Charles Darwin – In Londonand a grander title – Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History
of the various countries visited by the HMS Beagle under the command of Captain
FitzRoy from 1832 to 1836. Darwin was praised in reviews of the book and described
as a ‘first-rate landscape-painter with a pen’. Retitled again in the 1845 edition his
volume became The Voyage of the Beagle and remains one of the great travel books
of the age.
Unfortunately for FitzRoy, and to his great chagrin, he became known as the
captain who sailed Darwin around the world in the Beagle. In 1843, he was nominated
as lieutenant governor of New Zealand where he served for three years. Here, he faced
intractable problems of Maori land rights and land-hungry white settlers which led to
a settlers’ revolt, his effigy being burned, and his recall to London. For two years from
1849 he served as superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard and oversaw the trials of the
navy’s first screw-driven steamship, although he remained an unconverted sailing ship
man. He resigned from the navy in 1850 and in 1851 was elected to the Royal Society
where he developed his interest in meteorology. He was instrumental in providing
port towns and the captains of all ships, both naval and maritime, with the instruments
needed to measure atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind direction and humidity.
This data could be used to build synoptic charts and provide weather forecasts for
shipping. His work saved the loss of many lives at sea and he was promoted to admiral
in 1857 and vice admiral in 1863. Robert FitzRoy became known as the father of
meteorology in Great Britain, yet despite his success there was always public criticism
when inevitably some weather forecasts proved to be tragically wrong.
There was something missing in Darwin’s life. He would soon be thirty years old,
and his thoughts turned to marriage. He assumed that marriage must mean an end
to his comfortable and carefree life as a gentleman naturalist. Like a true scientist,
Darwin drew up a list with two columns under the headings, Marry and Not Marry. He
probably spent many hours listing the advantages and disadvantages of married life,
finally writing this conclusion on the bottom of his list:
My God, it is intolerable to think of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working,
working, and nothing after all. No, no won’t do. Imagine living all one’s day solitary in a
smoky dirty London House.He did not have to look far for the ‘nice soft wife’ on his list and in November 1838
he married his cousin Emma Wedgwood who had been his friend and companion
since childhood. By marrying within the family they strengthened the ties of position
and money binding the Darwin and Wedgwood dynasties and their financial future
was such that Charles Darwin could devote all his future efforts to science. The only
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