Sad Footnote to Darwin's Voyage on HMS Beagle

The State Library of New South Wales, Australia, has just paid $200,000 (about $160,00 US) at a London auction for the journal of Pringle Stokes, a captain of the Royal Navy who committed suicide in 1828.

The unfortunate Capt. Stokes died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds off the coast of Patagonia while commanding HMS Beagle, which was exploring the South American coast. The loss of the captain, which was attributed to melancholy of the long voyage, enabled Lt. Robert FitzRoy to take command of the ship.

FitzRoy would later invite a young naturalist, Charles Darwin, to sail aboard the Beagle on its next voyage.

The ostensible reason Darwin was invited along was so that he could hold intelligent conversations with the captain, thereby lessening the sense of isolation. Darwin did wind up becoming friends with FitzRoy, and of course his research during the voyage formed a foundation for his later work.

The journal of Capt. Stokes will be displayed at the library's Darwin Down Under exhibition.