Where Australia Collides with Asiafrom the Admiralty did not include a second vessel and in his letter requesting their
approval he wrote:
I believe their Lordships will approve of what I have done, but if I am wrong, no inconvenience
will result to the public service, since I alone am responsible for the agreement ... and am
able and willing to pay the stipulated sum.Not only did FitzRoy consider an additional vessel essential for his and his crew’s
safety but his voyage was the first in which a survey vessel had been ordered to
operate without a support vessel. Captain Beaufort was supportive and in his letter
of recommendation to the Admiralty stated that it was unusually risky to send a ship
alone to explore a remote corner of the world because if she struck a reef her crew
could easily perish without a support vessel standing by. Thus, FitzRoy was entirely
unprepared for the Admiralty’s response when their Lordships did not approve of him
hiring an additional vessel and desired that it be discharged as soon as possible. There
would be no reimbursement and FitzRoy was forced to sell the Adventure below his
cost. It was a double loss and a blow that affected FitzRoy deeply. Darwin was the
closest to him and during that winter FitzRoy’s depression seemed to be bordering on
insanity. In a letter home Darwin wrote that: ‘He had a morbid depression of spirits
and had lost all decision and resolution. The Captain was afraid that his mind was
becoming deranged.’
The suicide of his predecessor on the Beagle, Pringle Stokes, must have also
weighed heavily on FitzRoy’s mind and he decided to resign his command. Lieutenant
Wickham was the second-in-charge, but he carefully pointed out to FitzRoy that the
instructions from the Admiralty were to survey as much of the south-west coast of
South America as possible, not to survey all of it, and that if he were to take command
he would sail directly across the Pacific and complete the rest of their planned voyage
as soon as possible. After further contemplation and after recovering his strong sense
of duty, FitzRoy decided to withdraw his resignation and the Beagle spent another
year surveying the west coast of South America before he decided his work was done.
In September 1835, almost four years after leaving England, the Beagle sailed west
from Peru into the Pacific Ocean. Their next stop was the Galapagos Islands. Here
the landscape is pockmarked with thousands of small volcanic craters and almost
the entire surface of the islands is covered in lava and associated red scoria. In the
distance Darwin could see smoke and ash being emitted from the summit of one of the
larger volcanoes. This was new land being created in the Pacific Ocean 900 kilometres
from the South American continent:
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