Charles Darwin developed his early theories on board the Beagle
Posted on 07/19/2006 3:55:15 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Plans are being drawn up to build a £3.3m working replica of the boat that took Charles Darwin around the world at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.
Fundraising for the project, which would mark the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth in 2009, is under way.
The aim is to built a seaworthy vessel identical to the HMS Beagle on the outside, but with a modern interior.
Darwin, who showed how natural selection could explain evolution, sailed on the Beagle between 1831-36.
Sitting opposite him on the expedition was mate and surveyor John Lort Stokes.
One of Stokes' descendents, Pembrokeshire farmer David Lort Philips, together with commercial yacht master Peter McGrath, have founded the Beagle Project Pembrokeshire.
Mr McGrath said the ship would look identical to the original Beagle on the outside but would have a 21st century interior with diesel auxiliary engines and generators.
He said he hoped the fished vessel would inspire the scientists of the future and be used by researchers and scientists from across the world.
"Externally it will be exactly the same but we want it to do some serious scientific work and you would not want the crew living like they did in the 18th Century," he said.
The pair have spent three years putting their plans together and aim to raise the money through private and institutional investors along with public subscription.
"With all the Darwin 200 celebrations there is not one big project to focus the attention on," added Mr McGrath.
"I know the effect a square rigger has on young people - it's a jaw dropping site.
"But we do not want this just to be a replica - we want it to have genuine scientific benefits.
"We have started the fundraising. Construction will take 14 months and it has to be finished by early 2009.
"She will be built in Milford Haven and it will be her home. But what we want to do when she is built is visit the significant sights in Darwin's and the Beagle's life."
Researchers believe the original remains of the 27m-long Navy brig, that was sold for scrap in 1870, are embedded in a marsh near Potton Island in Essex.
Darwin, who published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, came fourth in a poll run by the BBC in 2002 to find the public's greatest Briton of all time.
His voyage on the Beagle allowed him to form the basis for much of his later work.
We'll call it Charlie's Ark.
This ship is based upon reality, not delusions of lunatics.
Ah isn't this special maybe Congress will make it a National Holiday....
"Ah isn't this special maybe Congress will make it a National Holiday...."
Hint: This isn't happening in the USA.
Hitler, like Charles Darwin in his later years, was disinclined to accept the authority and accuracy of the biblical texts and instead, like Charles Darwin, exalted his own reason above the plain and simple words of scripture. Hitler did make reference to Darwin's ideas in his eugenics propaganda. That's where the interpretation of facts leads when there is no accepted authority from Above.
I don't care what Hitler "said" he was doing. It was not in accord with the biblical texts. Dogmatic evolutionists "say" they are doing science, when in fact their extrapolations are little more than a philosophy of history with no guide other than intuition.
Give it time, the evolutionary gods will take note of this hallowed day. Maybe they can pronounce it a National Holiday in their their demand for tax payers to fund their stem cell research. You know got to save that 'flesh'.
Otherwise, the Welk pork barrel project will not seem like a waste of money at all.
The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848.
The Origin of Species was published in 1859.
And referencing biblical texts is no more than an excercise in superstition. I'll take scientific enquiry any day.
Abortion wasn't made fully illegal in most countries till the 19th century, and was widely available to that point.
Anti-semitism has a history even in the Bible, and genocide is as old as humankind is.
Slavery, of course, was legal long before 1859, and the Civil War started only 2 years after 1861.
Got Mittuns? Why yes, and two pairs of gloves, too!
Replication with modification.
Festival of pig-ignorant creationists placemarker.
Ya know ... I thought this would be a pleasant little thread about a replica of the Beagle. Suddenly it's turned into a convention of the brain dead.
"Ya know ... I thought this would be a pleasant little thread about a replica of the Beagle. Suddenly it's turned into a convention of the brain dead."
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Welcome!
How enlightening.
I'll play the odds of eternal life in Heaven over ending up as meaningless dust or eternal life in Hell. All I have to do is live my life as a Christian for just one lifetime here on Earth, which by the way is a very good life.
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