Basil Hall

Basil Hall (born December 31, 1788 in Edinburgh , † September 11, 1844 in Portsmouth ) was a British seaman, explorer and scientist.

Life

Basil Hall was the son of Sir James Hall (d. 1832), a Scottish baronet known for his scientific work. He joined the British Navy in 1802 as a midshipman, commanded the ship Lyra, which was attached to an embassy to China in 1816, with which he also visited the Ryūkyū Islands , through which his Account of a voyage of discovery to the western coast of Corea and the Great Loochoo Iceland (London 1818) brought the first detailed news.

Then he crossed the coasts of South America, which he described in Extracts from a journal written on the coasts of Chile, Peru and Mexico in 1820-22 (London 1824, 2 vols.).

As a result of a trip through the United States, his Travels in North America appeared in the years 1827 and 1828 (1839, 3 vols.). He also wrote: The castle of Hainfeld (1836; German, Berlin 1836); Fragments of voyages and travels (1831–40, 9 vols.) And Patchwork (1841, 3 vols.). In old age he was declared insane and died on September 11, 1844 in Portsmouth in Haslar Hospital. In 1812 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . The Hall Peninsula of Snow Island in the archipelago of the South Shetland Islands is named after him.

Works (selection)

Voyage of discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the great Loo-Choo Island . Reprint d. Ed. London, Murray, 1818. Seoul Computer Press, 1990. Reprint series, Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch.
Excerpts from a diary written on the coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico in the years 1820, 1821, 1822 . Stuttgart: Cotta, 1824-1825.
A voyage of discovery to the west coast of Korea and the large Luchu Island by Captain Basil Hall . From d. Engl. Transl. u. with note accompanied by Friedrich Rühs . Weimar: Verl. D. Large Saxon. priv. Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, 1819.
Hainfeld Castle , or: A winter in Styria . Under the eyes of the author from d. Engl. Transl. by Minna Herthum. Berlin: Eichler, 1836. Digitized

Web links

Works by Basil Hall in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )

Individual evidence

^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 14, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Hall, Basil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British sailor and traveler
DATE OF BIRTH	December 31, 1788
PLACE OF BIRTH	Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH	September 11, 1844
Place of death	Portsmouth

[1] Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 14, 2019 .