DEPARTURE FROM WOOLWICH. 27 



March 1841. Late in the same month Commander 

 Wickham invalided, when the writer of this nar- 

 rative was appointed to the vacant command, by 

 Commander Owen Stanley, H. M. S. * Britomart,' 

 senior officer present, an appointment subsequently 

 confirmed by the Lords of the Admiralty. In 

 April 1841, Lieutenant Graham Gore succeeded 

 Lieutenant Emery.f Commander Wickham, my- 

 self, Mr. Bynoe, the Boatswain, and two marines, 

 had served in both the previous voyages of the 

 * Beagle.' 



On the 9th of June we left Woolwich, in tow 

 of H. M. Steamer ' Boxer,' furnished with every 

 comfort and necessary (by the Lords of the Ad- 

 miralty,) which our own experience, or the kind 



* Lieutenant Gore, had been appointed to H. M. S. ' Herald,' 

 and came down from India, expecting to join her at 

 Sydney : on his arrival, he found she had left the station ; and 

 though he might have spent some months among his friends 

 there, he in the most spirited manner, at once volunteered to 

 join the ' Beagle,' and proved himself throughout the remainder 

 of the voyage of the greatest value, both to the service, and the 

 friend who here seeks to do justice to his worth. This deserving 

 officer would seem to have an hereditary taste for the duties of a 

 voyage of surveying and discovery, his grandfather having 

 accompanied the renowned circumnavigator. Cook, and his 

 father, the unfortunate Bligh, Besides Lieutenant Gore's valua- 

 ble services in H. M. S. ' Beagle,' he was 1st Lieutenant of 

 H. M. S. ' Volage,' during the early part of the Chinese war, 

 and present at the capture of Aden : he served under Captain 

 Sir Geo. Back in the Polar expedition, and on board H. M. S. 

 'Albion' at the battle of Navarin. 



