It was revolutionary and much longer than expected – it lasted five years instead of two. The round-the-world boat journey from England took place between 1831 and 1836, at a time when Europe was teetering between creationist and evolutionist explanations for how the animal world works. The adventure marked Charles Darwin and led the young British scientist to conclusions that would forever change the way we understand nature. Although the idea of gradual evolution was already discussed in Darwin’s time, the naturalist’s greatest insight was to unravel the way in which this evolution takes place.
Around the World in 80 Species
Charles Darwin embarked to keep the captain company, but ended up revolutionizing biology
1. The mission of the voyage, which left England in 1831, was to map the coast of South America in order to update British nautical charts and, in addition, to leave in Patagonia three indigenous Argentines who had been catechized. Darwin, then 22 years old, was invited on the “ride” just to keep the captain, Robert Fitzroy, company.
two. The Beagle ship docked in Bahia and then headed to Rio, where creationism, the religious belief that God created all living beings, had its first blow. Watching a fly inject its eggs into a live caterpillar so that the larvae would feed on the entrails, Darwin wondered how a «good» God could have made such a cruel creature. Another shock for Darwin in Brazil was witnessing the slave trade, practice that had already been abolished in England in 1808
3. After a passage through Uruguay, the Beagle anchored in Argentina, where it freed the indigenous people who had been captured years before. In the country, Darwin collected fossils of ancestral sloths and armadillos and found that they were giant animals, which changed a lot until they became the descendants of today.
4. The ship continued south, arriving in Patagonia, where Darwin found yet another clue to the evolution of species: there were two types of rheas in the region, but one specimen was giant (to the north) and the other was small (to the south). The resemblance between the animals suggested that one species originated the other or that both had a common ancestor.
5. On the Galápagos Islands, Darwin found birds with different beaks: some for eating seeds, others for cacti. Years later, he would understand that birds had a common ancestor, but evolved in different environments: those that underwent mutations that were advantageous for their environment survived and passed the traits on to their descendants.
6. Despite being shaken by the discoveries, Darwin’s creationist faith endured. In Australia, in 1836, he observed the trap used by the ant lion to capture its prey and concluded that only a Creator could have given the animal this complex mechanism. He also found the platypus strange and considered it to be the result of a “special project” by God.
7. The ship still traveled for eight months after leaving Oceania. Along the way, Darwin collected and shipped bones, carcasses, stones, and plants to English specialists. When he returned to England in October 1836, he listened to the expert opinion who had received his samples and began to outline his theory.
Boat technical sheet
Name – HMS Beagle
Type – Two-masted brawl
Weight – 242 tons
Length – 27.5m
Crew – 73 people
First travel – 1826
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Two decades of meditation
The Origin of Species was not published until 1859
Darwin worked on his book for the 23 years following the voyage. It was only after he learned that a colleague, Alfred Russel Wallace, was going to publish a work with theses similar to his own that he decided to speed things up. He exposed a “draft” in 1858, which evolved into a book the following year. The reception was controversial, with members of the clergy outraged at the idea that man and apes shared a common ancestry. From 1861, Darwin’s ideas about mutation, natural selection and adaptation to the environment began to be accepted.