to make to you. He entirely approves of it, and you may consider the situation as at your
absolute disposal ... Captain FitzRoy (a nephew of the Duke of Grafton) sails at the end
of September, in a ship to survey, in the first instance, the South Coast of Tierra del Fuego,
afterwards to visit the South Sea Islands, and return by the Indian Archipelago to England
...The ship sails about the end of September, and you must lose no time in making known
your acceptance to Captain Beaufort.
Very Truly Yours,
George PeacockSeveral Spanish colonies in South America, including Argentina, Chile and Peru
had fought and won their freedom from Spain in 1814 to 1824. Britain, now the
world’s most powerful maritime nation, wished to gain influence in the region and
had established naval stations in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. The existing nautical
charts of the coastlines were less than accurate and in 1826 the Admiralty sent HMS
Beagle and its support ship HMS Adventure to survey the coastlines around Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego.
A captain in the Royal Navy had to exercise unquestioned power, enforced by
severe corporal punishment. He could not afford to become intimate with his officers
and crew, however much he might like or respect them, which included eating around a
common table. Conversation around the act of breaking bread with our fellow humans
is one thing that can help keep us sane, yet the captain usually dined alone. In this
first voyage of the Beagle its captain, Pringle Stokes, after two years of stressful and
dangerous work, became increasingly depressed and in June 1828 he prophetically
wrote in his journal:
Nothing could be more dreary than the scene around us. The lofty, bleak, and barren heights
that surround the inhospitable shores of this inlet, were covered, even low down their sides,
with dense clouds, upon which the fierce squalls that assailed us beat, without causing any
change ... Around us, and some of them distant no more than two-thirds of a cable’s length,
were rocky inlets, lashed by a tremendous surf; and, as if to complete the dreariness and
utter desolation of the scene, even the birds seemed to shun its neighborhood. The weather
was that in which... the soul of man dies in him.Overwhelmed by the challenges of the survey and the unforgiving sea conditions
he fell into a deep depression in the desolate waters of Tierra del Fuego. At Port
Famine in the Strait of Magellan he locked himself into his cabin for fourteen days,
before shooting himself in the head. It was Robert FitzRoy who replaced Stokes after
his long and horrible suicide in the cold and lonely waters off the southern tip of the
South American mainland.
60 Where Australia Collides with Asia
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