HMS Beagle found?

The final resting place of Beagle, the ship in which Charles Darwin sailed around the world and formed his ideas on evolution, might have been found, experts said yesterday. . .

Dr Robert Prescott of the University of St Andrews, who has led the team retracing the final days of the ship's working life, said yesterday that a range of remote sensing equipment is to be used to investigate a key site in the Essex marshes this summer. He does not want to reveal the exact location until his investigation is complete, though he has a range of documentary evidence to back his suspicions. . .

The only known relic of the vessel is a box, fashioned from its wood, which will be used to confirm the find. Launched in 1820 at Woolwich Royal Dockyard on the Thames, the 235-ton, 10-gun brig was refitted three years later as a hydrographic survey vessel before embarking on its famous career as a survey and scientific exploration ship. The 90ft sloop was laid up at Woolwich in 1840, and used later for anti-smuggling duties along the south-east coast until it was auctioned for £525 in 1870 - from when its fate has remained unclear . . .

Dr Prescott said he believed the ship had been broken up either where she lay or nearby, but the lower part of the hull was unlikely to have been moved far. "After the marvels of Patagonia and the Galapagos Islands, it seems the ship that helped spark a scientific revolution led a humdrum life in a backwater of England before falling asleep on a muddy riverbank," he said.

Posted by David on May 30, 2003 8:48 PM