voyage of the beagle interactive map

Charles Darwin and   ‍ The Voyage Of The Beagle

a Scroll Storytelling

Beagle sailed from Plymouth Sound on 27 December 1831 under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy. While the expedition was originally planned to last two years, it lasted almost five—Beagle did not return until 2 October 1836. Darwin spent most of this time exploring on land (three years and three months on land; 18 months at sea).

Plymouth, U.K.

"Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N., sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December, 1831...to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego..."

Canary Islands

"On the 6th of January we reached Teneriffe but were prevented landing by fears of our bringing the cholera.  The next morning we saw the sun rise behind the rugged outline of the Grand Canary island and suddenly illuminate the Peak of Teneriffe whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds."

"On the 16th of January, 1832, we anchored at Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago.  It then first dawned on me that I might perhaps write a book..."

Saint Peter and Paul Rocks

"In crossing the Atlantic we hove to the morning of February 16th close to the island of St Paul's. We found on St. Paul's only two kinds of birds—the booby and the noddy."

Fernando Noronha, Brazil

"The whole island is covered with wood; but from the dryness of the climate there is no appearance of luxuriance."

Salvador, Brazil

"The day has passed delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest."

Abrolhos Islets, Brazil

"...when not far distant from the Abrolhos Islets, my attention was called to a reddish-brown appearance in the sea. These are minute cylindrical confervae, in bundles or rafts of from twenty to sixty in each."

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

"During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of insects."

Montevideo, Uruguay

"We anchored at Monte Video. The Beagle was employed in surveying the extreme southern and eastern coasts of America, south of the Plata, during the two succeeding years."

Bahía Blanca, Argentina

"We passed the night in Punta Alta, and I employed myself in searching for fossil bones; this point being a perfect catacomb for monsters of extinct races."

Port Desire, Argentina

"The guanaco, or wild llama, is the characteristic quadruped of the plains of Patagonia; it is the South American representative of the camel of the East. They are generally wild and extremely wary."

Tierra del Fuego

"In the morning the Captain sent a party to communicate with the Fuegians. When we came within hail, one of the four natives who were present advanced to receive us, and began to shout most vehemently, wishing to direct us where to land."

"I do not think that our Fuegians were much more superstitious than some of the sailors; for an old quartermaster firmly believed that the successive heavy gales, which we encountered off Cape Horn, were caused by our having the Fuegians on board."

York Minster

“…we fetched within a few miles of the great rugged mountain of York Minster (so called by Captain Cook), when a violent squall compelled us to shorten sail and stand out to sea.”

Falkland Islands

"An undulating land, with a desolate and wretched aspect, is everywhere covered by a peaty soil and wiry grass, of one monotonous brown colour."

Rio Negro, Argentina

"The country near the mouth of the river is wretched in the extreme: on the south side a long line of perpendicular cliffs commences, which exposes a section of the geological nature of the country."

Gregory Bay

Río santa cruz, argentina.

"...scarcely anything was known about this large river. Captain Fitz Roy now determined to follow its course as far as time would allow."

Valparaiso, Chile

"The Beagle anchored late at night in the bay of Valparaiso.  When morning came, everything appeared delightful. After Tierra del Fuego, the climate felt quite delicious. The view from the anchorage is very pretty."

Chiloé Island, Chile

"In the wooded island of Chiloe, which has an extremely humid climate, this little bird [Trochilus forficatus], skipping from side to side amidst the dripping foliage, is perhaps more abundant than almost any other kind."

Valdivia, Chile

"There is not much cleared land near Valdivia: after crossing a river at the distance of a few miles, we entered the forest, and then passed only one miserable hovel, before reaching our sleeping-place for the night."

Concepción, Chile

"The mayor-domo of the estate quickly rode down to tell me the terrible news of the great earthquake of the 20th:—'That not a house in Concepcion or Talcahuano (the port) was standing; that seventy villages were destroyed; and that a great wave had almost washed away the ruins of Talcahuano.'"

Iquique, Chile

"The town contains about a thousand inhabitants, and stands on a little plain of sand at the foot of a great wall of rock, 2000 feet in height, here forming the coast. The whole is utterly desert."

"Lima stands on a plain in a valley, formed during the gradual retreat of the sea. Steep barren hills rise like islands from the plain, which is divided, by straight mud-walls, into large green fields. In these scarcely a tree grows excepting a few willows, and an occasional clump of bananas and of oranges."

