Following Darwin's Route
Book for the voyage from Barcelona to Patagonia in October 2010. Its the 150 aniversary of Darwin's navigation, so the Maagen will stop in the places that Darwin sailed aboard HMS Beagle during his expedition from Europe to Patagonia For a 73 day trip (Total days at sea - 43 / Total days at port - 30) Cost is US$12. 651 per passenger. Individual legs available on request	Vessel Information & Deck Plan

Darwin's voyage in the Atlantic islands

The Beagle touched at Madeira for a confirmed position without stopping, then on 6 January reached Tenerife, but was quarantined there because of cholera in England. Although tantalisingly near to the town of Santa Cruz they were denied landing, to Darwin's intense disappointment. They sailed on in improving weather conditions, and on 10 January Darwin tried out a plankton net he had devised to be towed behind the ship, only the second recorded use of a plankton net. Next day, he noted the great number of animals collected far from land and wrote "Many of these creatures so low in the scale of nature are most exquisite in their forms & rich colours. — It creates a feeling of wonder that so much beauty should be apparently created for such little purpose."

They continued on to make their first stop at the volcanic island of St. Jago in the Cape Verde Islands, and it is here that Darwin's Journal starts. While readings were taken to accurately confirm the longitude, he went on shore and was fascinated by his first sight of tropical vegetation and by the volcanic island's geology. He made careful studies of stratigraphy in the way he had learnt from Adam Sedgwick, and speculated about how the strata had been formed.

Rather than explaining features as the outcomes of local floods, he applied the ideas in Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, understanding landforms as the outcome of gradual processes over huge periods of time, to form his own revolutionary insight into the geological history of the island. He saw a prominent white band of a hard white rock formed from crushed coral and seashells high up on the black lava cliffs, and interpreted this in terms of Lyell's thesis of gradual rising and falling of the Earth's crust. This inspired him to think of writing a book on the subject. Darwin later wrote of "seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes".

Customarily the ship's surgeon took the position of naturalist, and the Beagle's surgeon Robert McCormick sought fame and fortune as an explorer. He and Darwin explored St. Jago together amicably enough, but Darwin privately thought the surgeon an ass whose old-fashioned approach predated Lyell's concepts, while McCormick increasingly resented the favours FitzRoy gave to help Darwin's collecting.

Half way to Brazil, FitzRoy landed a small party including himself and Darwin on St. Paul's rocks, finding the seabirds so tame that they could be killed easily, while an exasperated McCormick was left circling the islets in a second small boat.[26]

Darwin had a special position as guest and social equal of the captain, so junior officers called him "sir" until the captain dubbed Darwin Philos for "ship's philosopher", and this became his suitably respectful nickname.

Surveying South America

The Beagle now carried out its survey work along the coasts of South America, going to and fro to allow careful measurement and rechecking. Darwin spent much of the time away from the ship, returning by prearrangement when the Beagle returned to ports where mail could be received and Darwin's notes, journals and collections sent back to England. He had ensured that his collections were his own and they were shipped back to Henslow in Cambridge to await his return. Several others on board including FitzRoy and other officers were able amateur naturalists, and they gave Darwin generous assistance as well as making collections for the Crown, which the Admiralty placed in the British Museum.

Darwin made long journeys inland with travelling companions from the locality. In Patagonia he rode inland with gauchos and saw them use bolas to bring down "ostriches" (rheas), and ate roast armadillo.

Tropical paradise and slavery

On 28 February they reached the continent, arriving at the magnificent sight of the town Salvador (Bahia), Brazil, with large ships at harbour scattered across the bay. On the next day, Darwin was in "transports of pleasure" walking by himself in the tropical forest.[28]

He found the sights of slavery offensive and when FitzRoy defended the practice by describing a visit to a slaveowner whose slaves replied "no" on being asked by their master if they wished to be freed, Darwin suggested that answers in such circumstances were worthless. Enraged that his word had been questioned, FitzRoy lost his temper and banned Darwin from his company. The officers had nicknamed such outbursts "hot coffee," and within hours FitzRoy apologised and asked Darwin to remain.

Survey work around the harbour was completed on 18 March, and the ship made its way down the coast to survey the Abrolhos islands, then on to Rio de Janeiro where Darwin took in the sights of the city then made an expedition into the interior.

By then Robert McCormick felt "very much disappointed in my expectations of carrying out my natural history pursuits, every obstacle having been placed in the way of my getting on shore and making collections" while the gentleman Darwin received all the invitations from dignitaries onshore and was given facilities to pack his collections. With permission from the admiral in command, McCormick left the ship and returned to England.

