God knows this whole thing has gotten long enough already, so if you clicked your way here hoping to find a quick explanation of why Darwin's boat was named the "HMS Beagle", I'll keep this short.

          I don't know.

          Short enough?

          Now, this isn't just a blow-off answer, and I didn't tack this page onto an already-too-long story just because I wanted to bang on my keyboard some more. The reason I'm writing this is because a lot of people have sent me E-mail asking me why Darwin's boat was named the HMS Beagle. And I have to admit, I'm starting to think it was a big mistake even mentioning the question that kicked this whole thing off. Not because a lot of people are asking me about it, I don't mind questions at all. And when I take a good look at the situation now, it seems like a pretty logical question to ask. But when I was writing up the story, I just threw in the "Naming of the Beagle" issue to explain how the project started. I seriously didn't think anyone would care. The student who originally asked the question sure didn't. Like I said, it was a "Stump The Teacher"question, just something to waste time in class. At least I think that's what it was. All I know for sure is that it wasn't the first time this particular student asked a difficult (and irrelevant) question, even though she always lost interest as soon as the question was out of her mouth. But despite this, I told her I'd do some research, so I did. Which eventually led me to the Darwin Awards.

          As for the student, she never asked me about in again.

          On the other hand, lots of people who read my story do seem to be interested in how the Beagle got it's name. At first I simply admitted that despite all my research, I never found out. But a good sport named Henry (insert last name here) did a bunch of research on the subject and dug up a Website that contains a TON of good information about the HMS Beagle. If you care to take a look, it's at http://www.dropbears.com/brough/sweers/beagle.htm   If you aren't THAT interested, here's the condensed version: Chuck's Tub was actually the NINTH "HMS Beagle". There were eight ships before her with the same name. Which means that the actual question travels back even further, since we can safely assume that Beagle #9 got it's name from Beagle #8, and so on down the line.

           So, what about Beagle #1?

          No telling. Henry assumes that "..it is the same reason all ships are named as they are...the beagle is a trustworthy hound, so maybe the first owners of the gallivat hoped for similar traits in their ship. The names of ships are hereditary, so the name was just given to the ship by chance.".

          That's good enough for me.

          But you gotta admit, it's STILL just speculation. For all I know, the boat was actually named after someone's Mom. Or maybe "beagle" was just the first word that popped into some admiral's head when he was filling out some paperwork. Or maybe it was actually a clever piece of British trickery, designed to fool stupid pirates into thinking they had their cannons pointed at a hunting dog instead of a ship fulla goodies. The only certainty is that a long time ago, a guy stood next to a ship with a bucket of paint in