Galápagos, Equador

"As I was walking along I met two large tortoises, each of which must have weighed at least two hundred pounds: one was eating a piece of cactus, and as I approached, it stared at me and slowly walked away; the other gave a deep hiss, and drew in its head."

"The survey of the Galapagos Archipelago being concluded, we steered towards Tahiti and commenced our long passage of 3,200 miles."

Pahia, New Zeland

"New Zealand is favoured by one great natural advantage; namely, that the inhabitants can never perish from famine. The whole country abounds with fern: and the roots of this plant, if not very palatable, yet contain much nutriment."

Sydney, Australia

"At last we anchored within Sydney Cove. In the evening I walked through the town, and returned full of admiration at the whole scene. "

Hobart, Tasmania

"Late in the evening we anchored in the snug cove on the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania. The first aspect of the place was very inferior to that of Sydney; the latter might be called a city, this is only a town. "

Cocos Islands

"The ring-formed reef of the lagoon-island is surmounted in the greater part of its length by linear islets. On entering, the scene was very curious and rather pretty; its beauty, however, entirely depended on the brilliancy of the surrounding colours."

"In the morning we passed round the northern end of Mauritius. From this point of view the aspect of the island equalled the expectations raised by the many well-known descriptions of its beautiful scenery."

Cape Town, South Africa

"With regard to the number of large quadrupeds, there certainly exists no quarter of the globe which will bear comparison with Southern Africa."

"This island, the forbidding aspect of which has been so often described, rises abruptly like a huge black castle from the ocean. Near the town, as if to complete nature's defence, small forts and guns fill up every gap in the rugged rocks."

Pernambuco, Brazil

"The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is surrounded, at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of low hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps two hundred feet above the sea."

"...thence we proceeded to the Azores, where we stayed six days."

Falmouth, U.K.

"On the 2nd of October we made the shores of England; and at Falmouth I left the Beagle, having lived on board the good little vessel nearly five years."

London, U.K.

23 years after Darwin's return, On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life is published by John Murray.

Hi, I'm Carlos Toledo. A Product Designer based in Florianopolis, Brazil focused on designing and developing amazing web experiences

This project was developed using Mapbox Studio, Mapbox GL JS library and Webflow. Feel free to clone this project use it in your own way. ‍

HMS Beagle: Darwin’s Trip around the World

Charles Darwin sailed around the world from 1831–1836 as a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle . His experiences and observations helped him develop the theory of evolution through natural selection.

Biology, Geography, Earth Science, Geology, Ecology

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Idea for Use in the Classroom

Charles Darwin set sail on the ship HMS Beagle on December 27, 1831, from Plymouth, England. Darwin was 22 years old when he was hired to be the ship’s naturalist . Most of the trip was spent sailing around South America. There Darwin spent considerable time ashore collecting plants and animals. Darwin filled notebooks with his observations of plants, animals, and geology . The trip was an almost five-year adventure and the ship returned to Falmouth, England, on October 2, 1836.

Throughout South America, Darwin collected a variety of bird specimens . One key observation Darwin made occurred while he was studying the specimens from the Galapagos Islands. He noticed the finches on the island were similar to the finches from the mainland, but each showed certain characteristics that helped them to gather food more easily in their specific habitat. He collected many specimens of the finches on the Galapagos Islands. These specimens and his notebooks provided Darwin with a record of his observations as he developed the theory of evolution through natural selection .

Have students work in pairs to use the map and the resources in the explore more tab to create a social media feed that includes five dates and posts from the expedition. Students may need to conduct additional research to ensure their proposed posts are factual and something Darwin would have seen on the trip. Help students brainstorm ideas for their posts by asking: What types of animals would Darwin have seen? Are any of them extinct today? What types of plants did he note? What types of geology did he see? What would you imagine some of the hardships the explorers would have encountered on this voyage?

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RETRACING THE VOYAGES OF HMS BEAGLE

A round-the-world sailing voyage is a unique adventure. The modern Beagle will retrace one of the most famous journeys in history, which stopped at many ports across the world from South America to Australia to South Africa.

HISTORY TIMELINE

KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS

Read about the key events in the history of HMS  Beagle and those who sailed with her using our  history timeline . Launched in 1820, HMS  Beagle  completed three scientific expeditions and travelled all over the globe. She is most famous for her second voyage, captained by Robert FitzRoy, on which a young Charles Darwin travelled. Find out about the nineteenth-century history, including the birth and death of FitzRoy and Darwin, the expedition voyages of HMS  Beagle , and the publication of  On the Origin of Species  and Darwin’s autobiography. Also catch up on the recent history and progress of the HMS Beagle Project.

