Hendrick Hamel

Hendrick Hamel (1630 – 1692) was the first Westerner to provide a first hand account of Joseon Korea. After spending thirteen years there, he wrote "Hamel's Journal and a Description of the Kingdom of Korea, 1653-1666," which was subsequently published in 1668.

Hendrick Hamel was born in Gorinchem, Netherlands. In 1650, he sailed to the Dutch East Indies where he found work as a bookkeeper with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1653, while sailing to Japan on the ship “De Sperwer” (The Sparrowhawk), Hamel and thirty-five other crewmates survived a deadly shipwreck on Jeju Island in South Korea. After spending close to a year on Jeju in the custody of the local prefect, the men were taken to Seoul, the capital of Joseon Korea, in June, 1655, where King Hyojong (r.1649 to 1659) was on the throne. As was customary treatment of foreigners at the time, the government forbade Hamel and his crew from leaving the country. During their stay, however, they were given freedom to live relatively normal lives in Korean society

In September 1666, after thirteen years in Korea, Hamel and seven of his crewmates managed to escape to Japan where the Dutch operated a small trade mission on an artificial island in the Nagasaki harbor called Deshima. It was during his time in Nagasaki (September 1666 to October 1667) that Hamel wrote his account of his time in Korea. From here, Hamel and his crew left to Batavia (modern day Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies in late 1667. Although Hamel sojourned in Batavia until 1670, experts speculate that his crew, returning to the Netherlands in 1667, brought his manuscript with them, where three versions of it were published in 1668. Hamel himself did not return to the Netherlands until 1670.

On Jeju Island, the sudden appearance of thirty-six Europeans created no small stir among the Koreans inhabitants. On August 21, four days after the shipwreck, Hamel and his crew were taken to Jeju city, upon which the local prefect, Yi Wonjin, sent an announcement to the king in Seoul, describing the event of the shipwreck and requesting advice on how to deal with the Dutchman. In October of the same year, the local government brought Jan Janse Weltevree (Korean name “Park-Yeon”), a Dutchman who himself had shipwrecked on Korea 27 years prior, to converse with Hamel and his crew. With the help of Weltevree, the Dutchmen formed a positive relationship with Yi Wonjin.

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