Career
In February 1818, aged 12 years old, he entered the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and in the following year he entered the Royal Navy. At the age of 14 he embarked as a voluntary student aboard the frigate HMS Owen Glendower, which sailed to South America in the middle of 1820, and returned in January 1822. He was promoted to midshipman while on the vessel. FitzRoy then served on HMS Hind as a midshipman. He completed his course with distinction and was promoted lieutenant on 7 September 1824, having passed the examination with 'full numbers' (100%), a result not achieved previously. After serving on HMS Thetis, in 1828 he was appointed flag lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Waller Otway, commander-in-chief of the South American station, aboard HMS Ganges.
At that time HMS Beagle, under Captain Pringle Stokes, was carrying out a hydrographic survey of Tierra del Fuego, under the overall command of Captain Phillip Parker King in HMS Adventure. Pringle Stokes became severely depressed and shot himself, and the ship, under Lieutenant Skyring, sailed to Rio de Janeiro, where Otway made FitzRoy (temporary) Captain of the Beagle on 15 December 1828. By the ship's return on 14 October 1830, FitzRoy had established his reputation as a surveyor and commander.
During the survey, some of his men were camping onshore when a group of Fuegian natives made off with their boat. His ship gave chase and, after a scuffle, the culprit's families were brought on board as hostages. Eventually FitzRoy held a boy, a girl and two men. As it was not possible to put them ashore conveniently he decided to 'civilise' the 'savages', teaching them "English ... the plainer truths of Christianity ... and the use of common tools" before returning them as missionaries. They were given names: the girl he called Fuegia Basket (so named because the replacement for the stolen boat was an improvised coracle that resembled a basket), the boy Jemmy Button (he was purchased by FitzRoy with buttons) and the one man who did not escape he named York Minster (named after the large rock near which he was captured). There was also a boy called Boat Memory. FitzRoy brought them back to England where Boat Memory died following a smallpox vaccination. The others were minded by the trainee missionary Richard Matthews and became 'civilised' enough to be presented at Court in the summer of 1831.
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