Beginning of Essay
In the mid 1830's, The British ship the Beagle set out to survey the shores of Chile, Peru and other islands in the Pacific; and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements around the world. The ship's captain was Captain Fitzroy. The young, religious captain ....

Middle of Essay
.... ship's "natural historian", or more importantly someone to keep him company. It turned out that Charles Darwin was asked to join, and he accepted. He barely knew the captain but said "yes" anyhow. Darwin only lasted a year or so as the "natural historian", before he took over Robert McKormick's job. McKormick was the ship's naturalist, and did not get along with Darwin at all. When Darwin did take over (which did not take long), McKormick actually left the ship and went back to Britain. Even before Darwin became the naturalist, he did more then just eat dinner with the captain to keep him sane. He would collect specimens in the foreign lands, and ....