanography and asks her for her thoughts on the view from 350 miles up. She says, "It's a beautiful view up here ... it's breathtaking to look out at the world and see the oceans, and really so much of our planet is covered by oceans and it's a good reminder that we have so much at home on our own planet to explore and that exploration is ongoing. At my own university, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography - that's really where a flavor for exploration took hold and I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to be up here in a different mode of exploration, helping to carry on the exploration of our universe." Yep, a real pale blue dot moment.

21:05 - The economic benefits of the space program

Jimmy in Toronto asks why, during this economic turmoil, should the American taxpayer continue to fund the space program? John Grunsfeld replies with an impressive list of some of the direct economic benefits of the space program including energy technologies, national competitiveness in high technology, inspiration to kids to study math and science ("you'd be hard-pressed to find a K-12 classroom that doesn't have a Hubble image in it"), medical technologies, software, cancer detection. Then he finishes it off by pointing out that "for every dollar we put into NASA, we get many dollars back into our economy". Grunsfeld: 1, tea-bagger: 0.

Scott, John, Drew, Mass, Megan, Mike and Greg, you've done us proud, yet again. Have a safe journey home.

*Live video on NASA TV (schedule here), and for recorded content there's NASA's YouTube channel and also the excellent Space-Multimedia download site, both of which get most of the NASA TV content up within 24 hours. Some of the YouTube videos are abridged for length but usually the Space-Multimedia site serves up the full enchilada.

We get email ...from orbit!

2009-05-17T15:57:00.003+01:00

After we sent our birthday video greeting to Mike Barratt who celebrated his 50th aboard the International Space Station in April, I sent him this email via his colleague Susan Runco at Johnson Space Center in Houston:

Dear Mike

I'll be brief as I know you've got just a few things going on up there!

1. I hope you received and found time to watch our video birthday card. An amateur job we know, but heartfelt.

2. What great luck that the Dayton Daily News happened to ask you about the Beagle Project in your news conference on the 15th - the mention of our project in space has sparked quite a buzz down here in Beagledom!

3. We've got funding from the British Council for a research workshop + feasibility study in Brazil this autumn. It will include a series of day-cruises aboard the tall ship Tocorime to pilot science equipment, workflows, etc. We haven't set a date yet as I'm hoping we can plan this to coincide with ISS passes & your own availability. So you may get to do some Beagle Project science yourself after all! I'll discuss this in much more detail with your colleagues on the ground of course, but wanted you to know about it.

4. My home phone was unexpectedly disconnected last week as a result of being in between service providers. Hope I didn't miss a call from space! It should be back up and running as of tonight. Just to reiterate my contact details: [snip]

My warmest wishes to you, Gennady and Koichi for continued good health, enjoyment and success!

Karen

Here was his reply:

Terrific, many thanks. I received really nice birthday videos from Karen and Peter.

Actually glad some time has gone by before the Beagle targets, so that I am a little better with the whole CEO thing. There is definitely some skill to acquire.

Will be talking; having a great time up here, in spite of the age!

Ciao

Mike

What's this about 'Beagle targets', you ask?

In addition to upgrading the ISS and doing lots of science experiments, astronauts aboard the ISS also do a lot of Earth Observation. So, again via Sue Runco, we've sent up a list of 'targets' from the 1831-1836 voyage of HMS Beagle so that if and when the ISS passes over those points and Mike is in the position to photograph them, he can. This is all groundwork for our collaboration - formalised by an International Space Act Agreement - to correlate ISS imagery and ocean surface water samples taken from aboard the new Beagle.

Think this sounds exciting? Why not help us realise the new Beagle by donating to our build fund or buying something from our shop?

Royal Society Beagle podcast

2009-05-16T13:47:00.004+01:00

The Royal Society has just published its latest podcast: Marine Archaeology and 'Hunting the Beagle' in which maritime historian Dr Robert Prescott talks about his mission to locate the final resting place of HMS Beagle.

Podcast URL (MP3, 56.4 MB): http://royalsociety.org/podcast/audio/Beagle.mp3

Beagle Campaign opponents: ocean awareness FAIL

2009-05-13T22:20:00.008+01:00

Earlier this week, The Beagle Project endorsed The Beagle Campaign, a band of Royal Geographical Society fellows who seek 'the reactivation of the Royal Geographical Society's multidisciplinary research projects to greatly advance geographical science and knowledge.'

