Robert FitzRoy

Vice Admiral Robert FitzRoy (July 5, 1805 - April 30, 1865) achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle and as a pioneering meteorologist who invented weather forecasts, also proving an able surveyor and hydrographer as well as Governor of New Zealand.

HMS Beagles Second Voyage

Main article: The Voyage of the Beagle

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In early May 1831 FitzRoy stood as Tory candidate for Ipswich in the General Election, but was defeated. He was considering chartering a ship at his own expense to return the Fuegians with Matthews when a "kind uncle" interceded at the Admiralty and on 25 June 1831 he was re-appointed commander of the Beagle. He spared no expense in fitting out the ship. Very conscious of the stressful loneliness of command and of the suicide both of Captain King and of his uncle Viscount Castlereagh, who had cut his own throat in 1822 while in government office, he offered a place on the ship to a gentleman who would provide companionship as well as making use of the opportunities the expedition presented to a naturalist. While those first approached turned the opportunity down, eventually he approved Charles Darwin for the position. The two got on well together during the voyage which stretched over five years, though on one occasion Darwin's insistence on contradicting FitzRoy's justification of slavery led to the captain losing his temper and banishing Darwin from his table for several days. Darwin described FitzRoy as a man of considerable charm with liberal (open-minded) views.

Related Topics:
1831 - Tory - Ipswich - Admiralty - 25 June - 1822 - Charles Darwin

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Following the Beagle's return on 2 October 1836, FitzRoy was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society in 1837.

Related Topics:
2 October - 1836 - Royal Geographical Society - 1837

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FitzRoy then wrote his account of the voyage, including editing the notes of the previous captain of the Beagle, which was completed and published in May 1839 as the Narrative of the surveying voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle in four volumes including Darwin's Journal and Remarks, 1832—1836 as the third volume. FitzRoy's account includes a section of Remarks with reference to the Deluge in which he admits that having read works "by geologists who contradict, by implication, if not in plain terms, the authenticity of the Scriptures" and "while led away by sceptical ideas" he had remarked to a friend that the vast plain of sedimentary material they were crossing "could never have been effected by a forty days' flood" indicating that in his "turn of mind and ignorance of scripture" he was willing to disbelieve the Biblical account. Concerned that such ideas might "reach the eyes of young sailors" he earnestly explains in great detail his renewed commitment to a literal reading of the Bible, with arguments that rock layers high in the mountains containing sea shells are actually proof of Noah's Flood and that the six days of creation could not have extended over aeons because the grass, herbs and trees would have died out during the long nights. FitzRoy was clearly dissociating himself from Darwin's account which embraced the new ideas of Charles Lyell, and asserting his commitment to the doctrine of the established Church of England which he, as a Tory, could be expected to uphold.

Related Topics:
1839 - Charles Lyell - Church of England

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Fitzroy was elected the Tory Member of Parliament for Durham in 1841, and Conservator for Merseyside in 1842.

Related Topics:
Member of Parliament - Durham - 1841 - Merseyside - 1842

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