SECOND VOYAGE

A VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY

Using our  map of HMS  Beagle ’s second voyage , find out about her route and some of the key scientific observations and collections made along the way. HMS  Beagle  left England for her second voyage on 27 December 1831 tasked with surveying the southern coast of South America. She was captained by Robert FitzRoy, and carried a young Charles Darwin onboard as the ship’s ‘naturalist’. When HMS  Beagle  returned to England in October 1836, Darwin had sailed 40,000 miles around the world, explored over 2,000 miles inland and collected more than 5,000 specimens. His notes show that he already understood how his experiences and finds were likely to challenge the established view of the unchanging nature of species.

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Darwin & the Beagle Map

Charles Darwin’s Voyage Aboard HMS Beagle – a Story Map by Igemoe

At Igemoe we like making maps that tell stories. Our short form, animated, story maps are intended as fun maps that tell the story of remarkable voyages. We hope you enjoy them and find inspiration. Here’s our take on naturalist Charles Darwin’s life changing voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

A Little Background to the Voyage of HMS Beagle 1831 – 1836 In 1831 HMS Beagle set sail on her second survey expedition under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy. Aboard was the young naturalist and amateur geologist Charles Darwin. While the principle purpose of the expedition was to continue the survey of the coasts of southern South America the voyage afforded Darwin the opportunity of a lifetime to study and collect all manner of plants and animals and consider the geology of the places he visited against the current thinking of the time.

Our Darwin & the Beagle Map highlights some of the events that formed Darwin’s thinking on this extraordinary journey that gave rise to his theory of evolution and eventual publication of “The Origin of Species”.

The Ship – HMS Beagle HMS Beagle was launched on 11th May 1820 from Woolwich Naval Dockyard on the River Thames. She was a 10 gun brig of 27.5 meters but as there was no immediate active use for her she was repurposed as a survey vessel and in this capacity made three far reaching expeditions. While most famous as the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his voyage of discovery the extent of her work is notable with the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego and the Beagle Gulf in Australia being named after her.

Returning from her third voyage the Beagle was transferred to the coastguard in 1845 and put to work as a watch ship working out of the River Roach in Essex, before finally being sold to be broken up in 1870. Recent investigations building on previous surveys have identified her likely final resting place on the Essex mudflats and the site is now designated a scheduled monument by the UK Government Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

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Voyage of the Beagle

A map of the voyage.

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The voyage of the Beagle, during which Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution, followed the course shown in the map below.

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The voyage of the beagle.

This map shows the entire trajectory of Charles Darwin, onboard the HMS Beagle, between the years 1831 and 1836.

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Map 3.3 - Voyage of the Beagle

In 1831, at the age of twenty-two, Darwin became the captain’s companion and naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle during a five-year surveying voyage around South America and the Pacific.During the voyage Darwin was exposed to something that few other scientists had seen: natural diversity across a wide range of habitats, locations, and environments (Fuentes 2007:32).

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Charles Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle

Charles Darwin travelled the world on the HMS Beagle for five years from 1831 to 1836. This journey had a crucial impact on the development of his theories of evolution. This interactive timeline outlines the major events in this significant voyage.

To navigate through the timeline, you can either click on the arrow on the right of the text, or click on the tabs on the timeline itself, or click on the ship icon in the map. You can move forwards and backwards through the timeline.

The Life of Charles Darwin Copyright © by Charles Darwin University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Voyage of the Beagle

Darwin correspondence project.

