Saturday Morning, April 2, 2022

O Captain! My Captain!

Captain FitzRoy tossed the letter onto his desk. My Dear Sir, Though your offer is generous, I regrettably cannot participate... The letter landed amid wrinkled navigational maps, cluttered ink bottles, quill pens, and an open Bible. Far below, in London's streets, noises of life tumbled and tossed like a tempest at sea.

Admiral FitzRoy's [weather station] Barometer, nineteenth century.
The admiral had a lifetime passion for studying weather. His belief was patterns were predictable, soon calling his system Forecasts. Many small stone buildings housing his equipment sat in English harbors, a place for sailors to check conditions before journeying onto the seas.

The mariner leaned on his chin and stared out from his quarterdeck. A voyage was hard enough, but the loneliness suffered was indescribable. Naval pecking order precluded camaraderie. There was so much to learn on these sponsored scientific expeditions. New worlds. Races. Flora. Fauna. Embracing this knowledge was a joy, discussing each reveal without like company impossible. Two brains exceeded one in this endeavor. Solitary emptiness was a captain's hardship so severe, many commanding colleagues, good friends, had committed suicide. And yet, at sea, he always felt God's grandeur. He leaned forward and running his finger down the page, stopped at the 23rd Psalm, a passage forever bringing him peace.

Full view of the good Admiral's instrument...Entered at Stationers Hall.
In 1557 Mary Tudor granted the Stationers' Company a charter to control publishing. The phrase guarantees copyright protection for the creator.

The front doorbell interrupted his thoughts. Murmurs and a soft knock on his library door. Robert, called out a voice from the hallway. It's your brother. Captain FitzRoy rose as two men entered the chamber. Forgive me Robert, but I have found a gentleman willing to join you in your planned voyage. A young man stood between them, hand extended. His brother continued. I believe you both have much to share. Touching the man's shoulder, he spoke. Charles, may I introduce you to Captain Robert FitzRoy, commander of the HMS Beagle. The two men clasped hands. Robert, I would like you to meet a promising scientist, Mr. Charles Darwin.

Long foretold long Last. Short notice soon Past
Fast rise after Low, Foretells Stronger blow.
Markings for reading barometer's mercury level.

Two Houses, Both Alike in Dignity

Questioning minds. Inquisitive curiosity. Ingredients in the finest bouillabaisse. Charles Darwin stalled in formal education at an early age. Boredom and disinterest could shelve any young mind, but with Charles, the light remained dim, waiting for just the right bite. At sixteen, his father enrolled him in Edinburgh University where his studies in natural sciences cast a spell upon him, an interest smoldering. This chance curriculum would begin Darwin's quest to reinterpret human existence. Now, with a opportunity to explore the earth on the HMS Beagle, his prospects improved.

Title page from The Christian-Quaker, published in two parts under one binding. The first part, written by William Penn, 1674; the second part authored by George Whitehead, 1673.

In contrast, Robert FitzRoy excelled in his naval studies enrolling in the Royal Naval College at 12. Within the year he entered the Royal Navy and the following year sailed his first voyage. His grasp of navigation and surveying earned him promotions. Within several short years, he was appointed Captain and assigned to the HMS Beagle. First the sailor, then the scientist, the world became his lab. He immersed himself in weather and studying its patterns, believed forecasting was viable. In fact, the word forecast was coined by him. Before him was a lifetime opportunity, a fully funded scientific voyage around the world. With gear loaded, and a passenger list including a curious young student, the adventure started.

The battle for domination through the sciences versus from the church has spanned millennia. Eighteen century enlightment opened the possibilities to both human achievement through self-government and science in a spectrum of fields. Darwin and FitzRoy were men of their times.

Oysters on a Half-Shell

Although their friendship grew, their diverse interpretation of the world surrounding them caused friction. Darwin would see change, evolution, in the evidence before him, formulating a new interpretation of life's beginnings. Robert, applying scientific principles, used these discovered facts to support Biblical accounts.

Several Bucks County Quaker Bibles arrived in the gallery. One from the Hicks Family, illustrated to the left. Printed by John Adams (Wilmington) for Mathew Carey, No. 122 Market Street, Philadelphia. Other families include the Moon and Reeves/Crozer.

