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.
Actually the oddball on the ship was Captain Fitzroy (who was BTW an excellent naval surveyor). Even then his ardent Biblical Fundamentalism was considered somewhat unusual amongst educated men such as the officers of the Beagle.
He and Darwin got on well, mostly, except when they almost came to blows over slavery, which according to Fitzroy was codified and endorsed by the Bible and therefore should be permitted. Darwin loathed the institution of slavery. The other officers (who appear to have liked Darwin) persuaded him to stay on the Beagle after a particularly furious argument about slavery. By 1830 slavery was regarded as an unnacceptable institution by many in England, though Bishop Wilberforce's great work lay in the future.
Darwin was a student of geology and an enthusiastic reader of Lyell's work, which catalogued the all-encompassing geological evidence for an old earth. Darwin and Fitzroy argued about 6 day creationism and the young earth, but these arguments were much more good-natured sparring. Far less venomous that anything seen here. Fitzroy helped Darwin perform experiments at coral islands where Darwin made certain predictions about the surrounding geology if Biblical creation were true, and different predictions if Biblical creation were false. Unsurprisingly, just as every other time such predictions are tested, things looked the way one would expect if the world were very ancient, rather than 6000 years old.
And you expected anything different?
Haven't you noticed that the posts are getting wackier and shriller from many of the creationists as time goes on?
Logic and reason just doesn't seem to be in the cards for these folks.
It used to be one, in the days before the rise of the Religious Right
"Even then his ardent Biblical Fundamentalism was considered somewhat unusual amongst educated men such as the officers of the Beagle."
The "Evolutionist is intelligent/Anti-evolutionist is dumb" argument is very weak. Does playing that card prop up your self esteem?
I think both would be equally cool. I'd willingly contribute some of my hard-earned £sterling to either. I'm not in favour of the lottery (which is a tax on ignorance of probability theory that bears hardest on the stupid) but if the lottery commission wants to throw behind this one it'll be a lot better than most things they could spend it on.
Feel free to post any facts that would contradict my opinions.
In my "I'm a billionare" fantasy, one of the first things I do (after paying to renovate my daughter's school, buying a Shelby Cobra and ending world hunger, of course) is build a frigate along the lines of HMS Leopard, hire a crew and sail months at a time.
Maybe I could build a French sloop for a friend and we could have a go.
There's nothing superstitious about the biblical texts. They are a bright light that obliviates superstition and sets the reader on the right path to wisdom and understanding. Your trust in science, OTOH, is no better than superstition, for it ultimately rests upon no other authority than yourself.
Not sure why you addressed that at me. Nowhere did I say that Fitzroy was stupid. In fact in the very same post I pointed out his skill in a technically specialised area.
I know, we can';t talh about science without attracting them. Now it seem we can't talk about cool things like tall ships either.
Build it and bring it out to Australia to produve the matched set.
Endeavour 
Bounty 
and Beagle
Amongst Darwin's lesser known inventions was a time machine. I have inferred this (a metaphysical process, unfortunately) because not only have creationists told me that he inspired Marx, but also his ideas were inspired by Haeckel's embryology errors.
Looking Glass Logic placemarker
Hitler simply believed that he was doing God's work, just like many faithful people today believe. His racist visions were not the product of the biological sciences.
Evolution is NOT a capitalistic system else evolution could stand on its own and would not need GOVERNMENT to make it the law of the land and demand we the people fund it. It is socialistic at its very base.
Evolution is not an economic system at all and that has nothing to do with how it stands very well, scientifically. Private industry has made money using evolutionary theory in research. It is the communists that cited it's semblemnce to capitalism and had it banned. It was considered counter-revolutionary. Under Stalin, you could get the death penalty for following evolution. The problem is creationists and IDer's are trying to introduce philosophy and mythology masquerading as science into classrooms. I heve yet to meet a scientifically literate creationist.
Bishop Wilberforce was the son of the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce (who died in 1833). Slavery was abloished in 1807 and by the 1830s the Royal Navy was operating anti slavery patrols off the coasts of Africa.
I stand corrected. Thank you. Confused two Wilberforces and therefore didn't check facts before posting. Interesting how the creationists (with their detailed historical knowledge) weren't lining up to correct me on that one.
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