Project Beagle was written up today in the Times (the UK one):
In the wake of the Beagle
From the all-too-modest service career of HMS Beagle, it could never have been
divined that she was destined to become one of the most famous ships ever to
sail the seven seas. Commissioned in 1820 as a ten-gun brig — a two-masted
square-rigger, and one of the lowlier forms of naval life — she never saw
action, and spent most of her first few years in reserve, moored and
unmanned.
In 1825 the pace of her life quickened, when she was adapted as a survey ship.
A third, fore-and-aft rigged, mast was added, turning her into a barque,
improving her looks and, more importantly, her seakeeping qualities…. Continued