THE SHIP. jg^ 



when I left they were, and mine is a capital one, certainly 

 next best to the Captain's and remarkably light. My com- 

 panion most luckily, I think, will turn out to be the officer 

 whom I shall like best. Captain Fitz-Roy says he will take 

 care that one corner is so fitted up that I shall be com- 

 fortable in it and shall consider it my home, but that also I 

 shall have the run of his. My cabin is the drawing one ; and 

 in the middle is a large table, on which we two sleep in ham- 

 mocks. But for the first two months there will be no drawing 

 to be done, so that it will be quite a luxurious room, and good 

 deal larger than the Captain's cabin." 



My father used to say that it was the absolute necessity of 

 tidiness in the cramped space of the Beagle that helped ' to 

 give him his methodical habits of working.' On the Beagle, 

 too, he would say, that he learned what he considered the 

 golden rule for saving time ; i. e., taking care of the min- 

 utes. 



Sir James Sulivan tells me that the chief fault in the outfit 

 of the expedition was the want of a second smaller vessel to 

 act as tender. This want was so much felt by Captain Fitz- 

 Roy that he hired two decked boats to survey the coast of 

 Patagonia, at a cost of ^"iioo, a sum which he had to supply, 

 although the boats saved several thousand pounds to the 

 country. He afterwards bought a schooner to act as a tender, 

 thus saving the country a further large amount. He was 

 ultimately ordered to sell the schooner, and was compelled to 

 bear the loss himself, and it was only after his death that some 

 inadequate compensation was made for all the losses which he 

 suffered through his zeal. 



For want of a proper tender, much of the work had to be 

 done in small open whale boats, which were sent away from 

 the ship for weeks together, and this in a climate, where 

 the crews were exposed to severe hardships from the almost 

 constant rains, which sometimes continued for weeks together. 

 The completeness of the equipment was also in other respects 

 largely due to the public spirit of Ca'ptain Fitz-Roy. He 

 provided at his own cost an artist, and a skilled instrument- 



