BSW - CAA - The HMS Beagle

 The HMS Beagle 

The Beagle was a Cherokee class, 10 gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The Cherokee class was a class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy that had 10 guns. Brig-sloops were sloops-of-war with two masts rather than the three masts of ship sloops. Brigs were popular as they were both fast and maneuverable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels.  It was ordered in 1817 along with another 100 in its class. It cost them £7,803 which now would cost around £700,000! It took the ship makers from the Woolwich Dockyard 1 year to build and was laid down in 1818. The Beagle was then commissioned in 1820. 

Captain Pringle Stokes was appointed captain of the Beagle on September 7th 1825 and the ship was allocated to the surveying section of the hydrographic office. On 27 September 1825 The Beagle docked at Woolwich to be repaired and fitted for its new duties. Its guns were reduced from ten to six and a mizzen mast was added to improve her handling, therefore changing her from a brig to a bark. A bark is a type of vessel to have 3 or more masts. The Beagle set sail from Plymouth on 22 May 1826 on her first voyage from 1826 to 1830.

Its second voyage was the expedition under captain Robert FitzRoy alongside Charles Darwin. This was the 5 year survey expedition that ultimately led to Darwin's theories on evolution and natural selection. FitzRoy heard that he was to be appointed commander of HMS Chanticleer to go to Tierra del Fuego, but due to her poor condition Beagle was substituted for the voyage. The Beagle was taken into dock at Devonport for refitting. FitzRoy had the top deck raised 8 inches which made the ship less likely to capsize in rough waters as the water couldn't build up on the gunwale. The gunwale is the edge of the top deck. It sailed from 1831 to 1836.

Its third voyage was from 1837 to 1843 and sailed to survey the coasts of Australia. 

In 1945, 2 years after its final voyage, The beagle was refitted as a static coastguard. In 1870, she was sold to "Messrs Murray and Trainer" to be broken up. Now, a full scale replica was made of the HMS Beagle completed in 2016. It is at Museo Nao Victoria in Chile. I find this so cool and interesting as all we had to go off before this was the original plans and drawing or paintings of it. But now an actual replica has been made which is fascinating to me!