• About Darwin overview
• Family life overview
• Darwin on childhood
• Darwin on marriage
• Darwin’s observations on his children
• Darwin and fatherhood
• The death of Annie Darwin
• Visiting the Darwins
• Voyage of HMS Beagle
• What Darwin read overview
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• Books on the Beagle
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• On the Origin of Species overview
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• Charles Darwin and his publisher
• Review: The Origin of Species
• Darwin's notes for his physician, 1865
• Darwin’s photographic portraits
• Have you read the one about....
• Six things Darwin never said – and one he did overview
• The evolution of a misquotation
• Portraits of Charles Darwin: a catalogue overview
• 1.1 Ellen Sharples pastel
• 1.2 George Richmond, marriage portrait
• 1.3 Thomas Herbert Maguire, lithograph
• 1.4 Samuel Laurence drawing 1
• 1.5 Samuel Laurence drawing 2
• 1.6 Ouless oil portrait
• 1.7 Ouless replica
• 1.8 anonymous drawing, after Ouless
• 1.9 Rajon, etching after Ouless
• 1.10 Rajon etching, variant state
• 1.11 Laura Russell, oil
• 1.12 Marian Huxley, drawing
• 1.13 Louisa Nash, drawing
• 1.14 William Richmond, oil
• 1.15 Albert Goodwin, watercolour
• 1.16 Alphonse Legros, drypoint
• 1.17 Alphonse Legros drawing
• 1.18 John Collier, oil in Linnean
• 1.19 John Collier, oil in NPG
• 1.20 Leopold Flameng etching, after Collier
• 1.21 window at Christ's College Cambridge
• 2.1 Thomas Woolner bust
• 2.2 Thomas Woolner metal plaque
• 2.3 Wedgwood medallions
• 2.4 Wedgwood plaque
• 2.5 Wedgwood medallions, 2nd type
• 2.6 Adolf von Hildebrand bust
• 2.7 Joseph Moore, Midland Union medal
• 2.8 Alphonse Legros medallion
• 2.9 Legros medallion, plaster model
• 2.10 Moritz Klinkicht, print from Legros
• 2.11 Christian Lehr, plaster bust
• 2.12 Allan Wyon, Royal Society medal
• 2.13 Edgar Boehm, statue in the NHM
• 2.14 Boehm, Westminster Abbey roundel
• 2.15 Boehm terracotta bust (NPG)
• 2.16 Horace Montford statue, Shrewsbury
• 2.17 Montford, statuette
• 2.18 Montford, Carnegie bust
• 2.19 Montford, bust at the Royal Society
• 2.20 Montford, terracotta bust, NPG
• 2.21 Montford, relief at Christ's College
• 2.22 L.-J. Chavalliaud statue in Liverpool
• 2.23 Hope Pinker statue, Oxford Museum
• 2.24 Herbert Hampton statue, Lancaster
• 2.25 Henry Pegram statue, Birmingham
• 2.26 Linnean Society medal
• 2.27 William Couper bust, New York
• 2.28 Couper bust in Cambridge
• 3.1 Antoine Claudet, daguerreotype
• 3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
• 3.3 Maull and Polyblank photo 2
• 3.4 William Darwin, photo 1
• 3.5 William Darwin, photo 2
• 3.6 William Darwin, photo 3
• 3.7 Leonard Darwin, photo on verandah
• 3.8 Leonard Darwin, interior photo
• 3.9 Leonard Darwin, photo on horseback
• 3.10 Ernest Edwards, 'Men of Eminence'
• 3.11 Edwards, in Illustrated London News
• 3.12 Edwards, second group of photos
• 3.13 Edwards 'Representative Men'
• 3.14 Julia Margaret Cameron, photos
• 3.15 George Charles Wallich, photo
• 3.16 Oscar Rejlander, photos
• 3.17 Lock and Whitfield, 'Men of Mark'
• 3.18 Elliott and Fry photos, c.1869-1871
• 3.19 Elliott and Fry photos c.1880-1
• 3.20 Elliott and Fry, c.1880-1, verandah
• 3.21 Herbert Rose Barraud, photos
• 4.1 Albert Way, comic drawings
• 4.2 Augustus Earle, caricature drawing
• 4.3 Alfred Crowquill, caricature
• 4.4 Thomas Huxley, caricature sketch
• 4.5 William Beard, comic painting
• 4.6 Thomas Nast, cartoon
• 4.7 'Vanity Fair', caricature
• 4.8 'Vanity Fair', preliminary study
• 4.9 'Graphic', cartoon
• 4.10 'Hornet' caricature of Darwin
• 4.11 'Fun' cartoon, 'A little lecture'
• 4.12 'Fun', Wedding procession
• 4.13 'Fun' cartoon by Griset, 'Emotional'
• 4.14 'Fun' cartoon, 'That troubles'
• 4.15 George Cruikshank, comic drawing
• 4.16 Joseph Simms, physiognomy
• 4.17 'Figaro', unidentifiable 1871
• 4.18 'Figaro' chromolithograph 1
• 4.19 George Montbard, caricature
• 4.20 Frederick Waddy, caricature
• 4.21 Gegeef, 'Our National Church', 1
• 4.22 Gegeef et al., 'Our National Church', 2
• 4.23 Gegeef, 'Battle Field of Science'
• 4.24 'Daily Graphic', Nast satire
• 4.25 'Punch' 1877 re. Cambridge doctorate
• 4.26 Christmas card caricature, monkeys
• 4.27 'Four founders of Darwinismus'
• 4.28 'English celebrities' montage
• 4.29 Richard Grant White, 'Fall of man'
• 4.30 'La Petite Lune', Gill cartoon
• 4.31 'La Lune Rousse', Gill cartoon
• 4.32 Anis liqueur label
• 4.33 'Harper's Weekly', Bellew caricature
