Charles Darwin developed his early theories on board the Beagle
Posted on 07/19/2006 3:55:15 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Plans are being drawn up to build a £3.3m working replica of the boat that took Charles Darwin around the world at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.
Fundraising for the project, which would mark the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth in 2009, is under way.
The aim is to built a seaworthy vessel identical to the HMS Beagle on the outside, but with a modern interior.
Darwin, who showed how natural selection could explain evolution, sailed on the Beagle between 1831-36.
Sitting opposite him on the expedition was mate and surveyor John Lort Stokes.
One of Stokes' descendents, Pembrokeshire farmer David Lort Philips, together with commercial yacht master Peter McGrath, have founded the Beagle Project Pembrokeshire.
Mr McGrath said the ship would look identical to the original Beagle on the outside but would have a 21st century interior with diesel auxiliary engines and generators.
He said he hoped the fished vessel would inspire the scientists of the future and be used by researchers and scientists from across the world.
"Externally it will be exactly the same but we want it to do some serious scientific work and you would not want the crew living like they did in the 18th Century," he said.
The pair have spent three years putting their plans together and aim to raise the money through private and institutional investors along with public subscription.
"With all the Darwin 200 celebrations there is not one big project to focus the attention on," added Mr McGrath.
"I know the effect a square rigger has on young people - it's a jaw dropping site.
"But we do not want this just to be a replica - we want it to have genuine scientific benefits.
"We have started the fundraising. Construction will take 14 months and it has to be finished by early 2009.
"She will be built in Milford Haven and it will be her home. But what we want to do when she is built is visit the significant sights in Darwin's and the Beagle's life."
Researchers believe the original remains of the 27m-long Navy brig, that was sold for scrap in 1870, are embedded in a marsh near Potton Island in Essex.
Darwin, who published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, came fourth in a poll run by the BBC in 2002 to find the public's greatest Briton of all time.
His voyage on the Beagle allowed him to form the basis for much of his later work.
|
'Beagle' alongside of replica
" Darwin would want it to evolve in to something everyone can enjoy from stem to stern."
Funny.
With that in mind, the new Beagle needs to be nuclear powered and have stealth capability.
What about the 200,000,000 people who've been killed by doctrines based on Darwins ideas? They gonna build any sort of a monument for them?
I went to see the other one when it came through Wilmington, NC many years back.
They gave a nice tour. Small ship, lots of people and ship's stores.
Huh?! Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were all devout Darwinists.
Darwin's book, the full title of which is The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, inspired the odious philosophy of "eugenics"—an early form of "ethnic cleansing" embraced by Margaret Sanger and other early abortionists, as well as Hitler with his whacko Aryanism.
The number of people who died at the hands of Darwin's disciples is staggering...and tragic.
Presumably the ship will be intelligently designed which should make the fundies happy. On the other hand, ship design has evolved since Darwin's day so today's Beagle may be fundamentally more adapted to a modern environment. I've heard the designers will be able to incorporate the new design elements in as little as 6 days. That will allow them to rest on the 7th day.
What about the 200,000,000 people who've been killed by doctrines based on Darwins ideas? They gonna build any sort of a monument for them?
________________
Oh please.
I thought people had evolved beyond that ridiculous assertion.
A description of biological processes is not a formula for communism, socialism, or nazism. Grow up.
SIGHT! Not site! SIGHT! SIGHT! SIGHT!
Nobody was killed because of Darwin. You are completely wrong, Mr. Holden.
You do not know what you are talking about. Under socialism, particularly in the Soviet Union and Communist China, evolution was thought to be counter-revolutionary and it was completely banned. It was viewed as essentially capitalistic where the strong take advantage of the weak.
There is no connection with Hitler. In fact, Hitler never talked about biological evolution, but strongly believed in divine Creation, in particular of the Aryan peoples. Hitler said he was doing the Creator's will by eliminating subhuman and mixed races.
You need to quit reading creationist propaganda. Socialism and Nazism were not inspired in any way by evolution.
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/nazis.htm
I'll not pile on too much, but your reading of the book title is ridiculously in error.
It really is scary when Creationists unknowingly align themselves with the likes of Stalin and Hitler in their views of evolution. When they make such comments, they don't know that their views of evolution are similar to the worst mass murderers in history. Stalin banned evolution and imprisoned or executed scientists for studying evolution. Hitler used special creation as an excuse for his racist bloodlust. Do you think tomzz actually realizes his comments are the antithesis of his beliefs?
An exact replica of a Nelson era Royal Navy frigate would be a thousand times cooler.
We'll call it Charlie's Ark.
