FitzRoy war der Kapitän der Beagle. Es gibt zwei neue Biographien. John Gribbin und Mary Gribbin: FitzRoy : The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast (Juli 2003) und Peter Nichols: Evolution's Captain (Juni 2003). Anthony Daniels im Telegraph:

His end was tragic: he cut his throat after the inaccuracy of his weather forecasts was cruelly mocked in public. His one-time protégé, Charles Darwin, had outstripped him in fame and public esteem, by propounding a theory that undermined his very deepest beliefs. His despair is painful to imagine.
p. s.: There's a review of both books in Nature.