| Basil Hall | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 31, 1788 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | September 11, 1844 Royal Hospital Haslar, Portsmouth |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1802 to 1823 |
| Rank | Royal Navy Captain |
Basil Hall, FRS (31 December 1788 – 11 September 1844) was a British naval officer from Scotland, a traveller, and an author. He was the second son of Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet, an eminent man of science.
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Although his family home was at Dunglass, Haddingtonshire (now East Lothian), Basil Hall was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was educated at the Royal High School and joined the Royal Navy in 1802, being commissioned a Lieutenant in 1808, and later rising to the rank of Captain.
Hall commanded many vessels involved in exploration and scientific and diplomatic missions. While serving aboard HMS Endymion, Hall witnessed Sir John Moore being carried dying from the Battle of Corunna. It was also aboard the Endymion that Hall met William Howe DeLancey, who later married Hall's sister Magdalene. DeLancey was struck by a cannonball at the Battle of Waterloo, and it was for her brother that Magdalene wrote A Week at Waterloo in 1815, a poignant narrative describing how she nursed her husband in his final days.[1]
In 1810 he voyaged to Rockall aboard the Endymion and in 1811 was part of the very first landing party upon it. His hazardous exploits in returning with this party were described in Fragments of Voyages and Travels.[2]
Hall explored Java in 1813 and in 1817 interviewed Napoleon (who had been an acquaintance of his father) on St. Helena.
From the beginning of his naval career he had been encouraged by his father to keep a journal, which later became the source for a series of books and publications describing his travels. These included Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island in the Japan Sea (1818), which was one of the first descriptions of Korea by a European, and Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chile, Peru and Mexico (1823).
Hall's journals also provide one of the few accounts of the wreck of the Arniston in 1815, which gave its name to the seaside town of Arniston, South Africa. As a captain, he was very critical of the fact that this ship did not have a marine chronometer with which to calculate longitude, and attributed the great loss of life directly to this false economy.[3]
Following his retirement from the navy in 1823, Hall was married on 1 March 1825 to Margaret Congalton (d. 1876), the youngest daughter of Sir John Hunter, Consul-General in Spain by his spouse Elizabeth Barbara, sister to Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet.
In 1826, when Sir Walter Scott was sunk in depression following his wife's death and financial ruin, Hall who organised a trip to Naples for Scott, managing to persuade the government to place a ship at his disposal.
In 1829 Hall published Travels in North America which caused some offence due to his criticisms of American society. His best known work was The Fragments of Voyages and Travels (9 volumes, 1831–1840),[4] originally released as three yearly series of eight volumes each.[5] He also contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and wrote scientific papers on subjects as varied as trade winds, the geology of Table Mountain and a comet he observed in Chile.
Suffering from mental illness, Hall was detained in the Royal Hospital Haslar at Portsmouth (England), where he died.
In addition to a son, their daughter Eliza married Admiral William Charles Chamberlain.