Sailing the Cape Verde Islands, Both Darwin and FitzRoy observed the bands of seashells within the rocky coastline rising far above the sea. For the former, this was proof the earth was constantly shifting, land rising and falling. Realizing the time to achieve such change would require a tremendous number of years, he better understood how evolution worked. FitzRoy interpreted the shell band as a sign of Noah's flood. Rising waters had deposited the shells, forty days and forty nights, then upon receding, revealed the obvious. This was supported by the then accepted theory of a seventeenth century Anglican Bishop of Ireland, James Ussher, who, upon interpretating generational passage written in the Bible, proffered the earth's age as 6,000 years. Darwin's theory was like a lightning bolt on a barn. Plausible denial screamed from every crow's nest, bounced along every yardarm. It would find its way to the Scopes Monkey Trial and reverberate well into the twenty-first century.

Thomas Hicks born December 25th, 1753. Constant Hicks [his wife] born June 11th, 1747

Walking the Plank

Following five years at sea, Captain FitzRoy arrived home amid great accolades. The Royal Geographic Society awarded him their gold medal. His presentation to the scientific group did cast some doubts on the Scripture's validity. But shunning such thoughts amid a society based on Biblical belief pushed him away from the emerging natural sciences. The Captain retreated to the comfort of Christian belief. In the following years, he immersed himself in exploring weather forecasting instruments.

Binding on the Moon Family Bible, with stamps. Genealogy weaves the Hicks and Reeves families together, with a sprinkle of Crozer.

Still, his participation in the formulation of Darwin's theory aboard the HMS Beagle racked him with guilt. He spoke publicly against evolution, claiming God's account so recorded exceeded man's interpretation. Then, his greatest fear reached fruition. One day, following church services, he returned home, then locking himself in his bedroom, pulled out his razor and slit his throat. He was laid to rest in the Upper Norwood, a borough of London, resting quietly in the cemetery at All Saints' Church. The albatross had landed.

Descent of Man

As Charles Darwin aged, his longtime bouts with nausea and heart palpitations pushed him farther into isolation. Upsetting the apple cart on market day carries a harsh penalty. No longer did he appear publicly in defense of his lifetime work. A friend, Thomas Huxley, grandfather of Aldous, wore the mantel, debating and defending this new age. To querying minds, Thomas explained Charles Darwin was an agnostic, a term Thomas Huxley created. Charles Darwin's reward for upending theological thought? Burial in Westminster Abbey, the western seat of Anglican belief. Thomas masterminded the event complete with full honors. Darwin was the face of evolutionary theory, and yet, the fame and wealth he attracted to England justified the cathedral resting spot. When you figure out how the human mind thinks, let us all know. Hard enough just keeping score.

Victorian carte-de-visite album. Bucks County families include: Buckman, Williamson, Moon, Reeves, Thomson, Twining, & Slack

A creative mind formulating a new agenda in any field suffers scorn. Robert and Charles, though outwardly different, were cut from the same cloth, the former from clerical, the latter from loin. Their association did more to advance modern thought and theology than the greatest minds in the finest institutions. We know little of their conversations during the five year odyssey. No accounts of sirens singing, no reports on Cyclops chomping, few Lotus-Eaters loitering, though clashing rocks were not out of the question. Throughout the trip they shared quarters, ate together every day. In those spoken words, now lost in a following sea, perception changed. After the earthquake that destroyed the Fukishima nuclear power plant, scientists noted the slipping of tectonic plates altered the earth's rotation. As nature can so change the world, so can humans. Why, the thought is evolutionary.

Admiral FitzRoy Barometer, 41 1/2" H.

This, the final image, illustrates the bottom third section. On the left is a Storm Glass, a glass tube containing a composition of liquids when crystalized would aid in weather prediction. Popularized by FitzRoy, the theory never survived having fallen short of its expectations. The height of the atmosphere could also be measured in this formula.

Back Saturday in our continual quest. Man or Beast. High bidder or runnerup.
This, our comfort zone.