Darwin's ship comes in
2004-02-27 08:37
London - After 130 years of mystery, British maritime historians said on Thursday they may have located the Beagle, the ship that took Charles Darwin on the voyages of discovery that helped him formulate his theory of natural selection.
Using radar technology, the historians say they have found what they believe is the 30m Beagle, 6m beneath the mud of marshes in Essex county, east of London.
"We can see the outline of a dock for the ship and can make out wood and metal, which is highly suggestive that there is indeed something substantial down there, most probably the bottom of the Beagle," said Robert Prescott, leader of a team from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, which has spent four years investigating the site.
The findings are to be revealed in a BBC documentary to be screened on the weekend.
Researchers used censuses that listed crewmen's families living on the Beagle as well as old maps to help them trace the vessel to an area of the marsh near Potton Island.
They believe that fragments of Victorian pottery and a children's toy tea set found at the site belonged to the families of the crew.
Researchers used radar technology - which can spot objects under layers of soil and marshland vegetation.
The Beagle, a 10-gun naval fighting ship, was launched at the Woolwich Royal Dockyard on the River Thames in 1820
After a few years' service, it was refitted as a hydrographic survey vessel. Between 1831 and 1835, Darwin travelled aboard the Beagle to Patagonia and the Galapagos Islands, where he made extensive studies of the flora and fauna.
On his return, he published "On the Origin of Species," which shook the scientific world with its assertion that species evolve through natural selection of the fittest.
The Beagle was later used as a coast guard vessel around Southend in Essex, but its 235-ton bulk annoyed local oyster fishermen and it was sold to the navy and towed to the nearby backwater where researchers say it now lies.
"It seems a pair of local likely lads may have purchased the ship, breaking her up where she sat or possibly towing her to a nearby site," said Prescott, the research team leader.
"After the marvels of Patagonia and the Galapagos Islands, it seems the ship that helped spark off a scientific revolution led a humdrum life in a backwater of England before falling asleep on a muddy riverbank where time seems to have stood still for centuries."
- AP