Fossil finds

With the Beagle anchored at Bahia Blanca, Darwin and FitzRoy went for "a very pleasant cruize about the bay" on 22 September 1832, and about ten miles (16 km) from the ship they stopped for a while at Punta Alta. In low cliffs near the point Darwin found conglomerate rocks containing numerous shells and fossilised teeth and bones of gigantic extinct mammals, in strata near an earth layer with shells and armadillo fossils, suggesting to him quiet tidal deposits rather than a catastrophe. With assistance (possibly including the young sailor Syms Covington acting as his servant) Darwin collected numerous fossils over several days.

Much of the second day was taken up with excavating a large skull which Darwin found embedded in soft rock, and seemed to him to be allied to the rhinoceros. On 8 October he returned to the site, and found a jawbone and tooth which he was able to identify using Bory de Saint-Vincent's Dictionnaire classique. He wrote home describing this and the large skull as Megatherium fossils, or perhaps Megalonyx, and excitedly noted that the only specimens in Europe were locked away in the King's collection at Madrid. In the same layer he found a large surface of polygonal plates of bony armour.

His immediate thought was that they came from an enormous armadillo like the small creatures common in the area, but from Cuvier's misleading description of the Madrid specimen and a recent newspaper report about a fossil found by Woodbine Parish, Darwin thought that the bony armour identified the fossil as the Megatherium.] With FitzRoy, Darwin went about 30 miles (48 km) across the bay to Monte Hermoso on 19 October, and found numerous fossils of smaller rodents in contrast to the huge Edentatal mammals of Punta Alta. In November at Buenos Aires he "purchased fragments of some enormous bones" which he "was assured belonged to the former giants!!", and subsequently took any chance to get fossils "by gold or galloping".

At Montevideo in November the mail from home included a copy of the second volume of Lyell's Principles of Geology, a refutation of Lamarckism in which there was no shared ancestry of different species or overall progress to match the gradual geological change, but a continuing cycle in which species mysteriously appeared, closely adapted to their "centres of creation", then went extinct when the environment changed to their disadvantage.

Tierra del Fuego

His encounter with the natives of the Tierra del Fuego on his Beagle voyage made Darwin believe that civilization had evolved over time from a more primitive state.

They reached Tierra del Fuego on 18 December 1832 and Darwin was taken aback at the crude savagery of the Yaghan natives, in stark contrast to the civilised behaviour of the three Fuegians they were returning as missionaries (who had been given the names York Minster, Fuegia Basket and Jemmy Button). He described his first meeting with the native Fuegians as being "without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilised man: it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of improvement."

In contrast, he said of Jemmy that "It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his many good qualities, that he should have been of the same race, and doubtless partaken of the same character, with the miserable, degraded savages whom we first met here. (Four decades later, in The Descent of Man he would use his impressions from this period as evidence that human civilizations had developed from a more primitive state.)

At the island of "Buttons Land" on 23 January 1833 they set up a mission post, with huts, gardens, furniture and crockery, but when they returned nine days later the possessions had been looted and divided up equally by the natives. Matthews gave up, rejoining the ship and leaving the three civilised Fuegians to continue the missionary work. The Beagle went on to the Falkland Islands arriving just after the British return.

Darwin studied the relationships of species to habitats and found ancient fossils like those he'd found in Wales. Fitzroy bought a schooner to assist with the surveying, and they returned to Patagonia where this was fitted with a new copper bottom and renamed Adventure. Darwin was assisted by Syms Covington in preserving specimens and his collecting was so successful that with FitzRoy's agreement he took on Covington as a full time servant for £30 a year.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_voyage_of_HMS_Beagle

Maagen in Barcelona, Spain

What is included in the Cost

• Accommodation in double and single bunks with sheets.
• Integral heating‹below deck.
• Exellent food and beverages, including wine and beer.
• Use of the boat itself and safety gear.
• Landings depending on the itinerary.
• All taxes and port charges once on board.
• Professional assistance from skipper and crew.

What is NOT included in the Cost

• Alcoholic drinks.
• Special food for outdoor expeditions such as dried or liquefied food.
• Personal clothing as described on the PERSONAL EQUIPMENT LIST.
• Transport from and to the boat before and after the voyage.
• Accommodation before and after the voyage.
• Special authorizations for private expeditions.

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