at the age of twelve and first went to sea at the age of fourteen. When eighteen he was
promoted to lieutenant after passing the examination with ‘full numbers’ (100%) – the
first to achieve this result. As the imperious aristocrat that he was, he saw the world in
black and white, right and wrong, and there were no shades in between. By his mid-
twenties he was immensely qualified, but ruled his ship with an iron fist. Considered
to be at his worst in the mornings, when he made his inspections of the ship and its
crew, he was generally able to detect something amiss and was unsparing in laying
blame. The junior officers when they relieved each other would ask ‘whether much
hot coffee had been served out this morning’, meaning how was the captain’s temper?
FitzRoy was deeply religious, the Church being an integral part of the aristocratic
world to which he belonged. He believed in the literal truth of the Bible and thought
the voyage would provide someone like Charles Darwin a great opportunity to find
evidence of the first appearance of all God’s creatures on earth and of the biblical
Flood.
Bad weather delayed the departure of the Beagle and they were still in harbour on
Christmas Day. For some of the crew it might be the last Christmas in England they
would ever see, so they decided to make it a memorable one and some returned to the
ship, late, drunk and insolent. Hungover the next day, many men were unfit for duty
and were placed in irons. As Darwin noted in his diary ‘the ship has been all day in
a state of anarchy ... Several have paid the penalty for insolence, by sitting for eight
or nine hours in heavy chains.’ This was going to be a long voyage and FitzRoy was
unflinching in providing the naval discipline required, as he recorded in his log:
John Bruce: 25 lashes for drunkenness, quarrelling and insolence
David Russel: 34 lashes for breaking his leave and disobeying orders
James Phipps: 44 lashes for breaking his leave, drunkenness and insolence
Elias Davis: 31 lashes for reported neglect of dutyFor the pampered and privileged Charles Darwin, the sounds of the lash and the
screams of suffering would have been a harsh introduction to navy life – yet his diary
remains silent on this matter. The early weeks at sea were a misery for Darwin as he
suffered severely from seasickness, a problem which was to continue for the rest of
the voyage. He wrote to his family that:
The misery I endured is far beyond what I ever guessed at ... The real misery only begins
when you are so exhausted that a little exertion makes a feeling of faintness come on – I
found that nothing but lying in a hammock did any good.66 Where Australia Collides with Asia
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