Charles Darwin, with the cooperation of shipmates and a local network of landowners, merchants, and guides, made an important collection of fossil vertebrates from South America during the second expedition of HMS Beagle, from 1831 to 1836. Many of the particulars of Darwin’s fossil collecting have been confused or omitted in previous accounts of his voyage. The present account, drawing on several previously underutilized resources, adds interesting details to the story and corrects a few misconceptions. It also explores the nationalistic aspects of Darwin’s science – the network of expatriated Englishmen who helped him and their loyalist motives. Finally, it examines the study and description of Darwin’s fossils by Richard Owen (Fig. 4.1). A review of Owen’s results shows that, despite claims to the contrary, Darwin’s field identifications were remarkably good.

Darwin’s shipmates were not uniformly friendly to paleontology. His collection of vertebrate fossils attracted heaps of abuse, some good-natured, some hostile. He endured “sundry sneers about Seal & Whale bones” from the crew. Worse, First Lieutenant John C. Wickham, who was “always growling about [Darwin] bringing more dirt on board than any ten men,” referred to his deck cluttering specimens as “damned beastly devilment” (Barlow 1945, 103). And FitzRoy (1839, 107) called them “cargoes of apparent rubbish.” Even Darwin himself was plagued by doubts about the usefulness of his fossils. He confessed to his Cambridge mentor John Stevens Henslow that he was “not feeling quite sure of the value of such bones as I before sent you” (Barlow 1967, 81). In time, however, the fossil vertebrates would prove to be the most personally satisfying, as well as one of the most scientifically significant, collections Darwin made during the voyage.