Frog Guts

Yahoo! News - Bush May Hire Lawyer in Probe Over CIA Leak

2004-06-03T08:27:00.000-05:00

From Reuters via Yahoo: Yahoo! News - Bush May Hire Lawyer in Probe Over CIA Leak

President Bush has sought a lawyer to represent him in the criminal probe into who was responsible for a leak that was seen as retaliation against a critic of the Iraq war, the White House said on Wednesday.

"The president has had discussions with an outside attorney, and in the event that he needs advice he would retain him," said White House spokesman Allen Abney, naming the lawyer as Jim Sharp.

2004-06-02T21:43:00.000-05:00

Cup getting branded at Cub Scout Day Camp

2004-06-02T21:41:00.000-05:00

Toy car

2004-06-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

May 26, 2004

HMS Beagle

2004-06-01T08:07:00.000-05:00

H. M. S. Beagle by R. O. Wagner, 1964
Source: Rose-Hulman College
[Click picture for a larger view]

Here is some information from Ships of the World; An Historical Encyclopedia:

HMS Beagle
Bark (3m). L/B/D: 90.3 × 24.5 × 12.5 (27.5m × 7.5m × 3.8m). Tons: 235 bm. Hull: wood. Comp.: 75. Arm.: 5 × 6pdr, 2 × 9pdr. Des.: Sir Henry Peake. Built: Woolwich Dockyard; 1820.

HMS Beagle was originally launched as one of 115 Cherokee-class 10-gun brigs built by the Royal Navy between 1807 and 1830 and used in a variety of roles including surveying and antislaver patrols. By the time of her first voyage Beagle had been converted to a bark rig.

HMS Beagle was a three-masted bark (also spelled barque). Here is a simple diagram of a bark:
HMS Beagle rigged as a bark. The foremast and the main mast (the first two masts) have square sails. The mizzenmast has fore-and-aft sails.
Here is a model of the HMS Beagle:

Source: VICTORY ADVENTURE'S SOUTHERN OCEANS EXPEDITIONS

Here is a cross-section view of the HMS Beagle, attributed to Darwin's former shipmate, Philip King:
Source: The C. Warren Irvin, Jr., Collection of Charles Darwin and Darwiniana, University of South Carolina
[Click picture for a larger, although not very clear, view.]
This paragraph from Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia describes the purpose of Beagle's second voyage, and tells about what Charles Darwin was doing on the voyage:

FitzRoy commanded Beagle on her subsequent circumnavigation during which she was to complete the survey of Tierra del Fuego, the Chilean coast, and a number of Pacific islands, and to carry out chronometric observations—she carried 22 chronometers. Among the 74 crew and passengers were three Fuegians who had been taken to England and were returning home. Also assigned to the ship was a twenty-one-year-old botany student, Charles Darwin, whose professor, J. S. Henslow, considered him not a "finished naturalist, but ... amply qualified for collecting, observing, and noting, anything new to be noted in Natural History." Beagle departed Devonport on December 27, 1831, and after stops in the Cape Verde Islands and Bahía arrived at Rio de Janeiro on April 4. After three months of hydrographic surveys of the Brazilian coast (Darwin was occupied in researching the rain forest), Beagle proceeded to Bahía Blanca, Argentina. It was there that Darwin first uncovered fossils that led him to question the relationship of living and extinct species.

And our last picture is of a watercolor painted in 1841 by Owen Stanley. It depicts HMS Beagle at Sydney harbor in New South Wales.

HMS Beagle at Sydney from an 1841 watercolour by Owen Stanley.
Source: The C. Warren Irvin, Jr., Collection of Charles Darwin and Darwiniana, University of South Carolina
[Click picture for a larger view]

Toggle

2004-05-25T10:47:00.000-05:00

I found a game on Mindless Blather's sidebar called Toggle. Let's see if I can put it on my page.

Update

Success!

Devonport--where the voyage of HMS Beagle began

2004-05-23T11:45:00.000-05:00

In the 1700s it was called Plymouth Dock:

This is a small portion of engraver John Cary's 1787 map of Devonshire
Here is a little more about the area now known as Devonport [source]:

Plymouth has been used as a naval base since the days of Edward I and his wars with France and the port was vital in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Devonport Dockyard, originally known as Plymouth Dock, on the Hamoaze (the name for part of the River Tamar), is the largest Naval dockyard in Western Europe and dates from 1693 when a wet and dry dock was built, followed by the construction of workshops, stores, and more docks.

Eventually some 54 acres formed the area known as South Yard. The dockyard was extended over the years with the addition of Morice Yard which provided ordnance, powder and shot to the fleet, and in 1844, by the Steam Yard. From 1700 a new town had been built around the dockyard and in 1824 it broke free from its older neighbour to become Devonport.
Most of the dockyard is now in private hands as a commercial enterprise and the remainder, occupied by the Royal Navy, is known as the Plymouth Naval Base.

Here's a map from 1827, after Devonport had been founded:

This is a portion of Greenwood's map of Devon, 1827. It is approximately equivalent to Sheet SX45 in the set of Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain. Click picture for a larger view. [source: Devon Library and Information Services - Local Studies Service]

Here are two prints from 1832 of Devonport. They were found on the web pages of a retired dealer of antique maps and prints. Apparently these engravings were from a book entitled Devonshire and Cornwall Illustrated. [source: Antique Maps and Prints] The original prints measure 8" by 5".

Devonport: Dock Yard/Harbour.

