By Rob Harris
London: Charles Darwin’s father once told his son that the idea of sailing around the world on some wild scheme was reckless, dangerous and unfitting for a future clergyman.
But his dad, physician Robert Darwin, left one ray of hope.
The Oosterschelde, launched by the planetary conservation mission DARWIN200, will set sail from Plymouth, Britain, on August 15.Credit: Reuters
“If you can find any man of common sense who advises you to go, I will give my consent,” history records him as saying. It was young Darwin’s uncle, noted potter Josiah Wedgwood, who sided with his nephew to help change his father’s mind. It would ultimately ignite a scientific revolution.
On Tuesday morning (UK time), the historic 1917 Dutch tall ship, Oosterschelde, will set sail from Plymouth, a port city in south-west England, on a remarkable two-year global voyage which, almost two centuries on, will retrace the journey of Darwin and the HMS Beagle.
Known as Darwin200, the program was dreamt up by Sydney-based British documentary maker and television geographer Stewart McPherson, and is based on the Beagle’s five-year voyage which left Plymouth on Boxing Day 1831 for South America and the Pacific, reaching Australia and New Zealand before returning via the Atlantic to England.
“We are very close to a tipping point of irreversible loss across the natural world,” Stewart, who will lead the expedition, said. “But we are not there yet. Conservation is not about what we have lost, but what we still have.
The Oosterschelde leaves on a two-year voyage to retrace Charles Darwin’s five-year trip on HMS Beagle.
“It’s not just about problems, this is about solutions, it’s about how all of us, every single one of us, can make positive change to make a better world for tomorrow.”
He said the journey of science and discovery would transform the ship into the “world’s most exciting classroom”.
The team will identify 200 young naturalists from 200 countries to take part in separate legs of the journey. So far 50 between the ages of 18 and 25 have been selected.
The young conservationists, named Darwin leaders, will not sail, but will instead work on projects while the ship is docked, producing short films, written reports and essays on one of the thousands of species Darwin studied on his trip, while thinking of ways to better protect them.
British documentary maker and television geographer Stewart McPherson is behind the project.
Sailing 40,000 nautical miles spanning four continents, the route goes to every major port visited by Darwin and some extras, but does not cross the Indian Ocean. It will reach Sydney in November next year before going on to Hobart, with voyage legs ranging from a single day to an epic 48 days and 5300 nautical miles to Cape Horn.
From Chile’s glacial fjords to the tropical islands of Polynesia, the journey will enable some 640 sailors and adventure seekers to go to sea over 32 voyage legs as hands-on guest crew – 24 at a time, sailing, steering and navigating the ship alongside researchers.
Members of the public can book a berth on any of the legs, with prices ranging from €1450 to €8000 ($2400 to $13,400). Previous sailing experience is not a requirement, but a passion for adventure is a must.
Charles Darwin in 1878.Credit: Getty Images
Stewart said he wanted to create a transformative experience for members of the public and for the world’s brightest young environmentalists, who he believed would be future science and conservation leaders and catalysts to “change the future of planet Earth for the better”.
Darwin, who was 22 when he set sail, later called the Beagle voyage “by far the most important event in my life”. He filled dozens of notebooks with careful observations on animals, plants and geology, and collected thousands of specimens, which he crated and sent home for further study.
Two decades later, he would publish his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in the 1859 book, On the Origin of Species.
Unlike the sailors on HMS Beagle, those joining the Oosterschelde will be undertaking the voyage in comparative luxury. During Darwin’s voyage, 74 men were squeezed into hammocks in the 27.5 metre-long vessel.
At 50 metres, this trip will have a one-third fewer crew members on board.
Dr Sarah Darwin, a researcher at Berlin’s Museum Fur Naturkunde and a patron of the journey, said her great-great-grandfather’s strongest legacy was the understanding that humans were as much a part of the natural world as any other species.
She said the project would create a community of conservationists who will be better equipped to protect habitats and species than if they tried as individuals.
“I always think it is very much worth reminding ourselves on a daily basis that humans and the rest of the living world share a common origin," she said.
HMS Beagle on the shores of River Santa Cruz, Argentina.
“He [Darwin] was saying that 160 years ago, that we were related with all other nature. We’re not above it, we are part of nature.”
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