RECORD: Litchfield, Henrietta. n.d. [Recollections of Erasmus Darwin's on the commencement of the Beagle voyage]. CUL-DAR262.23.5. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Kees Rookmaaker 5.2006 and revised 10.2006. RN1

NOTE: The document consists of a single folded page, written on one side only. The page is unnumbered by the author. The text is written in pencil.

Reproduced with the permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin.


[1]

Q in Voyage Ch.

Uncle Ras went down to Plymouth to see my Father off & went on board the Beagle with him in getting out of the Harbour. He used to describe so vividly the dejection of a how an old Swedish sailor, who was steering to Capt. Fitzroy's telling, he misheard some order & made some blunder did not do what he was told but I think not his fault the least. - Fitzroy sent him down & put some one else to steer & Uncle Ras used to say he could see it all as if it happened yesterday. The man's instant obedience & look of profound mortification & misery. My Father said that this old Swede was one of their best sailors, but I have a dim memory that when he was drunk he used always to talk of some murder he had committed.


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Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

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