With the vote on the campaign's resolution less than a week away, the campaigners are ...well, campaigning and the RGS is urging its fellows to vote 'no'. Opinions are flying right and left in the press and online.

We've already explained in our endorsement why we support the campaign, but, since then, several wrong-headed statements have come out of the mouths and pens of the nay-sayers and they need some shouting down:

And so, to Christopher Ondaatjeo who said, "When the RGS was formed there was a need for exploration to places in Africa and so on; that need is not really there now."

...and to Max Davidson, who wrote, "However the vote goes at the special general meeting, perhaps the biggest problem facing the RGS is the shrinking world it inhabits: the great mountains have been scaled, the big rivers tamed. The expeditions that attract publicity today tend to be stunts rather than scientific research."

...and to Michael McCarthey who wrote, "Exploration is geography's past, and a very glamorous past it was, dangerous and romantic. Yet by the end of the Second World War, certainly by the 1960s, most of the globe had been discovered, if not mapped in detail; there was no more North-west Passage to be searched for."

...I give you this short video:

David Gallo explains how we've only explored 3% of the ocean, and the surprising discovery that the deep sea may contain more biological diversity and density than a tropical rainforest (thanks to Graham Steel for reminding me about this video)

In other words, there is absolutely more exploring to be done especially - but not exclusively - in the oceans. In its executive summary "The Legendary Ocean - The Unexplored Frontier" the U.S. Department of Commerce (Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere: Office of the Chief Scientist, NOAA) makes this statement:

"The ocean remains as one of Earth’s last unexplored frontiers. It has stirred our imaginations over the millenia and has led to the discovery of new of new lands, immense deposits and reservoirs of resources, and startling scientific findings...[snip]...In spite of the development of new technologies, comparatively little of the ocean has been studied...[snip]...As exciting and enlightening as ocean discoveries have been, they will pale in comparison to future discoveries.”

Deep sea scientist Craig McClain told me in an email that by his calculations based on the amounts of sampling he and collaborators have done with each of the different sampling devices (sleds, cores, ROV, submersibles, etc.), "we have sampled probably much less than 1% and probably closer to 0.5% an area roughly the size of Alaska".

And it's not just the oceans. Only 1-10% of the estimated number of multicellular species on Earth are known to science and if you added in unicellular organisms that number would be down to a tiny fraction of a percent. These organisms will both interact with and respond to a changing climate, having a profound affect on our own species' future.

The Beagle Project endorses The Beagle Campaign

2009-05-11T10:11:00.005+01:00

Last week Beagle Project co-founder David Lort-Phillips and I sent a rare email shot, in which we announced our endorsement of The Beagle Campaign "for the reactivation of the Royal Geographical Society's multidisciplinary research projects to greatly advance geographical science and knowledge":

Dear friends and supporters of The HMS Beagle Project,

We would like to call to your attention a like-minded movement of Royal Geographical Society fellows called the Beagle Campaign, which seeks a reactivation of the Society's multidisciplinary research projects to greatly advance geographical science and knowledge.

http://thebeaglecampaign.com/

This initiative shares with our own project more than just our historic namesake; it also embodies central elements of our own mission and values, in particular, a commitment to bold, expeditionary science aligned with inspirational public engagement programming. The Beagle Campaign is working hard to gather support in advance of the Society's SGM on 18th May. Whether you are a Fellow of the RGS or an interested member of the general public, we invite you to learn about the campaign via the link above and, if you feel compelled as we do, register your support on their website.

If you happen to be a Fellow of the RGS, we urge you to attend the SGM and vote with us in support of the Beagle Campaign's resolution, which calls upon the Society to once again mount its own multidisciplinary research projects for the advancement of geographical science and knowledge.