• 4.34 'Punch', Sambourne cartoon 1
• 4.35 Frederick Sem, caricature
• 4.36 Sem, Chistmas card
• 4.37 'Mosquito' satire
• 4.38 Franz Goedecker, caricature
• 4.39 'Moonshine' magazine cartoon
• 4.40 'Phrenological Magazine'
• 4.41 'Punch', Sambourne cartoon 2
• 4.42 'Punch' Sambourne cartoon 3
• 4.43 'Illustrated London News' article
• 4.44 'Puck' cartoon 1
• 4.45 'Puck' cartoon 2
• 4.46 'Puck' cartoon 3
• 4.47 'Puck' cartoon 4
• 4.48 'Puck', cartoon 5
• 4.49 Alfred Bryan, caricature
• 4.50 Cigar box lid design
• 4.51 Frederick Holder 'Life and Work'
• 4.52 'Wasp' caricature
• 4.53 Claud Warren, 'Outlines of Hands'
• 4.54 jubilees of Queen Victoria
• 4.55 Harry Furniss caricature
• 4.56 'Larks' cartoon
• 4.57 silhouette cartoon
• 4.58 'Simian, savage' . . . drawings
• 4.59 'Simplicissimus' cartoon
• Darwin and the experimental life overview
• What is an experiment?
• From morphology to movement: observation and experiment
• Fool's experiments
• Experimenting with emotions
• Animals, ethics, and the progress of science
• Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
• Darwin's bad days
• Darwin’s first love
• The letters overview
• Darwin's life in letters overview
• 1821-1836: Childhood to the Beagle voyage
• 1837-43: The London years to 'natural selection'
• 1844-1846: Building a scientific network
• 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
• 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
• 1856-1857: The 'Big Book'
• 1858-1859: Origin
• 1860: Answering critics
• 1861: Gaining allies
• 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
• 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
• 1864: Failing health
• 1865: Delays and disappointments
• 1866: Survival of the fittest
• 1867: A civilised dispute
• 1868: Studying sex
• 1869: Forward on all fronts
• 1870: Human evolution
• 1871: An emptying nest
• 1872: Job done?
• 1873: Animal or vegetable?
• 1874: A turbulent year
• 1875: Pulling strings
• 1876: In the midst of life
• 1877: Flowers and honours
• 1878: Movement and sleep
• 1879: Tracing roots
• 1880: Sensitivity and worms
• 1881: Old friends and new admirers
• 1882: Nothing too great or too small
• Darwin's works in letters overview
• Journal of researches
• Living and fossil cirripedia
• Before Origin: the ‘big book’ overview
• Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
• Rewriting Origin - the later editions overview
• How old is the earth?
• The whale-bear
• Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
• Climbing plants
• Insectivorous plants
• Forms of flowers
• Cross and self fertilisation
• Life of Erasmus Darwin
• Movement in Plants
• About the letters
• Lifecycle of a letter film overview
• Editing a Letter
• Working in the Darwin archive
• Capturing Darwin’s voice: audio of selected letters
• Correspondence with women
• The hunt for new letters
• Editorial policy and practice overview
• Full notes on editorial policy
• Symbols and abbreviations
• Darwin's letters: a timeline
• Darwin's letters: World Map
• Have you read the one about...
• Charles Darwin: A Life in Letters
• Darwin in Conversation exhibition
• Diagrams and drawings in letters
• Favourite Letters overview
• Be envious of ripe oranges: To W. D. Fox, May 1832
• That monstrous stain: To J. M. Herbert, 2 June 1833
• My most solemn request: To Emma Darwin, 5 July 1844
• Our poor dear dear child: To Emma Darwin, [23 April 1851]
• I beg a million pardons: To John Lubbock, [3 September 1862]
• Prize possessions: To Henry Denny, 17 January [1865]
• How to manage it: To J. D. Hooker, [17 June 1865]
• A fly on the flower: From Hermann Müller, 23 October 1867
• Reading my roommate’s illustrious ancestor: To T. H. Huxley, 10 June 1868
• A beginning, & that is something: To J. D. Hooker, [22 January 1869]
• Perfect copper-plate hand: From Adolf Reuter, 30 May 1869
• Darwin’s favourite photographer: From O. G. Rejlander, 30 April 1871
• Your letter eternalized before us: From N. D. Doedes, 27 March 1873
• Lost in translation: From Auguste Forel, 12 November 1874
• I never trusted Drosera: From E. F. Lubbock, [after 2 July] 1875
• From Argus pheasant to Mivart: To A. R. Wallace, 17 June 1876
• Wearing his knowledge lightly: From Fritz Müller, 5 April 1878
• Terms of engagement: To Julius Wiesner, 25 October 1881
• Intellectual capacities: From Caroline Kennard, 26 December 1881
• Darwin plays overview
• 'Emma' audio play
• 'Frank' audio play
• 'Like confessing a murder' audio play
