Evolution's Captain by Peter Nichols

Evolution's Captain Peter Nichols

I must confess that I read this about six months ago, and and have forgotten some details now, but I do remember liking the book, feeling great empathy for the misfortunes of Captain Robert Fitzroy, the captain of the Beagle, and interest in the many things that I learned from his biography. It was well written and researched, and a great read for those who like biography and sailing, as I do.
Much of the book was about the several voyages of the Beagle, the geography and weather of Tierra del Fuego, and the adventures of the crew and the Fuegians who they took aboard. It was all pretty miserable. The weather and the sailing were grim. The Fuegians seemed an unredeemable lot, hardened by their environment where only the tough and nasty survive. Theft and lying were means of survival. The British lured four of them aboard and took them to England to trot them around and to "civilize" them. They were eventually returned to their native land, and quickly shed the niceties of the civilizing veneer they had gained by their experience.
The rest of the book was about Fitzroy and Darwin, and their interaction. Fitzroy was a fundamentalist Christian, urged on by his wife, and he could not accept the conclusions that Darwin came to regarding the origins of life on earth. The very fact that as captain, he had enabled Darwin to make his discoveries was a source of anxiety to Fitzroy.
Fitzroy was a brilliant man. He was an excellent navigator, and a good captain. But he didn't follow the protocols and often spent his own money on projects that seemed essential to him, but had not yet received authorization from the navy brass. For instance, he bought and outfitted a ship, thinking that he would be reimbursed, but he was not. Fitzroy inherited a small fortune, but he died penniless because of his impetuous investments. He was a man who always knew best, and he didn't know how to play political games. He was rigid and headstrong, and paid the price.
He was a long period without a job, and finally got a job with the British Association for the Advancement of Science. There was a terrible shipwreck off the coast of England, and the public wanted help in forecasting weather. Fitzroy designed a barometer that bears his name to this day. He had them manufactured in great quantities and sent out to fishing villages all around the coast of Britain. He included instructions and a book of weather rhymes which he collected and made up. It was a phenomenal work and well researched and executed and should have made his fortune and reputation. I would like to have a copy myself if I were undertaking a sea voyage:
"When rise begins, after low,
Squalls expect and clear blow."

"When rain comes before wind,
Halyards, sheets and braces mind!
But when wind comes before rain,
Soon you may make sail again."

All this success was not enough to outbalance the anguish that Fitzroy felt because of his role in the development of the theory of evolution. He was not a well-balanced man emotionally. Sadly, this brilliant man committed suicide, and a collection had to be taken up to support his wife, to which Darwin contributed 100 pounds.