In November 2009, the College took possession of a magnificent, finely detailed and historically accurate model of H.M.S. Beagle.  The model is currently to be found in the Old Library.  The original Beagle was captained by Robert FitzRoy, and set sail on 27^th December 1831 for a surveying voyage that was to last five years.  On board as Ship's Naturalist and gentleman companion to FitzRoy was the young Charles Darwin, just graduated from Christ’s earlier that year.  

The model Beagle is the work of retired civil engineer Mr Wyndham Williams and took hundreds of hours to make.  It was based upon drawings in John McKay’s Anatomy of the Ship and made at a scale of 1 in 32.  The model was originally displayed on the cruise ship M.S. Saga Rose for the duration of its ‘Millennium World Cruise’ which in fact closely followed the route taken by Darwin’s Beagle.  The cabinet in which the model is displayed has been donated to the College by Mr Martin Rapaport (m.1965).

On 29th April 2010 the President of Christ’s, Professor Martin Johnson (accompanied by the College Librarian Candace Guite) presented Mr Williams with a print of the Beagle by marine artist John Chancellor.  Using the archives of the Hydrographic Office in Taunton the artist has chosen to depict the Beagle at a precise time and location - 17^th October 1835 at 2.15 pm when the ship made its rendezvous with  Darwin on James Island.

The Beagle model will be on display at Cambridge Central Library from 8^th – 30^th June 2010, and will then be displayed at Christ’s College between 3^rd July and 30^th September 2010.