Hendrik Hamel

author

Hendrik Hamel

1630–1692

A Dutch sailor and bookkeeper whose extraordinary shipwreck led to the first widely known European account of Korea. His journal turned years of forced exile into one of the earliest Western windows onto Joseon life.

1 Audiobook

Verhaal van het vergaan van het jacht de Sperwer En van het wedervaren der schipbreukelingen op het eiland Quelpaert en het vasteland van Korea (1653-1666) met eene beschrijving van dat rijk

Verhaal van het vergaan van het jacht de Sperwer En van het wedervaren der schipbreukelingen op het eiland Quelpaert en het vasteland van Korea (1653-1666) met eene beschrijving van dat rijk

by Hendrik Hamel

About the author

Little is known for certain about his early life, but Hendrik Hamel was born in Gorinchem in 1630 and worked for the Dutch East India Company. In 1653, while sailing toward Japan on the De Sperwer, he and other crew members were shipwrecked off Jeju Island in Korea.

Hamel and his surviving companions were not allowed to leave Joseon and spent about thirteen years there. After escaping and reaching Japan, he wrote the account that made him famous: a report of the shipwreck, their long captivity, and what he observed about Korean society.

That narrative became the first widely circulated Western description of Korea and remained an important source of information in Europe for many years. Although details of his later life are less clear, he is still remembered as an accidental explorer whose careful record preserved a rare cross-cultural encounter.