1831:HMS Beagle, a 10-gun, Cherokee-class brig sloop of the Royal Navy’s survey service, sets sail from Plymouth, England on its second voyage as a survey vessel.

On board, at the invitation of Beagle captain Robert FitzRoy, is a young biologist called Charles Darwin. Darwin’s account of The Voyage of the Beagle, published in 1839, establishes him as one of the foremost naturalists of his time.

Darwin accepted the invitation over the objections of his father, who saw the proposed two-year voyage as a chance for his son to continue idling, something he had become pretty good at since graduating...