This is a book that many readers have long awaited. References to Captain Fitzroy abound in many other biographies and in many history and seafaring books, and he has long fascinated me. There were some glimpses of Fitzroy in The Voyage of the Beagle, in the letters of Charles Darwin and in a recent book about Weather Forecasting (http://www.librarything.com/work/121909/book/77910001) by Charles Connolly where is was noted that after more than a hundred years the Captains work in creating Weather Maps was formally, if belatedly, recognized by renaming a forecast area in the Bay of Biscay as Fitzroy. But this life was needed to round-out the man, and John Gribbin has done exactly that, drawing a fuller picture of Darwin’s Captain and his astonishing accomplishments as discover, seafarer and Governor of New Zealand. Fitzroy was a compassionate man, despite his ‘black moods’ and when asked if he expected trouble from the New Zealanders on his appointment he is said to have replied; ”Only the whites.” In this he was right as his attempt to ensure fair treatment of the Maori infuriated many settlers and led to his recall.
He rounded out an impressive career by virtually inventing the (still regrettably unreliable) science of Weather Forecasting and Weather Maps particularly for Naval safety. Descended from an illustrious family, including one of the English Kings he terminated his own life, as did his father, by locking himself in his bathroom and slitting his throat with his razor.
Gribbin has created a masterly account of this man of genius.