VPRO Beagle Arrives In Simon's Town

Photos:
1. Stad Amsterdam - (photo from Simon's Town facebook group)
2. VPRO Beagle coming into Simon's Town. (photo courtesy of Moonglow Guest house - facebook image)
3. Beagle in Simon's Town Harbour (found on Flickr)

What an amazing site to see the VPRO Beagle coming into Simon’s Town this morning- Friday 23 May 2010. The international Beagle Project reconstructs Darwin’s 5-year long voyage on H.M.S Beagle in the course of one year, running from September 2009 to June 2010.

Cape Town is the final destination and the last leg of the voyage. The Beagle will be in Simon’s Town until Sunday morning and it is worth heading down to visit this beautiful vessel. She leaves Simon’s Town for Cape Town Waterfront (where she is expected to arrive around 4pm at Jetty 2). Unfortunately the clipper is not open to the public but she is a beautiful sight to see in Simon’s Town harbour. The Simon’s Town Historical Society is hoping to take Sarah Darwin on an historical tour of Simon’s Town. Sarah is on board the VPRO Beagle and is the Great Great Granddaughter of Charles Darwin – who visited Simon’s Town in 1836.

Being the last destination there will be plenty of festivities to celebrate their arrival as well as the end of the Beagle Voyage. On April 25th around 11:30 am, before sailing off to Cape Town, the Clipper will be welcomed into Hout Bay (23 km from Waterfront) with a 6-gun salute from a VOC battery under Chapman's Peak, manned by volunteer gunners in VOC regalia. About 80 Dutch nationals dressed in orange will be witnessing the event from the battery. Upon leaving Hout Bay there will be a second canon salute. At the Waterfront the clipper will be welcomed by a number of vessels and a performance by the famous Capetonian Minstrels.

There are many events planned with the Dutch government and various academic institutions and the Beagle will in Cape Town for approximately one month and relooking at the work that Darwin did in and around Cape Town and the Cape Point Route.

Background on the Voyage of the VPRO Beagle.
The voyage of the HMS Beagle has been described as the most important journey ever made. During his travels, Charles Darwin gathered information and knowledge that would drastically change the way we look at the world. With his book “On the Origin of Species” (1859) Darwin would be the first to explain that life on earth is not created by God, but rather developed by evolution.

To celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birth year, and the 150th anniversary of his publication of “On the Origin of Species”, VPRO is running a 35-part series called Beagle: On the future of species. The project reconstructs Darwin’s 5-year long voyage on the HMS Beagle in the course of one year, and makes an attempt to assess where the world stands today in light of Darwin’s evolution theory. Life on earth is under continual change. Is there reason to worry about the future? Can science offer us sufficient answers to some of our most compelling questions? Are we leaving behind an inhabitable world for future generations?

Beagle takes viewers on a journey across magnificent landscapes, vulnerable regions, endangered areas and adventurous locations, stretching from Patagonia to the South Pacific, and from Australia to St. Helena. En route one recurrent question will be asked: “Will the earth survive mankind?”

The VPRO-Beagle ship is an experiment in itself. This three mast sailing ship is rigged with advanced scientific measurement equipment. Scientists from various disciplines and from all over the world execute experiments on board this sailing science lab. The ship also has a built-in TV studio from which parts of the series are produced and broadcast.

Beagle has strong interactive components. All scientific findings made during the journey can be closely watched on VPRO’s Beagle website, and are broadcast by both radio and television; personal journals and video logs about life on board are made by the producers, the sailing crew, and by guests on board. These are updated on a daily basis. The route of the entire voyage can be closely followed by viewers on the internet.

Beagle is a documentary series (2 parts covering a whole year), shedding light on topics ranging from bird migration to slavery, from marine biology to astronomy, and from newly discovered species to extinct tribes. The series is as much a personalized story featuring some of Darwin’s descendents, as an adventurous encounter with today’s avid environmentalists. Darwin’s journey and research in the nineteenth century leads this modern-day, year-long endeavor in its effort to monitor the world in light of the evolution theory in 2009.