Evolution's Captain - the Tragic Story of Captain James Fitzroy

Many of us are familiar with the story of Charles Darwin and his historic voyage on the HMS Beagle. Far fewer know the tale of Captain James Fitzroy - the Beagle's doomed captain. In many ways, Fitzroy was a man of the Enlightenment and the embodiment of the basic tenets we outlined last class. Here is an overview of his life, and role in Darwin's legacy. The following is my summary of the excellent book "Evolution's Captain" by Peter Nichols. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on Fitzroy and how much of science is often based on chance. In this case, Darwin would have never made his historic discoveries had it not been for Fitzroy - a man that would later condemn him for writing the Origin of Species.


The Story of Captain James Fitzroy, Captain of HMS Beagle, is a tragic one. It is intrinsically linked with that of Charles Darwin, the young naturalist who accompanied him as his companion on this five year voyage of discovery (27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836). The first captain of the Beagle, Pringle Stokes, had committed suicide several years earlier -after  succumbing to the loneliness of many years at sea. A young James Fitzroy later assumed command of the Beagle. While Fitzroy was a man of much stronger character, he sought a gentleman companion to make the time move more swiftly on the ship's next voyage - one that would be substantially longer than her first.

Charles Darwin almost didn’t get the position. After a mutual friend recommended Dawwin to Fitzroy, the latter remarked that the position had already been taken by a Mr. Chester. Darwin was upset, but the two met for dinner. At the time both were young. Fitzroy was 26 and Darwin only 22. They hit it off and Darwin was invited along for the voyage.

In addition to completing major cartographic survey work, the voyage had a second purpose. Years earlier, Fitzroy had embarked upon an experiment based upon his ideas of about the nature of primitive versus civilized man. He was very much a scientist, although more in the Victorian sense. His interest in natural history was aided by his use of systematic methods of observation - such tools of the Enlightenment as the theololite, chronometer, and alike. However, he also subscribed to the idea that all human societies were equally perfectible.

While on an earlier voyage in 1830, Fitzroy had “invited” three native Fuegians (members of the Yanama tribe) from their home in Tierra del Fuego to England. The three were given English names: Jemmy Button (a young man in his late teens); a 10 year old girl called Fuegia Basket, and a young adult in his mid 20’s called York Minister. Another young person was also brought to England. However, Boat Memory as she was called, died of smallox soon after arriving. Fitzroy attempted to transform his Fuegian guests into 'civilized' persons using the basic tenets of the enlightenment. They were dressed in English clothes, and mimicked English mannerisms - even fopish phrases! After York Minister began showing sexual interest in the young Fuegia Basket, Fitzroy decided that they should be returned home. One of the aims of this repatriation was spread the seeds of civilized behavior and English customs to their more “savage brethren”.

As the voyage progressed tensions emerged between Fitzroy and Darwin. Fitzroy was a student of phrenology, and firmly beleived that one’s character was apparent in the morphology of the face and skull. Initially, Darwin’s high forehead had make him distrustful of the man. However, most of their disagreements were minor ones - except for a particularly bad argument in which Darwin condemned Fitzroy’s support for slavery in Brazil.

It became immediately apparent to Darwin and Fitzroy that the three Fuegian’s had been transformed by their time in England to the point where they might not integrate into native Fuegian culture. Upon arriving in Tierra del Fuego, the three seemed embarrassed by their compatriots, in the same way that one might be embarrassed by one’s family. Darwin seemed especially concerned about the logic of leaving them behind, given the length of time they had been away from their native surroundings. Several years later, their fears would be realized. When they returned to the place where they had left their Fuegian refugees, they found  Jemmy Button  thin and destitute. Most of his possessions had been stolen by York Minister and Fuegia Basket, whom he had now taken for his wife. They had abandoned Jemmy and his family, departing in a large canoe. Fitzroy asked if he would like to return to England, but he refused. Jemmy Button was later implicated in the massacre of the captain and crew of a whaling ship.

The rest of the voyage resulted in Darwin’s gathering of all of the data he needed to eventually develop his theory of natural selection. Upon their return to England, the two men rarely say each other. They became immersed in writing their respective accounts of the voyage. It was at this point that the two men began moving in almost opposite directions. Darwin, stimulated by the ideas of Thomas Malthus and Charles Lyell, was beginning to question the validity of literal accounts of creation as written in the Old Testament. Fitzroy, on the other hand, was becoming increasingly more religious.

Fitzroy published his account of the voyage, which consisted of dry descriptions of weather patterns, sea conditions, and hydrographic readings. Darwin’s section, which was sold separately, was a description of the landscape, plants, and animals of the many exotic locations visited by the Beagle. It sold much, much better. The seeds of resentment were thus sewn.

With the eventual publishing of his book “The Origin of Species” the Victorian public was abuzz over the controversial nature of his theories of life on earth. Darwin sent Fitzroy a copy, thanking him and stating that without him, the book might never have been written. This horrified Fitzroy, who tersely wrote back that he felt it offensive that Darwin’s theory suggested that humans had not been made in the image of the creator - rather they had evolved from Apes!

Fizroy became increasingly melancholy and withdrawn in the years that followed. Indications are that there was a history of depression in his family. In one particularly sad account, Fizroy was travelling to Oxford to deliver a paper on weather patterns. He heard that there was to be a debate on The Origin of Species at Oxford while he was there. After giving his paper, he sat in on the presentations. In attendance were Thomas Huxley (Darwin's Bulldog), James Beaufort, and John Richardson (the eminent Arctic researcher and explorer). As per usual, the debate was lively and digressed into a shouting match. Fitzroy felt compelled to speak........

If you had been there that day, you would have witnessed a 55 year old man (who looked much older than his years) lifting a bible above his head, and shouting that he regretting the publication of the Origin of Species, and that he had cut ties with his old friend because his theories contradicted the book of Genesis. No one listened or even saw him. He left the lecture and returned home by train - a broken man full of regrets.

In his dressing room, on a Suday morning in April of 1865, the depression finally got the better of him. He slit his own throat with a straight razor.