And here is a street scene from Devonport:
Devonport: Fore Street-Entrance to the Dock Yard

Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter 1, Paragraph 1

2004-05-22T08:37:00.000-05:00

THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE
CHAPTER IST. JAGO -- CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS

Porto Praya
AFTER having been twice driven back by heavy southwestern gales, Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N., sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December, 1831. The object of the expedition was to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830, -- to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific -- and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the World. On the 6th of January we reached Teneriffe, but were prevented landing,
by fears of our bringing the cholera: the next morning we saw the sun rise behind the rugged outline of the Grand Canary island, and suddenly illuminate the Peak of Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds. This was the first of many delightful days never to be forgotten. On the 16th of January, 1832, we anchored at Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago.

May 22: I put in the link for "gales." - Frog Guts

May 23: I put in some maps and pictures of Devonport. - Frog Guts

I put in the link for Captain Fitz-Roy. We'll put in his picture later when Charles Darwin talks more about him. The next post we are working on is about HMS Beagle. - John

June 1: I put in pictures of the HMS Beagle in a new post. - Frog Guts

What I'm doing today

2004-05-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

I am practicing my typing with the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing program. --Frog Guts

2004-05-20T07:56:00.000-05:00

This stamp won a popularity contest.

The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: Preface

2004-03-28T08:25:00.000-06:00

I have stated in the preface to the first Edition of this work, and in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, that it was in consequence of a wish expressed by Captain Fitz Roy, of having some scientific person on board, accompanied by an offer from him of giving up part of his own accommodations, that I volunteered my services, which received, through the kindness of the hydrographer, Captain Beaufort, the sanction of the Lords of the Admiralty. As I feel that the opportunities which I enjoyed of studying the Natural History of the different countries we visited, have been wholly due to Captain Fitz Roy, I hope I may here be permitted to repeat my expression of gratitude to him; and to add that, during the five years we were together, I received from him the most cordial friendship and steady assistance. Both to Captain Fitz Roy and to all the Officers of the Beagle [1] I shall ever feel most thankful for the undeviating kindness with which I was treated during our long voyage.

This volume contains, in the form of a Journal, a history of our voyage, and a sketch of those observations in Natural History and Geology, which I think will possess some interest for the general reader. I have in this edition largely condensed and corrected some parts, and have added a little to others, in order to render the volume more fitted for popular reading; but I trust that naturalists will remember, that they must refer for details to the larger publications which comprise the scientific results of the Expedition. The Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle includes an account of the Fossil Mammalia, by Professor Owen [link to Darwin's preface to that work]; of the Living Mammalia, by Mr. Waterhouse [link to Darwin's preface]; of the Birds, by Mr. Gould; of the Fish, by the Rev. L. Jenyns; and of the Reptiles, by Mr. Bell. I have appended to the descriptions of each species an account of its habits and range. These works, which I owe to the high talents and disinterested zeal of the above distinguished authors, could not have been undertaken, had it not been for the liberality of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, who, through the representation of the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one thousand pounds towards defraying part of the expenses of publication.

I have myself published separate volumes on the 'Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs;' on the 'Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of the Beagle;' and on the 'Geology of South America.' The sixth volume of the 'Geological Transactions' contains two papers of mine on the Erratic Boulders and Volcanic Phenomena of South America [actually, Darwin's paper on volcanic phenomena of South America was in the second volume of that journal]. Messrs. Waterhouse, Walker, Newman, and White, have published several able papers on the Insects which were collected, and I trust that many others will hereafter follow. The plants from the southern parts of America will be given by Dr. J. Hooker, in his great work on the Botany of the Southern Hemisphere. The Flora of the Galapagos Archipelago is the subject of a separate memoir by him, in the 'Linnean Transactions.' The Reverend Professor Henslow has published a list of the plants collected by me at the Keeling Islands; and the Reverend J. M. Berkeley [this should read 'M. J. Berkeley, for 'Miles Joseph' '] has described my cryptogamic plants.

I shall have the pleasure of acknowledging the great assistance which I have received from several other naturalists, in the course of this and my other works; but I must be here allowed to return my most sincere thanks to the Reverend Professor Henslow, who, when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, was one chief means of giving me a taste for Natural History, --who, during my absence, took charge of the collections I sent home, and by his correspondence directed my endeavours, -- and who, since my return, has constantly rendered me every assistance which the kindest friend could offer.

DOWN, BROMLEY, KENT,
June 9, 1845

[1] I must take this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks to Mr. Bynoe, the surgeon of the Beagle, for his very kind attention to me when I was ill at Valparaiso.

Notes and Comments

Text is from Project Gutenberg (vbgl10.txt).

[Comments in brackets] were added by me.

The best source for Darwin's works (almost complete) is The writings of Charles Darwin on the web, edited by John van Wyhe.

A book on the circumstances behind the voyage of the Beagle has recently been published: Evolution's Captain by Peter Nichols.

Synopsis:

The early nineteenth century was a heroic age for British maritime exploits. Small naval vessels were sent around the world to make charts, plot the oceans and ease the way for empire. One such vessel was the Beagle. The Admiralty despatched it to Tierra del Fuego - some of the wildest and most dangerous seas in the world - to chart the waters. The first captain, Stokes, committed suicide, dying slowly and painfully from his gunshot wounds. The second, Robert FitzRoy was little happier. He was a sailor in the heroic mould, but his plan to take four 'savages' hostage when one of the Beagle's dinghies was stolen went drastically wrong. York Minster, Jemmy Button, and two others were taken to Britain to be educated as Christian gentlefolk. And then to be returned to their native lands on the next expedition - the one made famous by the presence on the boat of Charles Darwin. Like all the best made plans, it did not work out like that. This true story is intriguing history, reveals great science in the making and reads like the best historical fiction. A quite exceptional story.

2004-03-14T13:28:00.000-06:00

Note to self: check out Froguts.com (Flash required)