Evolution's Captain: The Story of the Kidnapping That Led to Charles Darwin's Voyage Aboard the Beagle, Paperback/Peter Nichols

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This is the story of the man without whom the name Charles Darwin might be unknown to us today. That man was Captain Robert Fitz Roy, who invited the 22-year-old Darwin to be his companion on board the Beagle .This is the remarkable story of how a misguided decision by Robert Fitz Roy, captain of HMS Beagle, precipitated his employment of a young naturalist named Charles Darwin, and how the clash between Fitz Roy's fundamentalist views and Darwin's discoveries led to Fitz Roy's descent into the abyss. One of the great ironies of history is that the famous journey--wherein Charles Darwin consolidated the earth-rattling 'origin of the species' discoveries--was conceived by another man: Robert Fitz Roy. It was Fitz Roy who chose Darwin for the journey--not because of Darwin's scientific expertise, but because he seemed a suitable companion to help Fitz Roy fight back the mental illness that had plagued his family for generations. Darwin did not give Fitz Roy solace; indeed, the clash between the two men's opposing views, together with the ramifications of Darwin's revelations, provided Fitz Roy with the final unendurable torment that forced him to end his own life.