Exploration

Sep 07, 1825

Pringle Stokes appointed Captain of HMS Beagle and then the ship was allocated to the surveying section of the Hydrographic Office.

Location: Britain

Sep 27, 1825

HMS Beagle is docked at Woolwich to be converted for her new duties as a surveying ship. She had 4 guns removed, leaving her with 6, and an extra mizzen mast added transforming her into a Barque.

Location: Britain

May 22, 1826

HMS Beagle sets sail from Plymouth for a hydrograic survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

Location: Britain

Aug 02, 1828

Captain Stokes on HMS Beagle shoots himself. He had become depressed while surveying the waters off Tierra del Fuego, went so far as to lock himself in his cabin for two weeks. He had appeared to recover just before shooting himself. The injury was not immediately fatal.

Location: Pacific ocean

Aug 12, 1828

Captain Stokes finally dies after shooting himself on the 2nd of August. He is replaced as the Captain of the Beagle with his First Lieutenant, William Skyring.

Location: Pacific ocean

Dec 15, 1828

Robert FitzRoy is appointed as the captain of HMS Beagle. He had been the Flag Lieutenant to Rear Admiral Sir Robert Otway on board HMS Ganges. He replaces William Skyring.

Location: Pacific ocean

1830

While surveying Tierra del Fuego one of HMS Beagle's boats is stolen by Fuegian natives. The ship gave chase and captured them. The theives were exchanged for hostages from their families, including Orundellico, to prevent them from doing it again. As it was not possible to put them ashore conveniently when the ship left Captain FitzRoy decided to take tehm with him with the plan to eventually return them as missionaries.

Location: South America

Oct 14, 1830

HMS Beagle returns to Britain after its first voyage of exploration

Location: Britain

Jan 06, 1832

HMS Beagle reaches Tenerife in the Canary Islands on its second voyage of exploration, but they could not be allowed to land because of a cholera outbreak in England.

Location: Atlantic

Jan 10, 1832

Darwin tries out a plankton net off HMS Beagle and noted the great variety of animals so far from land.

Location: Atlantic

Jan 16, 1832

HMS Beagle lands at Praia, a volcanic island in the Cape Verde Islands where Darwin begins his research. He and McCormick collected numerous sea animals, and vivid tropical corals in tidal pools. Darwin also investigated the geology of Quail Island where FitzRoy had set up the tents of the surveying party. While on the Cape Verde Islands he found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs included seashells

Location: Atlantic

Feb 16, 1832

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.

Location: Atlantic

Feb 17, 1832

HMS Beagle crossed the equator with the traditional line-crossing ceremony.

Location: Atlantic

Feb 28, 1832

HMS Beagle reaches South America at Salvador

Location: South America

Apr 1832

McCormick leaves HMS Beagle and returns to Britain on HMS Tyne. He had become increasingly frustrated with the way that Captain FitzRoy favoured Darwin over himself. As ship's surgeon he would have traditionally held the role of naturalist, which Darwin was actually performing.

Location: South America

Apr 26, 1832

Darwin moves into a house at Botafogo so that he can stay ashore and continue his explorations

Location: South America

May 10, 1832

Captain FitzRoy takes HMS Beagle to check some observations at Bahia

Location: South America

Jun 03, 1832

Captain FitzRoy confirms that his observations at Bahia and the Abrolhos reefs were correct.

Location: South America

Jun 05, 1832

HMS Beagle leaves Rio

Location: South America

Jul 05, 1832

HMS Beagle returns to Rio and meets up with Darwin there.

Location: South America

Jul 26, 1832

HMS Beagle reaches Montevideo. They briefly occupy the fort there at the request of the Agentine government in order to supress a revolt there.

Location: South America

Aug 22, 1832

HMS Beagle takes soundings in Samborombón Bay and then began survey work down the coast from Cape San Antonio.

Location: South America

Nov 03, 1832

Darwin organises to get Syms Covington some new clothes

Location: South America

Dec 18, 1832

HMS Beagle reaches Tierra del Fuego. On the previous voyage they had taken 3 natives as hostages, who they planned to return as missionaries.

Location: South America

Jan 23, 1833

HMS Beagle sets up a mission post, with huts, gardens, furniture and crockery for the three native Fuegians.

Location: South America

Feb 01, 1833

HMS Beagle returns to the mission post to find that the possessions had been looted and divided up equally by the natives.

Location: South America

Apr 29, 1833

Darwin and Covington take up residence ashore in Maldonado in Uruguay. They make an expedition into the interior of the country, and then spend the rest of the time that they are waiting for HMS Beagle to return by preserving specimens.

Location: South America

Jul 06, 1833

Covington becomes Darwin's personal servant and assistant.

