Beagle belonged to the last Royal Navy survey class built with wood laid over steel decks. By the 1980s she commonly worked alone around British waters, and a 1990 refit added an advanced survey information-processing system. Her launches extended work into shallower water and let the parent ship combine broad coverage with close inshore measurements. Her later conversion into the yacht Aqua Blu provides an unusual afterlife for a naval hydrographic vessel.
Chapter · 2:10:58-2:13:34
HMS Beagle and the move to onboard survey processing
Beagle's refit illustrates the shift toward modern onboard information processing and specialized survey launches.