"Basil Hall was a British naval officer, traveller and author who wrote engaging books about his trips to Asia, South America and North America in the early 1800s. In 1817, Hall met with defeated French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena. A dozen years later, Hall's publication about his travels in the United States caused a "moral earthquake" among Americans. (1)
Basil Hall was born in Edinburgh on December 31, 1788. His father – Sir James Hall, the fourth Baronet of Dunglass – was a prominent Scottish geologist and geophysicist who later became a member of the British House of Commons. James Hall had visited Brienne, France, when Napoleon was a student at the military academy there, something that later came in handy for his son. Basil's mother, Helen Douglas, was the daughter of the fourth Earl of Selkirk.
Basil Hall joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13. In 1808, he was commissioned as a lieutenant on the frigate HMS Endymion. As such, he helped British forces evacuate northern Spain at the Battle of Corunna in 1809. In 1812, Hall was sent to the East Indies Station, where he visited India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Borneo and Java. In 1816, he commanded HMS Lyra, a sloop-brig that served as escort on Lord Amherst's diplomatic mission to China. Hall and his men undertook surveys of the west coast of Korea and the Loo-Choo (Ryukyu) Islands. On the return voyage to England in 1817, the Lyra called at St. Helena, where Napoleon had been imprisoned by the British since 1815…"
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Armand
takes the plunge!