With thanks for your continued interest in the HMS Beagle Project,

Karen James PhD FLS, DIrector for Science
David Lort-Phillips FRGS, Co-Founder
The HMS Beagle Project
Bringing the adventure of science to life
http://thebeagleproject.com/

The vote is now one week away and the campaign is getting more and more press, including:

The Beagle Campaign public launch in the Financial Times
Country Life: Bring back expeditions (PDF)
Country Life: Has the RGS lost its way? (PDF)
Observer Article by Dr. John Hemming, former Director of RGS
A mini-debate on this morning's Radio4 Today programme featuring explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison and the Earl of Selborne, former president of the RGS

Darwin: A Graphic Biography

2009-05-07T20:52:00.000+01:00

by Simon Gurr and Eugene Byrne
B.C.D.P. Bristol 2009
FREE (info here, or go to the Small Press Expo where 250 copies will be given away)
Preview on Flickr

In autumn 2007 I stumbled across a blurb on the then-nascent Darwin200 website announcing that a graphic biography about Darwin's voyage on HMS Beagle would be published in 2009 and distributed free of charge.

I loved this idea, especially its potential to interest a new audience in Darwin's adventures, both physical and intellectual. But I was troubled by the proposed cover illustration (right), which prompted me to write Simon Gurr an open letter complaining that "when Darwin met his first marine iguana on the Galapagos Islands in 1835 he was only 26 years old. Your Darwin looks more like this photo taken at age 45."

I needn't have worried. The free paperback is a fast-paced, funny and remarkably accurate* romp through Darwin's life and scientific contributions, with plenty of attention paid to the young Darwin, in particular his voyage on HMS Beagle.

The ups, downs and near-misses of Darwin's youth are portrayed honestly and without foreshadowing of his later fame, making it easy to forget our certainty that our hero will become ...well, our hero. This is a key point that I hope will get through to the book's younger readers: that Darwin wasn't somehow predestined to greatness. He was curious, patient and meticulous. He persevered.

'Charles had trouble persuading his father that sailing around the world for a few years was a useful way of spending big chunks of the Darwin fortune.' Source: Darwin: A Graphic Biography preview on Flickr.

Gurr and Byrne are similarly successful in their explanations of evolutionary theory before, during and after Darwin's life, which provide an essential context for any portrayal of Darwin's contribution to science. The story is 'presented' by a television crew of primates and this allows for a certain amount of basic Q&A without coming across as didactic.

Despite my growing numbness to the torrent of Darwiniana that shows no sign of abating as the anniversary year nears its mid-point, reading this book was a real pleasure, which was doubled by the prospect of the book being picked up by readers who might not be particularly disposed to crack Desmond and Moore's or Browne's tomes. Readers like these:

'The Lord Mayor of Bristol, pupils of New Oak Primary School, and the Lady Mayoress with copies of The Lost World and Darwin: A Graphic Biography at Bristol Zoo.' Source: Darwin: A Graphic Biography preview on Flickr.

So what about the cover? In the event, the authors (or perhaps the publishers?) decided not to make Darwin younger on the cover, but rather to replace the iguana with an orang-utan (Jenny perhaps?), whom Darwin would have seen face to face at London Zoo during his bald but still beardless phase. Not young Darwin, but accurate at least, and as I hope I've indicated above, not in the least indicative that Gurr and Byrne think of Darwin as a "stuff-shirted Nigel Bruce".

*insofar as a humble geneticist with a special interest in Darwin can say

Please forgive us dear readers

2009-05-07T14:35:00.005+01:00

...for this uncharacteristic lull in posting frequency. There's a lot going on in our various little corners of the Beagleverse, but you can all rest assured we are still under full sail when it comes to rebuilding the little ship that changed the world!

A post coming shortly on the merits of and things we have in common with the aptly named Beagle Campaign but until then you might enjoy this pictorial placeholder:

The wheel, rigging and ensign of HMS Surprise at the San Diego Maritime Museum. Photo: Karen James 2008

Comment moderation...

2009-05-04T15:32:00.001+01:00

sorry folks, it's back on. The spammers had found us. We'll try to approve as quickly as possible.

Shiny new Beagle Project video reel (with added me)

2009-04-20T19:19:00.006+01:00

I'm this close (imagine me holding my thumb and forefinger about a femtometre apart) to replacing ye olde Splashcast player that currently resides in our sidebar for a far more web2.0-friendly alternative, Embedr, which takes not only YouTube but Vimeo too. So with no ado whatsoever, here's our new Beagle Project video reel.

