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{{Short description|British naval officer}}
{{About||the British politician and lifeboat sailor|Basil Hall (Labour politician)|the British civil servant|Basil Hall (civil servant)|the second mayor of North York, Ontario, Canada|Basil Hall (Canadian politician)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2012}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Basil Hall
|birth_date= 31 December 1788
|death_date= {{death date and age|df=y|1844|9|11|1788|12|31}}
|birth_place= [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
|death_place= [[Royal Hospital Haslar]], [[Portsmouth]], England
|placeofburial=
|placeofburial_label= Place of burial
|image= Basil Hall.jpg
|caption= 
|nickname=
|serviceyears= 1802–1823
|rank= [[Captain (naval)|Captain]]
|branch= [[Royal Navy]]
|commands= 
|unit= 
|battles=
|awards= 
|laterwork= 
}}
'''Basil Hall''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} (31 December 1788 – 11 September 1844) was a British [[Officer (armed forces)|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]].

==Early life==
Although his family home was at [[Dunglass]], Haddingtonshire (now [[East Lothian]]), Basil Hall was born in [[George Square, Edinburgh]], at his aunt's house.<ref>Williamson's Edinburgh Directory 1785</ref> He was educated at the [[Royal High School (Edinburgh)|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 served aboard many vessels involved in exploration and scientific and diplomatic missions. 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.

==Service in the Napoleonic Wars==
While serving aboard {{HMS|Endymion|1797|6}}, Hall witnessed [[John Moore (British Army officer)|Sir John Moore]] being carried dying from the [[Battle of Corunna]]. It was also aboard the ''Endymion'' that Hall met [[William Howe De Lancey]], who later married Hall's sister [[Magdalene De Lancey|Magdalene]]. De Lancey 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 him in his final days.<ref>''A Week at Waterloo in 1815: Lady De Lancey's Narrative,'' ed. Major B. R. Ward (1906), available at the [[Internet Archive]]</ref>

[[File:Rockall Basil Hall landing from HMS Endymion 1811.jpg|thumb|left|Basil Hall landing on Rockall in 1811]]
In 1810, he voyaged to [[Rockall]] aboard the [[HMS Endymion (1797)|''Endymion'']] and in 1811 was part of the first landing party there. His hazardous exploits in returning with this party were described in ''Fragments of Voyages and Travels'', first published in 1831.<ref name="Hall 1831" >{{cite book
  |title=Fragments of Voyages and Travels
  |url=https://archive.org/details/fragmentsvoyage01hallgoog
  |last=Hall  |first=Basil
  |location=London
  |year=1831
|publisher=R. Cadell
 }}</ref>

[[File:Basil Hall Cape.jpg|thumb|Hall's map accompanying his geological notes (1813)]]

==Publication on the geology of the Cape of Good Hope==
In 1813, Hall published, along with Professor [[John Playfair]] a description of the granitic intrusions within the sedimentary sandstone structures that he saw in the Platteklip Gorge near the Table Mountain in the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. The phenomenon was re-examined at another location called as the Green Point Contact by [[Charles Darwin]] in 1836.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Master, Sharad|year=2012|title=Darwin as a geologist in Africa - dispelling the myths and unravelling a confused knot|journal=South African Journal of Science|volume=108|issue=9–10|pages=1–5|doi=10.4102/sajs.v108i9/10.994|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Travels to Java, China, Korea, and the Ryukyu Islands==
Hall explored [[Java]] in 1813 and, as a part of a diplomatic mission to China under [[William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst|Lord Amherst]] in 1816 undertook surveys of the west coast of Korea and the outlying [[Ryukyu Islands]]. This resulted in his book ''Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great [[Ryukyu Islands|Loo-Choo]] Island in the Japan Sea'' (1818), which was one of the first descriptions of [[Korea]] by a European.

==Description of an 1815 shipwreck==
Hall's journals also provide one of the few accounts of the wreck of the ''[[Arniston (ship)|Arniston]]'' in 1815, which gave its name to the seaside town of [[Arniston, Western Cape|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 [[history of longitude|longitude]], and attributed the great loss of life directly to this [[false economy]].<ref name=hall1833>{{Cite book
 | author      = Hall, Basil
 | year        = 1862
 | chapter     = Chapter XIV. Doubling the cape.
 | title       = The Lieutenant and Commander
 | location    = London
 | publisher   = [[George Bell & Sons|Bell and Daldy]] (via [[Gutenberg.org]])
 | oclc        = 9305276
 | chapter-url         = https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17032
 | accessdate  = 2007-11-09
}} Chapter reprinted from his {{Cite book|title=Fragments of Voyages and Travels|series=3rd series|year=1833|title-link=Fragments of Voyages and Travels}}</ref>

==Interviewing Napoleon==
In 1817 he also took the opportunity to interview [[Napoleon]] (who had been an acquaintance of his father) on [[St. Helena]].

==Travels to Chile, Peru, and Mexico==
Hall took command of {{HMS|Conway|1814|6}} in May 1820 and in August he sailed her to the west coast of South America. He returned to England in spring 1823 and ''Conway'' was paid off. His journals of this period became the book, ''Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chile, Peru and Mexico'' (1823).

==Marriage==
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)|John Hunter]], Consul-General in Spain, by his spouse Elizabeth Barbara, sister to [[Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet]]. Hall and Congalton also had a daughter, Eliza, who married Admiral [[William Charles Chamberlain]].

