September 19, 2008

As Darwin watches the preparation of the H.M.S. Beagle, he gets (understandably) excited.

It also turns out that Captain FitzRoy was popular with the ladies. Darwin fears that he will get seasick on the voyage; it happens to everyone. Little did he know how bad it would be, and that raisins were all he could eat for weeks.

In the second paragraph, Darwin writes of his admiration for “a Mr. Harris.” William Snow Harris was known as “Thunder and Lightning Harris” for his work making electrical conductors for ship masts. These conductors ran down the mast and discharged lightning through the hull of the ship. He was eventually knighted in 1847 for this, but the Russians adopted it way before the Brits. in 1845, he got some special gifts from the Tsar for his work.

Thunder and Lightning Harris, huh? What an appropriate name to feature on Talk Like a Pirate Day.

12 November, 1831

My dear Caroline,

The tutor’s bill is just as I expected—and I will contrive some plan through Henslow.—Most unfortunately Henslow has just lost his brother, so I do not like at present to trouble him.—

Everything here is most prosperous; the Beagle now looks something like a ship— They have just painted her and in a weeks time the men will live on board.— No Vessel has ever been fitted at all on so expensive a scale from Plymouth— I get into a fine naval fervour whenever I look at her. I suppose she is as good a ship as art can make her—and if I believe all I hear the Captain is as perfect as nature can make him— It is ridiculous to see how popular he is, ladies can hardly splutter out big enough words to express their big feelings—

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