Famous Beagles

Today is an opportunity to tell you about other famous beagles, some of which you may have heard of and some perhaps not.

My favourite "other famous" Beagle is the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin's ship. Initially she was launched in 1820 but became really famous 1831 when, on her second voyage, she took the young Charles Darwin on board. When she returned 1836 Charles Darwin published his travel journal called "The Voyage of the Beagle" which made him famous. The HMS Beagle made a total of three voyages, after which she was made a coast guard vessel. In 1870 she was sold to a scrapyard and broken up for her parts.

My next "other famous" Beagle is also a scientific voyager, although an unfortunate one. The "Beagle-2" was the landing unit of the doomed Mars Express Mission of 2003. The ESA tried to put the Beagle-2 onto the Mars for exploratory purposes - but something went awfully wrong and nobody heard of the lander again. Did she land on the Mars with communications broken or did she ever make it there at all ? Nobody knows for sure.



Now here is a Beagle who can really fly, amongst other things - and he loved it: Snoopy !

(Thank you for Snoopy and his friends, Charles M. Schulz)