• 'Re: Design' dramatisation overview
• Dramatisation script
• Browse all Darwin letters in date order
• List of correspondents
• Commentary overview
• Evolution overview
• Natural selection
• Sexual selection
• Inheritance
• Correlation of growth: deaf blue-eyed cats, pigs, and poison
• Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I
• Survival of the fittest: the trouble with terminology Part II
• Darwin’s species notebooks: ‘I think . . .’
• Geology overview
• Darwin and geology
• Darwin’s introduction to geology
• The geology of the Beagle voyage
• Darwin and coral reefs
• Darwin’s earthquakes
• Darwin and the Geological Society
• Darwin and Glen Roy
• Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications
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• Darwin and Down overview
• Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
• Species and varieties
• The evolution of honeycomb
• A tale of two bees
• Beauty and the seed overview
• Mauro Galetti: profile of an ecologist
• Casting about: Darwin on worms
• Was Darwin an ecologist?
• Dipsacus and Drosera
• Darwin and barnacles overview
• Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
• Darwin and vivisection overview
• Vivisection: draft petition
• Vivisection: BAAS committee report
• Vivisection: first sketch of the bill
• Vivisection: Darwin's testimony
• 'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
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• Darwin on human evolution
• The expression of emotions overview
• Emotion experiment overview
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• The origin of language overview
• Language: key letters
• Language: Interview with Gregory Radick
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• What did Darwin believe?
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• British Association meeting 1860
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• Essays and reviews by Asa Gray overview
• Darwiniana – Preface
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• Essay: Natural selection & natural theology
• Essay: Evolution and theology
• Essay: What is Darwinism?
• Essay: Evolutionary teleology
• Science and religion Interviews overview
• Interview with Emily Ballou
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• For the curious... overview
• Cordillera Beagle expedition
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• Darwin’s Networks
• Darwin and the Beagle voyage
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• Strange things sent to Darwin in the post
• People overview
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• People pages in alphabetical order
• German and Dutch photograph albums overview
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• German poems presented to Darwin
• List of all people mentioned in letters
• Learning overview
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• Darwin The Collector
• Detecting Darwin
• Darwin And Evolution
• Darwin's Fantastical Voyage
• Home learning: 7-11 years
• Ages 11-14 overview
• Darwin and Religion
• Doing Darwin’s Experiments
• How dangerous was Darwin?
• Offer of a lifetime
• Darwin and slavery
• Beagle Voyage
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• Schools Gallery: Using Darwin’s letters in the classroom
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• Discussion questions and essay questions
• Suggested reading
• Getting to know Darwin's science overview
• Biogeography
• Variation under domestication
• Instinct and the evolution of mind
• Floral dimorphism
• Power of movement in plants
• Dining at Down House
• Darwin and human nature overview
• Moral nature
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• Women and science overview
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• Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
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• A voyage round the world
• Calendars to the correspondence of Charles Darwin
• Darwin and women: a selection of letters
• Research initiatives overview
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• Darwin and religion: a definitive web resource
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• Darwin and gender projects by Harvard students
• Darwin’s Women: Short Film
• Epsilon: a collaborative digital framework
• Funding overview
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• Frederick Burkhardt (1912-2007)
• Anne Schlabach Burkhardt (1916–2012)

