biography

When Charles reached 16, Dr. Darwin had had enough of his son’s easygoing ways and insisted he attend the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to study medicine. A professor, John Steven Henslow, head of the botany department at the University, was impressed by Darwin’s beetle collection. It was through Henslow that Darwin met Captain Robert Fitzroy of the Royal Navy. Fitzroy was in search of a young naturalist to be his companion, without pay, aboard H.M.S. Beagle on a five-year sailing voyage around the world. As the ship’s naturalist, he was affectionately known as “Mr. Flycatcher” by the crew. This journey changed his life and led him to develop one of the most important theories of modern scientific thought.

The Beagle was in constant danger during its time in Tierra del Fuego, and yet Captain Fitzroy stubbornly refused to give up his search for new land. On one occasion, when the ship’s boats were drawn up on the beach, an overhanging glacier suddenly plunged into the water. A great wave rushed toward the shore, and it seemed as though the small boats were about to be broken into pieces. Charles and two other men, although in great danger, rushed down to the shore and secured the boats. To commemorate the heroic deed, Captain Fitzroy named a nearby body of water Darwin Sound and a peak to the north Mount Darwin.

On September 15, 1835, almost four years after the Beagle had sailed from England, the ship put in to the remote Galápagos Islands. On these islands, which are located on the equator some 600 miles west into the Pacific from South America, reptiles are the main inhabitants. Darwin even rode a 300-pound turtle, the size of which had never been seen before. He also discovered 13 varieties of finch, each with beaks of a different size and shape. Darwin concluded that the finches must have descended from one variety of South American finch that had flown across the ocean to the islands in prehistoric times. The finches had then evolved in different ways in order to survive. He called this process “natural selection” or “the survival of the fittest.” He had discovered a key to evolution and how different kinds of animals and plants came into existence.