The circumnavigation of the globe would be the making of the 22-year-old Darwin. Five years of physical hardship and mental rigour, imprisoned within a ship’s walls, offset by wide-open opportunities in the Brazilian jungles and the Andes Mountains, were to give Darwin a new seriousness. As a gentleman naturalist, he could leave the ship for extended periods, pursuing his own interests. As a result, he spent only 18 months of the voyage aboard the ship. The hardship was immediate: a tormenting seasickness. And so was his questioning: on calm days Darwin’s plankton-filled townet left him wondering why beautiful creatures teemed ...(100 of 6407 words)