ESSEX, ENGLAND—According to a Press Association report, a team of researchers led by Dan Atkinson of Wessex Archaeology has found traces of a nineteenth-century dock in the mud flats of the River Roach in southeast England using magnetometry, ground penetrating radar, and multispectral images taken with a camera affixed to a drone. The multispectral survey employed different wavelengths of light to analyze differences in plant growth, since buried remains can affect the health of vegetation, Atkinson explained. Historians think the HMS Beagle, the ship that carried renowned naturalist Charles Darwin around the world between 1831 and 1836, may have been dismantled at the dock sometime after 1870. Atkinson said most ship materials would have been repurposed, but pieces of vessels, an oyster fishery, or other structures may remain at the site. No evidence of HMS Beagle itself has been found, he added. To read about the remains of a Portuguese church that Darwin may have visited, go to "World Roundup: Cape Verde."
