Which ship carried Charles Darwin on his five-year voyage?

HMS Beagle carried Charles Darwin on his famous five-year voyage around the world. The expedition began on 27 December 1831 and ended on 2 October 1836, with Captain Robert FitzRoy commanding the ship.

The Beagle’s main mission was to survey and chart the coasts of South America for the British Admiralty. Darwin joined as a young naturalist and spent much of the voyage exploring ashore, collecting specimens, studying geology, and recording plants and animals. The ship visited places including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the Galápagos Islands, Tahiti, Australia, and southern Africa.

Darwin’s observations during the expedition later helped shape his theory of evolution by natural selection. His travel journal became the widely read book The Voyage of the Beagle. A common mix-up is calling the journey simply “Darwin’s voyage”; technically, it was the second surveying voyage of HMS Beagle, and Darwin was a civilian naturalist rather than the ship’s commander.