The End of the Beagle

Abstract

DR. WATASE, professor of zoology in the College of Science of this University, has directed my attention to a letter on this subject in your issue of December 9, 1909. In view of the Darwin centenary celebrations of the year before last, and wishing to be fully assured of whatever facts were known regarding Darwin's Beagle, Dr. Watase got me to write to my old friend Mr. N. E. Smith, C.B., of the Comptroller's Department, Admiralty, Whitehall. The reputed tonnage (B.O.M.) of the vessel bought by Japan was known to be 523; her length and breadth were variously stated as 150 feet by 25 feet 6 inches and 160 feet by 26 feet. Mr. Smith very kindly traced the following notes with regard to Darwin's Beagle and to a subsequent vessel of the same name. His conclusion is that the Beagle bought by Japan was not Darwin's, but the later vessel. His letter is as follows:—