On the 27th of December, 1831, his Majesty’s ship Beagle, a ten-gun
brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N., sailed from
Devonport, England, on an expedition the purpose of which was to
complete a survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego that had been
begun under Captain King (1826-’30); to survey the shores of Chile
and Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific; and to carry a chain
of chronometrical measurements round the world. The voyage was one
of the most memorable ones in the annals of scientific exploration,
for, besides the direct results, which, in the condition of geography
and natural history at the time, constituted very important additions
to knowledge, it carried Charles Darwin, then young and full of the
enthusiasm for study that never left him. Mr. Darwin accompanied the
expedition on the invitation of its commander, Captain Fitz Roy, and
with the special sanction of the Lords of the Admiralty, and, as it
turned out, next to the captain of the vessel was perhaps the most
important member of it. He made it his special business to inquire into
the character and method and the reason of all the natural objects and
phenomena he saw, examining what was in the sea while they were upon
it, and, when they landed, going ashore and studying the geography and
geology and life of the region as thoroughly as the time of stay would
permit, and collecting no end of notes and specimens as material for
future study.
[Illustration: H. M. S. BEAGLE IN THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN. MOUNT
SARMIENTO IN THE DISTANCE.]
Besides his elaborate work giving the full story of the expedition and
the details of its scientific results--a book which has ever since been
a standard authority, and still keeps students in active discussion
and investigation--the voyage of the Beagle has to be credited with
having supplied the occasion for the composition of the briefer and
more popular account which has become one of the classics of English
literature.
More than this, and vastly transcending it in the importance of its
bearing on the future of science, it was while going round the world
and observing on the Beagle that those fundamental facts were gathered
and stored in Mr. Darwin’s mind which, worked over and developed in
after years and compared and combined with subsequently accumulated
facts, bore fruit in the Origin of Species and the transformation of
science that resulted upon the enunciation of Mr. Darwin’s theory of
descent.
We all regard the association of any object with great events or with
those in which we have great interest as making it precious. We endow
ships with a kind of personality, regard them affectionately, and often
speak of them fondly, as if they were real living beings in whom we had
an interest. Such feelings we might legitimately entertain with regard
to the Beagle, so closely associated with the history we have referred
to. Few associations deserve, in fact, to be more highly valued than
that of this brig, the Beagle, with Mr. Darwin’s books and his theory.
It is therefore a matter of legitimate concern to inquire into what was
the fate of the famous vessel.
The inquiry has been made, and is answered by the Rev. V. Marshall Law,
of Oakland, Cal., whose account follows:
“I was lying in my room, in Tsukiji, as I had been day after day, in
1890, watching the lazy roll of the school-ship in the Imperial Naval
Academy, just a little to the south, when a caller and an old resident,
Mr. Arthur Morris, said to me, ‘I see you have Darwin’s old ship, the
Beagle, in plain sight out there.’
“‘Is that the Beagle?’ I asked in great surprise.
“He assured me that it was, and somehow after he had gone it impressed
itself more strongly on my mind the more I thought of it. I lay ill,
and part of the time in delirium, for ten days. When I at last got
up, the Beagle was gone. I sent inquiries to the Naval Academy, but
no one seemed to know anything about her. As soon as I was able to go
out, I lost no time in setting on foot inquiries of the whereabouts
of the missing ship. I finally learned that she had probably gone to
the Imperial Navy Yard in Yokosuka, about thirty miles from Tokio. As
soon as I was able to travel we started to go to Yokosuka in search of
the missing vessel. Before this, however, I had taken the precaution
to put on the track the Englishman, Mr. F. W. Hammond, who taught the
young Japanese gunnery in the Imperial Naval Academy at Tokio, and
he promised to do all in his power--which in this instance was very
great--to help me in my search for the Beagle. To aid him, I gave him
the following list of questions, to which he sent me the answers given
below months afterward. My questions had gone through the regular naval
channels. The answers show how methodical the Japanese are, even if
they are slow. In these answers I use their language:
“‘Question. How did the Japanese Government happen to get the Beagle?’
“‘Answer. The details of getting are not plainly known, but the Prince
of Kagoshima procured it on seventy-five thousand dollars, at the 23d
of July, first year of Genzi (1860), afterward he offered it to the
Government at the June of the third year of Genzi.’
“‘Q. Are there any good photographs of her as she was when a war ship?’
“‘A. No, we have no one.’
“‘Q. Where is the Beagle now?’
“‘A. After out of use, she was applied as a Chastising Place for
seamen at the Yokosuka station, and then was auctioned at the March,
twenty-second year of Genzi.’
“‘Q. What was the date of her arrival in Japan?’
“‘A. She was received by the Prince of Kagoshima, at Nagasaki, July,
the first year of Genzi.’
“‘Q. What is her present name? When was her name changed?’
“‘A. At the present this ship has no name in the consequence of out of
use, but after procured by the Kagoshima Prince the name of Beagle was
changed into Kenko Kan.’
“‘Q. Do you know how old this ship is, and what she was used for by the
British Government before the Japanese got her?’
“‘A. She was actually used during twenty-three years, after which she
was put out of use, having been constructed at Liverpool, and we can
not know what she was applied for before got by Japan, but she remained
more or less than one year in England.’ (Darwin made his famous voyage
in her from 1831 to 1836.)
“‘Q. What is the name of the captain who had charge of her after she
became the property of the Japanese Government?’
“‘A. Commander Sadakumi Shiba was appointed the acting captain
February, 2d year of Genzi; Commander S. Hamataki, from December, 5th
year of Genzi; Commander M. Omura, from November, 10th year of Genzi;
Commander Sadakumi Shiba, from December, 11th year of Genzi; then the
last was dismissed on the September, in the 14th year of Genzi.’
“‘Q. In what capacity did the Japanese Government use her from the time
she arrived up to the time she was dismantled?’
“‘A. She was rated as the fifth class at the November, 4th year of
Genzi, then the fourth class May the 8th year.’
“We found Yokosuka, and our party were shown every courtesy by the
Japanese naval officials; so at last we ran down the Beagle, lying on
the shore and showing not a vestige of her proud, historic self. She
was being torn to pieces, and the parts were sold for ‘old junk.’
“I reflected, as I stood among her spars and chains, her anchors
and her capstan, of the significance of the career of the famous
vessel, and of her associations with the man whose investigations
revolutionized scientific thought and spread consternation for a time
in the pulpits of the world. The attitude of these pulpits has been
modified by reason of those researches, and the blessings of the world
and of the Church now follow the author of them for having shown the
way to a juster and more rational conception of the power and purposes
of the Creator.”