Like many people, my knowledge of Robert Fitzroy has long been limited to the sole fact that he was the captain of the H.M.S. Beagle during Charles Darwin’s famous voyage upon it. I’d read in Darwin’s own writings that he had held Fitzroy in high esteem, as well as passing mentions elsewhere that Fitzroy and […]
Perhaps it’s because I recently read and reviewed Robyn Arianrhod’s Thomas Harriot; A Life in Science, which details how the remarkable achievements of this Elizabethan polymath began with his employment by Sir Walter Ralegh as a mathematician specifically tasked with improving Ralegh’s crew’s navigational techniques.
Perhaps it’s because…