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MEMORIALS AND MONUMENTS

CHARLES DARWIN and HMS "BEAGLE"

Updated:  23 March 2011 

Low on a wall at Devil's Point, off Durnford Street, East Stonehouse, is a small circular plaque commemorating the sailing from Barn Pool, over on the Cornish side of Plymouth Sound, of  HMS "Beagle". 

After many days of delay due to bad weather, she set sail at 2pm on December 27th 1831, under Captain Robert FitzRoy, and carried the botanist Charles Darwin on a five-year voyage visiting South America and the Far East.  Upon his return to England, and after marrying Miss Emma Wedgewood, daughter of Mr Josiah Wedgewood, the potter, he continued his research in seclusion at Down House near Orpington in Kent and in 1859 his book "The Origin of Species by Natural Selection" was published.

He died at Down House on April 19th 1882 and is buried at Westminster Abbey.

The plaque was unveiled by Doctor Basil Greenhill, then Director of the National Maritime Museum.  Also present was a direct descendent of Captain Fitzroy.

Sources:

[1]
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth, UK

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