The Narrative of the Beagle Voyage, 1831–1836
Editor: Katharine Anderson
978 1 85196 844 2: 234x156mm: £295.00/$520.00
HMS Beagle has entered the collective imagination as the ship which carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos Islands. There, he began to develop the theory of natural selection. However, the Beagle also played a vital role in the development of modern meteorology, hydrography and cartography. Her skipper, Captain Robert FitzRoy, was charged with the important tasks of ascertaining the longitude of Rio de Janeiro, from where all meridian distances in South America were measured, and charting the continent’s coastline, much of which had not previously been mapped. To accomplish this, the Beagle carried cutting-edge navigation and surveying equipment. She was also the first ship to use Francis Beaufort’s new system for measuring wind speed at sea, which is still in use today.
Darwin and FitzRoy’s accounts of the voyage were published in the four-volume Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle between the Years 1826 and 1836 (1839). Darwin’s volume was republished almost immediately and has never been out of print. By contrast, this new three-volume reset edition is the first critical version of Fitzroy’s Narrative. It will generate new scholarly approaches to the Beagle voyage, and be crucial for those interested in Darwin Studies, Maritime History, History of Science and Colonial Studies.
- A fascinating alternative account of the Beagle voyage
- New editorial material contextualises Fitzroy’s Narrative and Appendix: a biographical introduction; two substantial essays explaining the historical and scientific significance of the voyage and its colonial implications; and a separate introduction to the Appendix
- Scholarly apparatus includes introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index
Contents
Volume 1
Introduction
- Robert FitzRoy
- Essay on scientific aspects of the voyage
- Essay on the significance of the voyage and the Narrative from a literary-historical perspective
Chronology of FitzRoy’s Life
Chronology of the Beagle Voyage
Further Reading
Note on the Text
FitzRoy’s Narrative (Chapters 1 to 12)
Endnotes
Volume 2
FitzRoy’s Narrative (Chapters 13 to 28)
Endnotes
Index
Volume 3
Introduction to the Appendix
Appendix to FitzRoy’s Narrative