FINDING THE HMS BEAGLE
Taken from the Internet - The Observer - UK
Robin McKie, Science editor
Sunday February 15, 2004
The Observer

After being sold for scrap in 1870, the ship forever linked with Darwin may be lying beneath the Essex marches.

One of the world’s most enduring naval mysteries – the fate of HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin round the world and led him to develop his theory of natural selection – may finally have been solved.

Advanced ground-penetrating radar could have located the ship, which disappeared more than a century ago, near Potton Island in Essex. The discovery has been made by one of the world’s leading marine archaeologists, Robert Prescott of St Andrews University. “I am quite confident we have found the Beagle,” he said.

The discovery suggests that the bulk of the ship is intact and could be raised and restored. “The Beagle is a historic icon and would make a superb centre of scientific pilgrimage.” said Prescott.

Launched in 1820 at Woolwich Royal Dockyard on the Thames, the Beagle was a 90 ft, 10-gun brig, one of the commonest class of warships built by the Navy. After several years’ service, it was refitted as a hydrographic survey vessel and subsequently placed under the command of Robert Fitzroy.

The Beagle set off on its great journey, with Darwin on board, in 1831 and for five years carried out detailed surveying of the tip of South America and in the Galapagos Islands. The young biologist, who later described the voyage as ‘the most important event in my life’, noted local variations among the birds and animals he encountered.

From these observations, which he recorded in his tiny cabin on the Beagle, he developed his theory of natural selection, published in On the Origin of Species in 1859. According to Darwin, animals which were best adapted to their environments live longer and produce more offspring. In this way, species slowly evolve into others as time passes.

The theory caused a furore when it was published and is still considered one of the most challenging ideas of modern science. But the fate of the ship that was instrumental in the theory’s development has been lost for more than a century.

All that was known was that after its historic journey the Beagle passed into the service of Customs and Excise and was used as an anti-smuggling patrol vessel along the Essex coast.

But detailed detective work by Prescott has since revealed that for many years the Beagle was moored in mid-stream on the River Roach, where it was perfectly placed to intercept smugglers bringing in contraband along the maze of rivers, channels and creeks that criss-crossed the marshes south of Burnham-on-Crouch.

Several families of coastguards made their home on the ship, said Prescott, who is a founder of the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies at St Andrews and who set up the Beagle Ship Research Group three years ago. ‘We have surveyed the site and found broken toys and bits of pottery that show the ship had become a home by then’, said Prescott.

One Ordnance Survey map even shows the ship as a permanent fixture in the river. Many local people objected to its presence, however, and claimed that the vessel harmed the oyster beds that used to line the banks of the Roach.

Then, in 1870, records show that the Beagle was auctioned for 525 pounds to local scrap merchants Murray and Trainer, described by Prescott as a pair of ‘local likely lads”. After that, no records remain.

But detailed archaeological studies have shown that on the north bank of the Roach, a small dock had been built around this time and this has been the focus of efforts by the St. Andrews team.

‘Essentially, we have found the outline of a dock that was long ago abandoned and filled in,’ said Prescott. ‘We think the Beagle, stripped of its superstructure, ended up in there.’

On the surface, nothing can be seen. But over the past few months scientists from the company Radar World in Edinburgh have used ground-penetrating radar, which can spot objects buried under layers of soil and march, to reveal an image of a ship that is similar in size to the Beagle and which is buried under 12 ft. of mud inside the abandoned dock.

‘It is possible that this could be another ship, but I am pretty sure that we have now go the Beagle.’ said Prescott.

The discovery is of major importance for several reasons, he said. The Beagle came from a class of ship that was the mainstay of the Royal Navy for many decades, although surprisingly little is known of this type of craft. The discovery also demonstrates the use of ground-penetrating radar as an archaeological tool.

However, it is the importance of the Beagle as the vessel that carried Darwin round the world that gives it a unique historical importance. ‘Most of the upper part of the ship may have gone, but we have the lower parts and hull, and who knows what remnants of Darwin’s trip may still lie down there,’ said Prescott. ‘That is why this ship is so intriguing.’