'This Thing of Darkness' by Harry Thompson.

An excellent historical fiction on the life of Captain Fitzroy of the Beagle, who was the inventor of modern meteorology and one of the most brilliant seamen of his time, but due to fearsome luck, melancholia, bad politics and - of course -the influence of his well-known shipmate on the second voyage, lost everything.

Very sad, very uplifting, wonderfully told and a fitting tribute to a great man.