As the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, it was very fitting that at least one of our talks this year should feature him, but given the amount of coverage on radio and television already, would the talk bring anything new to light? In the event, by focussing on how his voyage on the Beagle influenced Charles Darwin, Keith Muscott opened a treasure chest of insights into the man and the age that made both the discovery and the dissemination of evolutionary theory possible.

What none of us in the audience had realised at the start of the talk was quite how intellectually challenging the small admiralty survey brigs were in the period following the Napoleonic war. They were crewed by young men with ambition (at peace, there was no other hope for advancement in the navy) and very considerable learning. Navigation at the time was a mathematically demanding occupation, this was a period where mechanical calculators (never mind computers) where unknown, and these vessels produced surveys that remained the standards over large parts of the world until the mid 20th century using nothing more complicated that dead reconning and mechanical chronometers! Where officers on sailing ships were expected to be excellent draftsmen – because there were no cameras, so drawings were the only way of bringing back representations of the far off places and people they visited.

Given this background, we were rather less surprised to find out that most of the officers from the Beagle went on to lives of very considerable distinction…

Barry