Imagine...
Imagine if one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known was a blogger. It would make interesting reading, no? Imagine if this scientist was the scientific officer on a massive world trip in a boat named after a species of dog and every now and then he blogged for your interest, and just for good measure the captain of the boat did too. Sounds good doesn’t it? Imagine if that captain was called FitzRoy and that the scientist was Charles Darwin. Sounds really good now doesn’t it? You may well be scoffing at the idea – Darwin is long dead and they didn’t have the interweb in 1835 and nor do we have time machines now.
This is all true, but through the magic of pens, paper, time and somebody else’s computer you now can follow the travels of Darwin in real time – Charles Darwin’s Beagle Diary. What a bloody brilliant idea!
Lets have an anectode.
From ‘The Beak of The Finch’ by Jonathan Weiner
“When Darwin met Captain FitzRoy for his job interview, the Captain took an instant dislike to Darwin’s nose. The Captain was an amateur phrenologist and physiognomist, and prided himself on his ability to judge the character of his men by their skull bumps. FitzRoy felt sure that he was looking at the nose of a lazy man. He almost sent Darwin home.”
[Edit: Thanks to Harry for holding the link]
2 comments:
If you don't mind a bit of reimagined historical fiction, "This Thing of Darkness" by Harry Thompson is a good read, and gives a pretty good account of the relationship between Darwin and Fitzroy based on the aforementioned diaries and other sources.
Thank you good Sir, I will keep an eye out for that one.
Post a Comment