Volta
ExplorationAugust 1653

Hamel’s shipwreck

The Dutch ship Sperwer was wrecked on Jeju. Hendrick Hamel and his crew spent 13 years in Joseon before escaping, and his account introduced Korea to Europe.

Hamel’s crew before the Korean king — woodcut from a 1668 edition of his account
Hamel’s crew before the Korean king — woodcut from a 1668 edition of his account

Hendrik Hamel · Public domain · Source

Of the 64 aboard, the 36 survivors were sent to Hanyang and enrolled in the royal army, with Jan Janse Weltevree (Bak Yeon), a Dutchman shipwrecked earlier who had settled in Korea, as interpreter. Later dispersed to army posts in Jeolla such as Yeosu, Hamel and seven others got hold of a boat in 1666 and escaped to Nagasaki.

Hamel described Joseon life and customs in a report to the Dutch East India Company to claim his back pay. Published in Europe, it gave the first detailed account of Korea there.

Show on the map

The map in 1653

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

States and rulers at the time
Joseon — Hyojong

People

  • Hendrick Hamel1630 – 1692

    participant · Dutch East India Company sailor shipwrecked on Jeju; after 13 years he escaped and wrote the first Western account of Korea

  • Hyojong1619 – 1659

    monarch · Seventeenth king of Joseon; a former hostage in Qing who planned a northern campaign and sent troops against Russia

Before and after

Earlier
1653 Shixian calendar adopted
Later
1654 Expeditions against Russia

Related works

  • Book: Hamel's JournalBook · 2003 · Hendrick Hamel (tr. Kim Tae-jin) · Seohae Munjip
  • TV episode: Naked Korean History Episode 38: Why Was the Dutchman Hamel Flogged in Joseon?TV episode · 2023 · Heo Tae-gu · tvN STORY

Themes that include this event

  • Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800

    The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning

  • Islamic Empires and the Atlantic World1500 – 1800

    Three centuries in which the Ottomans of Suleiman I, the Mughals of Akbar and the Safavids of Abbas I flourished and then faltered, while across the Atlantic the slave trade and colonies transformed the Americas, leading to American independence

  • Reformation and Absolutism1517 – 1796

    From Luther’s Ninety-five Theses to Catherine the Great — the wars of religion of a divided Christendom ended at Westphalia, and absolute monarchs armed with divine right, standing armies, bureaucracies and mercantilism, followed by the enlightened despots of eastern Europe, contended for the balance of power among sovereign states

  • Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796

    The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution

  • Jeju Island1270 – 1948

    From Tamna to Jeju — the Sambyeolcho’s last stand, Yuan horse ranches, castaways and exiles, and the island of April 3