Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2009

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, Melvyn Bragg presents a series about Darwin's life and work.Darwin's expedition aboard the Beagle in December 1831 and how his work during the voyage influenced and provided evidence for his theories.Featuring contributions from Darwin biographer Jim Moore, Steve Jones, geneticist at University College London, David Norman, Fellow of Christ's College Cambridge and Jenny Clack, curator of the University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about In Our Time,
0:04.1	and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:08.0	Radio 4.
0:09.2	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.3	Now Melvin Bragg continues his search for Charles Darwin and his idea of evolution by natural selection.
0:17.0	Part 2, the Beagle, the Finch, and the Megathirium, joins Darwin as he sets off on around the world adventure and examines how the things he saw and the animals, rocks and fossils he brought back made him famous and helped provide the evidence for his developing ideas.
0:38.0	Yesterday on Darwin in our time we left the 22 year old Darwin on the cusp of a grand adventure. A voyage on a ship called the Beagle to map the coast of South America.
0:42.0	It would take five years at that stage a quarter of the 22 year old Darwin's life
0:46.0	and would radically change his ambitions,
0:48.0	his understanding of the world and his status as a naturalist.
0:52.0	We're in Darwin's rooms in Christ's College, Cambridge.
0:55.0	Paneled, wonderful windows overlooking a small quad,
0:59.0	and I'm joined by David Norman,
1:01.0	reader in vertebrate paleobology and Fellow of this College.
1:05.0	Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at UCL and Jim Moore, a biographer of Darwin.
1:10.4	What kind of a boat was the beagle?
1:12.0	How big was it and who was Darwin sailing with?
1:14.4	HMS Beagle was a Royal Navy 10-gun brig, 30 meters long and about 8 or 9 meters wide.
1:21.5	A member of the Coffin Class of Briggs because of their instability.
1:25.8	Not particularly successful as a warship.
1:28.4	It had been adapted purposefully to sail on this voyage and it was immensely crowded with 70-odd people.
1:34.4	Steve Jones.
	...

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