North South University

Date: 23rd August, 2013

Project: HMS Beagle
Course Name: BIO103; Section # 11
Semester: Summer, 2013

Prepared For:
Dr. S. M. Mostafa Kamal Khan
Associate Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry & Microbiology
North South University
Prepared by:

NAME

ID

Sarker Md. Sadman Shabab

1210458030

Md. Faizul Arefin Bhuiyan

1221139030

Farhana Amin

1310197630

Assignment for partial fulfillment of the course

H.M.S Beagle

Introduction:
H.M.S Beagle was the ship in which Charles Robert Darwin travelled from England through
South America and the Galapagos Island and came back to England again. This was a five year
journey starting form 1831 and ending at 1836.

Fig: Schematic drawing of the H.M.S Beagle

Brief Outline:
H.M.S Beagle was launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1820 for the very first time. She was
originally a 10-gun but was refitted and allocated to the new surveying program. She underwent
a number of improvements throughout her life on the seas. For example, her hull was reinforced
and a mizzen-mast was added to make her more maneuverable in shallow coastal waters.
Beagle's first voyage (18261830) of exploration was to South America, surveying Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego. The second voyage (183136) took Beagle to South America and then
around the world. The naturalist Charles Robert Darwin was on board during this voyage, which
became one of the most famous and important voyages of exploration ever made. Beagle's third
and final voyage (183743) surveyed large parts of the Australian coast.

Description of the Journey:

Charles Darwins five-year voyage on H.M.S Beagle has become legendary, as insights gained by the
bright young scientist on his trip to exotic places greatly influenced his masterwork, the book On the
Origin of Species By means Of Natural Selection. While sailing around the world aboard the Royal
Navy ship, the exotic plants and animals Darwin encountered, challenged his thinking and led him to
consider scientific evidence in new ways.
H.M.S Beagle is remembered today because of its association with Robert Charles Darwin, but it had
sailed on a lengthy scientific mission several years before Darwin came into the picture. The Beagle, a
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warship carrying ten cannons, sailed in 1826 to explore the coastline of South America. The ship had an
unfortunate episode when its captain sank into a depression, perhaps caused by the isolation of the
voyage, and committed suicide. Lieutenant Robert FitzRoy assumed command of the Beagle, continued
the voyage, and returned the ship safely to England in 1830. FitzRoy was promoted to Captain and named
to command the ship on a second voyage, which was to circumnavigate the globe while conducting
explorations along the South American coastline and across the South Pacific.
FitzRoy came up with the idea of bringing along someone with a scientific background who could
explore and record observations. Part of FitzRoys plan was that an educated civilian, referred to as a
gentleman passenger, would be good company aboard ship and would help him avoid the loneliness
that seemed to have doomed his predecessor.

Inquiries were made among professors at British universities, and a former professor of Darwins
proposed him for the position aboard the Beagle.
After taking his final exams at Cambridge in 1831, Darwin spent a few weeks on a geological
expedition to Wales. He had intended to return to Cambridge that fall for theological training, but
a letter from a professor, John Steven Henslow, inviting him to join the Beagle, changed
everything.
Darwin was excited to join the ship, but his father was against the idea, thinking it foolhardy.
Other relatives convinced Darwins father otherwise, and during the fall of 1831 the 22-year-old
Darwin made preparations to depart England for five years.

With its eager passenger aboard, the Beagle left England on December 27, 1831. The ship
reached the Canary Islands in early January, and continued onward to South America, which was
reached by the end of February 1832.
During the explorations of South America, Darwin was able to spend considerable time on land,
sometimes arranging for the ship to drop him off and pick him up at the end of an overland trip.
He kept notebooks to record his observations, and during quiet times on board the Beagle he
would transcribe his notes into a journal.