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From December 1831, Darwin travelled round the world on the Admiralty surveying vessel, HMS Beagle. This map features letters written as the voyage was planned, persuading his father to let him go, deciding what to take with him, and getting advice on how to send specimens home, as well as letters from the places he visited, describing his adventures collecting rocks, fossils, insects, plants, animals and fish. He theorised about the origins of coral reefs and the elevation of the Andes, and sent home impressions of the people and landscape of the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego, Chiloé, Tahiti, Tasmania and Mauritius. Family and friends wrote back with news of marriages, illnesses and social gatherings and advice on what to collect, packing his finds and further avenues of research. When Darwin returned in October 1836 he was a scientific celebrity and an experienced researcher.

Ascension Island

26 April 2017

Ryde, Isle of Wight

News from home: insects on the Isle of Wight

Darwin's father's objections to the voyage

Mercedes, Uruguay

River trip instructions

Cape of Good Hope

'A most imposing barrier'

Punta Alta, Argentina

Large fossils of extinct animals

Santiago, Chile

Rambling in Chile

Mendoza, Argentina

Geologising across the Andes

Monte Sarmiento

Peaks in Tierra del Fuego

51 Manchester Street, London

Fitzroy's 'savant'

Darwin Correspondence Project [email protected]

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Beagle Voyage of Charles Darwin Complete lesson KS2

Subject: Primary science

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

Last updated

3 November 2022

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A complete lesson with the LO: to understand Darwin’s voyage on HMS Beagle.

During the lesson, students will map the voyage and key events on each stop of the journey.

All resources are included, although internet access may be required for the higher attainers to research additional information, using the Beagle diaries (Link included in the resources)

All other images from Pixabay or authors own.

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• Introduction
• Charles Darwin

Voyage of the Beagle

• Preparation and departure
• South America
• The Gálapagos Islands
• The Publication
• On the Origin of Species
• The Descent of Man
• The Greatest Honour
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Many of Darwin’s peers had similar social, cultural and educational backgrounds, but in one praticular aspect, his life was set apart from that of most of his fellow students in Edinburgh and Cambridge. In 1831, he was invited to join the British navy ship the HMS Beagle on a voyage around the world. The voyage lasted almost five years and became an experience of upmost importance to the young Englishman.

He saw more of the world than most other people; at the time he experienced the rain forest at close range, he dug up fossils, studied living nature, rode through desserts, saw ice bergs, penguins and giant turtles, lived through an earthquake and a storm, which had almost capsized the ship. Also, some of his experiences during the voyage strongly nourished his already existing loathing of slavery and any kind of cruelty.

Darwin left with an expectation of returning to a future life as a parson, but he returned home with a strong conviction to dedicate his life to science. Although he had experienced, studied and eagerly written about the amazing phenomena of nature, he himself had no doubt about which direction his future would take. Darwin wanted to become a geologist.

Peter C. Kjærgaard

Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle

Charles Darwin’s scientific career began humbly. In 1831, and in the teeth of a gale, the HMS Beagle , a British warship, left Devonport, England, for an expedition to map the South American coastline and to carry out chronometer surveys all over the globe. Darwin embarked as a naturalist, although he had no formal training and had recently left Cambridge University because he grew disinterested in his studies. But he was a very sharp observer of the natural world, and he lived at a time when a revolution in thinking was going on. Scientists were feverishly re-examining age-old questions, such as how old was the Earth? How did various features of the planet form? How old and diverse was Earth’s animal life?

Darwin was also fortunate that the Beagle took him to the Galapagos Islands, where he observed various animals and birds that had evolved in an isolated environment. His observations led him to his famous theory of natural selection. According to Darwin’s theory, variations within species occur randomly and the survival or extinction of an organism is determined by its ability to adapt to its environment. (Another young naturalist of the time, Alfred Russell Wallace, had independently come to similar conclusions about evolution and natural selection.)

Darwin also made important observations about the geology of the islands and coastlines he visited. He proposed a theory about the formation of atolls. Atolls are coral reefs that form small islands that enclose a lagoon. They are found mostly in the Pacific. An example is Bikini Atoll located northwest of Hawaii. Darwin proposed that the foundation for the atoll was a volcano that was sinking because of its weight. As the volcano sinks, coral reefs that rim the volcano grow upwards. As long as the rate at which corals grow kept up with how fast the island was sinking, then small coral islands would remain in a ring around the now sunken volcano.