==Travels to South Carolina and Georgia==
In 1826, when [[Sir Walter Scott]] was sunk in depression following his wife's death and financial ruin, it was Hall who organised a trip to Naples for Scott, managing to persuade the government to place a ship at his disposal. In 1828 he was elected into the [[National Academy of Design]] as an Honorary Academician. Also that year, Hall and his wife embarked on a two-year tour of North America. In 1828, part of their route saw them travel over land from [[Charleston, South Carolina]], then along the [[Savannah River]] by canoe from the ferry landing. They stayed at [[21 West Bay Street|City Hotel]] in [[Savannah, Georgia]], a city that Hall found "showy". He "liked the view of the city from the river, the plentiful trees, but did not approve of the wide streets that afforded so little shade".<ref name=bell>''Ease and Elegance, Madeira and Murder: The Social Life of Savannah's City Hotel'', Malcolm Bell, Jr. (1992), p. 556</ref>

==Publications about his travels==
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),<ref>[[WorldCat]] (2007 online). [http://worldcat.org/oclc/6909482?tab=editions <U>"Editions of ''Fragments of voyages and travels''"</U>]. WorldCat.org.</ref> originally released as a three-yearly series of eight volumes each.<ref>{{Cite web | title = Captain Basil Hall | work = Significant and Famous Scots | publisher = ElectricScotland.com | url = http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/hall_basil.htm | archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060507004609/http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/hall_basil.htm | archivedate = 2006-05-07}}</ref> He also contributed to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] and wrote scientific papers on subjects as varied as [[trade winds]], the geology of [[Table Mountain]] and a comet he observed in [[Chile]].

==Travels to Styria and influence on ''Carmilla''==
In 1834, Hall apparently accepted an invitation from Jane Cranstoun, the Countess of Purgstall, to visit her estates in [[Styria]], which she bequeathed two years later to the eminent historian and Orientalist, [[Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall]]. The result was ''Schloss Hainfeld; or, a Winter in Lower Styria'', a Gothic travel account, which may have inspired [[Sheridan Le Fanu]]'s ''[[Carmilla]]''.<ref>{{citation |last=Gibson |first=Matthew |title=Jane Anne Cranstoun, Countess Purgstall: a Possible Inspiration for Le Fanu's 'Carmilla' |journal=Le Fanu Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |year=2007 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42722219}}</ref>

==Detention and death in a hospital==
Suffering from mental illness, Hall was detained in the [[Royal Hospital Haslar]] in [[Portsmouth]], where he died in 1844, aged 55.

==Bibliography==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Incomplete list|date=August 2008}}
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001968452 ''Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island in the Japan Sea''] (1818)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008922151 ''Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico in the years 1820, 1821, 1822''] (1824)
* [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000292062 ''Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828''] (1829)
* ''Fragments of Voyages and Travels'' (1831–1833)<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Fragments of Voyages and Travels, including Anecdotes of a Naval Life'' by Captain Basil Hall. 3 vols. 1831|journal=The Quarterly Review|date=April 1831|volume=45|pages=145–167|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015074711451;view=1up;seq=155}}</ref>
* [https://archive.org/details/schlosshainfeld04hallgoog/ ''Schloss Hainfeld; or, a Winter in Lower Styria''] (1836)
* ''Spain and the Seat of War in Spain'' (1837)
* ''Patchwork'' (3 vols., 1841)
* ''Travels in India, Ceylon and Borneo''

== See also ==

* [[Hendrick Hamel]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{citation |last1=Burke |first1=John |last2=Burke |first2=John Bernard |title=The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with Their Descendants, Sovereigns and Subjects | volume=1 |location=London |publisher=E. Churton |year=1848 |page=[400], pedigree CXXVI |url=https://archive.org/details/royalfamiliesofe01byuburk}}
* {{Cite web | title = Captain Basil Hall | work = Significant and Famous Scots | publisher = ElectricScotland.com | url = http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/hall_basil.htm | archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060507004609/http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/hall_basil.htm | archivedate = 2006-05-07 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Basil | year=1820 | title=On the Proper Method of Laying Down a Ship's Track on Sea Charts | format = via [[Google Books]] |journal=The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=281–282 (from 276–282) | oclc=1567491 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aioAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA281}}
* Hall, Basil (1825). "GD206/2/545" (archived letter). [[National Archives of Scotland]]. A letter from Captain Basil Hall, R. N., to John Tod, Esq., concerning the announcement of his marriage to Margaret, youngest daughter of late Sir John Hunter, Consul General in Spain, on 1 March 1825.
* {{citation |last=Martine |first=John |editor-last=Wilson |editor-first=E.J. |year=1894 |title=Reminiscences and Notices of Ten Parishes of the County of Haddington |location=Haddington |publisher=William Sinclair |page=215 |url=https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesan00wilsgoog}}
* {{citation |last=Hiller |first=Alice |title=The Perverse Tourism of Captain Basil Hall |journal=Studies in Travel Writing |volume=3 |year=1999 |pages=82–101 |doi=10.1080/13645145.1999.9634888 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13645145.1999.9634888|url-access=subscription }}

==External links==
* Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea and the great Loo-Choo island by Captain Basil Hall, 1788-1844 and Herbert John Clifford. Illustrations and maps, published London, 1818.[http://rgssamachupicchu.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/2017-exhibition-catalogue-mapping-south.html]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Hall,+Basil | name=Basil Hall}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Basil Hall |sopt=t}}
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/Kislak.01288.1 Forty Etchings, from Sketches Made with the Camera Lucida, in North America...] From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Basil}}
[[Category:1788 births]]
[[Category:1844 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British explorers]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish diarists]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Writers from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Royal Navy captains]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:Younger sons of baronets]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Scottish travel writers]]
[[Category:Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge]]
[[Category:British expatriates in Korea]]
[[Category:Contributors to the Encyclopædia Britannica]]
[[Category:Scottish encyclopedists]]
[[Category:People detained in hospitals in the United Kingdom]]