The fourth video in the playlist is my hour-long lecture "The Voyages of the Beagles", which I was invited to give for the Natural History Museum members' events series. It's 54 minutes, so you'll need popcorn. *blushes, shuffles feet and clicks "publish"*

Just magic.

2009-04-19T21:30:00.000+01:00

Go and watch.

Video birthday card to astronaut Mike Barratt

2009-04-16T15:44:00.005+01:00

Today Beagle Project collaborator astronaut Mike Barratt is celebrating his 50th birthday aboard the International Space Station. To thank him for all the great work he's done aligning NASA and the Beagle Project we thought we'd record him a birthday message. Mike is a great fan of Captain James Cook and Charles Darwin, so we came to Cook's maritime home of Whitby and the Natural History Museum in London which is a haven of all things Darwin to wish Mike many happy returns:

Birthday in space from Beagle Project on Vimeo.

Drop everything

2009-04-16T00:40:00.002+01:00

...and go to 17:40 in this video:

I am going to go hyperventilate now for about 8 hours but when I come back I hope to be able to provide some commentary more astute and articulate than "OMG Squeeeeeeeeee!" which is about all I can muster at the moment.

Keel Overhauled: 175 years ago, a rather ticklish operation

2009-04-16T00:00:00.013+01:00

In early 1827, during her first voyage in South America, HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain Pringle Stokes, was beating a hasty retreat from storms in the Strait of Magellan when she struck a submerged rock near Port Desire, damaging a large section of her false keel. In December 1833, during her second voyage under Captain Robert FitzRoy, Beagle was leaving Port Desire when she once again struck a rock. FitzRoy was convinced that it was the same rock. Charged with accurately mapping the South American coast for shipping, the ever-fastidious captain returned to the spot the following month to try to locate the rock, but to no avail. The ship's carpenter, Jonathan May, assured FitzRoy that Beagle must have knocked the top off the rock with her keel.

Being about to pass through the Strait of Magellan, FitzRoy did not want to risk having a damaged hull on his ship. Although Beagle was still watertight, any damage to her copper sheathing would leave her timbers open to attack from the South Pacific's notorious wood-boring worms.

One of the books in Beagle's well-stocked library was the sealer and Antarctic explorer James Weddell's snappily entitled:

A voyage towards the South Pole performed in the years 1822–24. Containing an examination of the Antarctic Sea, to the seventy-fourth degree of latitude; and a visit to Tierra del Fuego, with a particular account of the inhabitants. To which is added, much useful information on the coasting navigation of Cape Horn, and the adjacent lands.

Weddell's book did indeed contain much useful information. In one section about the Santa Cruz River he wrote, "The rise of the tide is so great in this river, being thirty-two feet, that the keel of the largest ship may be examined, by laying her on the ground". FitzRoy decided it was time to inspect Beagle's keel. He made for the Santa Cruz and, 175 years ago today, on 16th April, 1834, Charles Darwin recorded in his Beagle Journal:

16^th The Ship was laid on shore; it was found that several feet of her false keel were knocked off, but this is no essential damage; one tide was sufficient to repair her & after noon she floated off & was again moored in safety. Nothing could be more favourable than both the weather & place for this rather ticklish operation. —

The event gave us one of the most iconic images of HMS Beagle: this magnificent engraving based on a sketch by Beagle's newly installed artist in residence, Conrad Martens:

Beagle laid ashore, River Santa Cruz

To commemorate the event, FitzRoy named the spot at which they beached Beagle Keel Point. He calculated the point's latitude and 'relatively right' longitude to be: 50° 06' 45" S and 4h 33m 34s W respectively. This converts into decimal as 50.1125°S and 68.3917°W, the point indicated by the pin on this clickable Google map:

The co-ordinates of Keel Point calculated by FitzRoy

FitzRoy's calculations were pretty spot-on. The beach with the jetty to the south west of the pin is still known as Punta Quilla (Keel Point). This modern photograph of the beach clearly shows the same low, crumbling cliffs depicted in Martens' image.

I wonder if the good people of Punta Quilla know how their beach got its name, and whether they will be celebrating its 175th birthday today.

Sources:

HMS Beagle: The ship that changed the course of history by Keith S Thomson
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 1: 1821–1836, Appendix IV, The books on board the Beagle
The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online
Google Maps