Hms Beagle: The Story of Darwin's Ship

By Keith S. Thomson

Book Overview

After having twice been driven back by heavy south-west gales, His Majesty's Ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the command of Captain Fitzroy, sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December, 1813. These words open Darwin's story of his historical voyage in the Beagle. Darwin's views and his books are well known but very little is known of the ship that circumnavigated the world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393037789
• ISBN13: 9780393037784
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

In the correct wake

In pleasing contrast to the majority of mainstream depictions of Darwin's activities on the Beagle trip, Keith Stewart Thomson's travelogue contains very few historical errors. At least when it comes to the actual whereabouts of Darwin in South America. Thomson's presentation of Darwin's ideas on organic evolution is a bit more foggy, but that matters little as the main focus of the book is to retrace Darwin's anchorages in South America.The read is easy, nicely contrasting today's luxury of modern oceangoing sailboats and Darwin's cramped accomodations in the tiny HMS Beagle over 150 years earlier.