Location: South America

Aug 08, 1833

Darwin travels inland to collect more specimens.

Location: South America

Aug 12, 1833

Darwin meets General Juan Manuel de Rosas who was then leading a punitive expedition in his military campaign against natives.

Location: South America

Aug 18, 1833

Darwin is at Bahía Blanca waiting to rejoin HMS Beagle

Location: South America

Aug 21, 1833

After HMS Beagle did not arrive on time Darwin revisited Punta Alta where he reviewed the geology of the site

Location: South America

Nov 12, 1833

Sir John Herschel departs for South Africa in order to catalogue the stars that are visible from the southern skies.

Location: South America

Jan 15, 1834

Sir John Herschel sets up his 21 foot telescope at Claremont, a suburb of Cape Town.

Location: Southern Africa

Mar 05, 1834

The mission post at Tierra del Fuego had been abandoned and the three Fuegians were living like everybody else from the area.

Location: South America

Jun 28, 1834

HMS Beagle reaches Chiloé Island in the Straits of Magellan. This was part of the wet and heavily wooded Chiloé Archipelago. They spent the next six months surveying the coast and islands southwards.

Location: South America

Aug 14, 1834

Darwin sets off to explore the Andes.

Location: South America

Sep 20, 1834

Darwin falls ill on his way back from Santiago with what could have been Chagas' disease.

Location: South America

Nov 11, 1834

HMS Beagle leaves to survey the Chonos Archipelago having had to wait for Darwin to recover from an illness.

Location: South America

Feb 08, 1835

HMS Beagle arrives at Valdivia

Location: South America

Feb 20, 1835

Darwin is ashore when he experiences an earthquake. On returning to Valdivia he finds it badly damaged.

Location: South America

Mar 04, 1835

HMS Beagle arrives at Concepción to find that it had been hit by the same earthquake that damaged Valdivia. FitzRoy surveys the area and proves that the earthquake raised the ground level by 9 feet thanks to a mussel bed that was now high above the high tide mark.

Location: South America

Sep 15, 1835

HMS Beagle reaches the Galápagos Islands

Location: Pacific ocean

Oct 20, 1835

HMS Beagle sets sail for Tahiti

Location: Pacific ocean

Nov 15, 1835

HMS Beagle arrives at Tahiti

Location: Pacific ocean

Dec 19, 1835

HMS Beagle arrives at New Zealand

Location: New Zealand

Dec 30, 1835

HMS Beagle leaves New Zealand

Location: New Zealand

Jan 12, 1836

HMS Beagle arrives at Australia. He admired the bustling city of Sydney, and then went to explore the interior. He found a group of aborigines who looked "good-humoured & pleasant & they appeared far from such utterly degraded beings as usually represented". He paid them a shilling to demonstrate spear throwing. He then went to a large sheep farm and caught a rat-kangaroo, his first marsupial specimen.

Location: Australia

Apr 01, 1836

HMS Beagle arrives at the Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean so that they could study the formation of a coral atoll. Darwin found a limited range of plants and no land birds on the atoll, but within its lagoon there was a rich variety of invertebrates and fish.

FitzRoy took numerous soundings of the atoll and its lagoon, which showed that there was no living coral below 20 to 30 fathoms. Darwin would use this information to prove his theory of atoll formation.

Location: Indian Ocean

Apr 29, 1836

HMS Beagle arrives at Mauritius

Location: Indian Ocean

May 31, 1836

HMS Beagle reaches the Cape of Good Hope. In Cape Town Darwin receives a letter from his sister noting that he was already getting noticed within scientific circles in Britain.

Location: Southern Africa

Jun 15, 1836

Darwin and Fitzroy visit the astronomer Sir John Herschel in Cape Town

Location: Southern Africa

Jun 18, 1836

HMS Beagle sets sail from Cape Town

Location: Southern Africa

Jul 08, 1836

HMS Beagle arrives at St. Helena. Darwin took lodgings near Napoleon’s tomb while he explored the island. During his exploration he noted the sloping strata showing fault lines and beds of seashells high on the hill that showed that the island had risen from the sea.

Location: Southern Africa

Jul 19, 1836

HMS Beagle reaches Ascension Island. The island was little more than a volcanic rock at this time, but that was perfect for Darwin as a geologist.

Location: Atlantic

Oct 02, 1836

HMS Beagle moors at Falmouth. Charles Darwin leaves the ship here and takes the stage coach back to Shrewsbury to see his family.

Location: Britain

1850

Captain William Peel goes to travel through the Middle East

Location: Middle East

1852

Captain William Peel returns to Britain and publishes his book 'A Ride through the Nubian Desert' about his time in the Middle East

Location: Middle East