In the summer of 1833 Darwin went inland with gauchos in Argentina. During his treks in South
America Darwin dug for bones and fossils, and was also exposed to the horrors of slavery and
other human rights abuses.
Near Cape Verde Porto Praya, Darwin observed that soil had been made of hardened lava, and
had been dried by the sun. This was a type of soil that no one had seen before. Because of its
consistency, plants had not been able to live in this soil.
In Buenos Ares, Darwin states a long list of animals that are familiar to him, which he has found
the remains of. One he says seems to be a type of horse, and another closely related to the
elephant, but with quite contrary teeth. All of the animals in his discovery are linked one way or
another to a known species today. He is making the inference that the animals we can connect
them to, are either descendants of the animals belonging to the remains he has found, or both
animals, living and dead, are species of the same animal.
After considerable explorations in South America, the Beagle reached the Galapagos Islands in
September 1835. Darwin was fascinated by such oddities as volcanic rocks and giant tortoises.
He later wrote about approaching tortoises, which would retreat into their shells. The young
scientist would then climb on top, and attempt to ride the large reptile when it began moving
again. He recalled that it was difficult to keep his balance.
While in the Galapagos Darwin collected samples of mockingbirds, and later observed that the
birds were somewhat different on each island. This made him think that the birds had a common
ancestor, but had followed varying evolutionary paths once they were separated.
Darwin noticed the way the dolphins were designed so well to cut through the water. He
observed them jumping and splicing the water. Darwin thought of how they were designed and
wondered if they had always been this way.
On the islands, it seems that there is much bigger vegetation on the sections with a higher
altitude. Here it is windier, and the moisture of the air is a good climate for the plants to live. As
you descend the mountain, the vegetation is scarcer. These plants have adapted to living in a
higher climate with more water. Maybe the plants on the lower side of the mountains with
eventually adapt too.
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While speaking most exclusively to tortoises, Darwin does mention there are differences due to
the differences in the islands, their climates, and other factors, that different species of what was
once the same animal have evolved since Pangea.
The Beagle left the Galapagos and arrived at Tahiti in November 1835, and then sailed onward to
reach New Zealand in late December. In January 1836 the Beagle arrived in Australia, where
Darwin was favorably impressed by the young city of Sydney.
After exploring coral reefs, the Beagle continued on its way, reaching the Cape of Good Hope on
the southern tip of Africa at the end of May 1836. Sailing back into the Atlantic Ocean, the
Beagle, in July, reached St. Helena, the remote island where Napoleon Bonaparte had died in
exile. The Beagle also reached a British outpost on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, where
Darwin received some very welcome letters from his sister in England.
The Beagle then sailed back to the coast of South America before returning to England, arriving
at Falmouth on October 2, 1836. The entire voyage had taken nearly five years.

Theory of evolution:
Upon return to London, further analysis of the specimens collected on the voyage led Darwin to
several related theories:
1. Evolution did occur
2. Evolutionary change was gradual, occurring over thousands and millions of years
3. The primary mechanism for evolution was a process Darwin referred to as natural
selection
4. The millions of species alive today arose from a single original life form through a
branching process he called 'specialization'
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5. Organisms struggle for the necessities of life; there is competition for resources
6. Better-adapted individuals (the "fit enough") are more likely to survive and reproduce,
thereby passing on copies of their genes to the next generation
Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly
and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to
adapt to its environment. He first published these theories in his book On the Origin of Species
By Means Of Natural Selection in 1859. And hence Charles Robert Darwin is known as the
Father of Evolution.

Conclusion:
The chief mission of the voyage was to explore the southern portions of South America. A 22year-old naturalist named Charles Robert Darwin joined the expedition and made it the most
noteworthy voyage of exploration of the 19th century. On the morning of 27 December, 1831,
the Beagle left her anchorage in the Barn Pool, under Mount Edgecumbe on the west side of
Plymouth Sound, England. A lesser priority was given to surveying approaches to harbors on the
Falkland Islands and, season permitting, the Galapagos Islands. After completing extensive
surveys in South America she returned via New Zealand, Sydney, Hobart Town, to Falmouth,
Cornwall, England on 2 October 1836. Darwin had kept a diary of his experiences, and rewrote
this as the book titled Journal and Remarks, published in 1839. Finally he wrote On the
Origin of Species By Means Of Natural Selection. This travelogue and scientific journal was
widely popular, and was reprinted many times with various titles, becoming known as The
Voyage of the Beagle as well.

Reference
1.
2.
3.
4.

http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/faqs/ships-and-vessels/hms-beagle-faqs
http://www.sparknotes.com/biology/evolution/darwin/summary.html
http://jonbearr.hubpages.com/hub/A-summary-of-Charles-Darwins-findings
http://history1800s.about.com/od/innovators/a/hmsbeagle.htm
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5. http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/explorers-and-leaders/charles-darwin-andhms-beagle