This ship is based upon reality, not delusions of lunatics.
Ah isn't this special maybe Congress will make it a National Holiday....
"Ah isn't this special maybe Congress will make it a National Holiday...."
Hint: This isn't happening in the USA.
Hitler, like Charles Darwin in his later years, was disinclined to accept the authority and accuracy of the biblical texts and instead, like Charles Darwin, exalted his own reason above the plain and simple words of scripture. Hitler did make reference to Darwin's ideas in his eugenics propaganda. That's where the interpretation of facts leads when there is no accepted authority from Above.
I don't care what Hitler "said" he was doing. It was not in accord with the biblical texts. Dogmatic evolutionists "say" they are doing science, when in fact their extrapolations are little more than a philosophy of history with no guide other than intuition.
Give it time, the evolutionary gods will take note of this hallowed day. Maybe they can pronounce it a National Holiday in their their demand for tax payers to fund their stem cell research. You know got to save that 'flesh'.
Otherwise, the Welk pork barrel project will not seem like a waste of money at all.
The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848.
The Origin of Species was published in 1859.
And referencing biblical texts is no more than an excercise in superstition. I'll take scientific enquiry any day.
Abortion wasn't made fully illegal in most countries till the 19th century, and was widely available to that point.
Anti-semitism has a history even in the Bible, and genocide is as old as humankind is.
Slavery, of course, was legal long before 1859, and the Civil War started only 2 years after 1861.
Got Mittuns? Why yes, and two pairs of gloves, too!
Replication with modification.
Festival of pig-ignorant creationists placemarker.
Ya know ... I thought this would be a pleasant little thread about a replica of the Beagle. Suddenly it's turned into a convention of the brain dead.
"Ya know ... I thought this would be a pleasant little thread about a replica of the Beagle. Suddenly it's turned into a convention of the brain dead."
------
Welcome!
How enlightening.
I'll play the odds of eternal life in Heaven over ending up as meaningless dust or eternal life in Hell. All I have to do is live my life as a Christian for just one lifetime here on Earth, which by the way is a very good life.
Actually the oddball on the ship was Captain Fitzroy (who was BTW an excellent naval surveyor). Even then his ardent Biblical Fundamentalism was considered somewhat unusual amongst educated men such as the officers of the Beagle.
He and Darwin got on well, mostly, except when they almost came to blows over slavery, which according to Fitzroy was codified and endorsed by the Bible and therefore should be permitted. Darwin loathed the institution of slavery. The other officers (who appear to have liked Darwin) persuaded him to stay on the Beagle after a particularly furious argument about slavery. By 1830 slavery was regarded as an unnacceptable institution by many in England, though Bishop Wilberforce's great work lay in the future.
Darwin was a student of geology and an enthusiastic reader of Lyell's work, which catalogued the all-encompassing geological evidence for an old earth. Darwin and Fitzroy argued about 6 day creationism and the young earth, but these arguments were much more good-natured sparring. Far less venomous that anything seen here. Fitzroy helped Darwin perform experiments at coral islands where Darwin made certain predictions about the surrounding geology if Biblical creation were true, and different predictions if Biblical creation were false. Unsurprisingly, just as every other time such predictions are tested, things looked the way one would expect if the world were very ancient, rather than 6000 years old.
And you expected anything different?
Haven't you noticed that the posts are getting wackier and shriller from many of the creationists as time goes on?
Logic and reason just doesn't seem to be in the cards for these folks.
It used to be one, in the days before the rise of the Religious Right
"Even then his ardent Biblical Fundamentalism was considered somewhat unusual amongst educated men such as the officers of the Beagle."
The "Evolutionist is intelligent/Anti-evolutionist is dumb" argument is very weak. Does playing that card prop up your self esteem?
I think both would be equally cool. I'd willingly contribute some of my hard-earned £sterling to either. I'm not in favour of the lottery (which is a tax on ignorance of probability theory that bears hardest on the stupid) but if the lottery commission wants to throw behind this one it'll be a lot better than most things they could spend it on.
Feel free to post any facts that would contradict my opinions.
In my "I'm a billionare" fantasy, one of the first things I do (after paying to renovate my daughter's school, buying a Shelby Cobra and ending world hunger, of course) is build a frigate along the lines of HMS Leopard, hire a crew and sail months at a time.
Maybe I could build a French sloop for a friend and we could have a go.
There's nothing superstitious about the biblical texts. They are a bright light that obliviates superstition and sets the reader on the right path to wisdom and understanding. Your trust in science, OTOH, is no better than superstition, for it ultimately rests upon no other authority than yourself.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.