Journal of William Hall

Private journal of Sir William Hutcheon Hall (?1797-1878), admiral which relates to his naval service as master on HMS Morgiana off the West Coast of Africa 1822 together with associated notes, newscuttings and other papers, 1822-1871.

William Hutcheon Hall (?1797-1878) entered the navy in 1811 and served in the North Sea and the Baltic (1811-15), China (1815-17) and West Africa (1817-1820s) where he was promoted to master. He continued in this rank serving actively on the West Indian, Mediterranean and Home Stations until 1836. His interest then turned to steam ships and he was employed in steamboats in the United States of America on the Hudson and Delaware rivers (1836-39). He then obtained command of the Nemesis , an iron paddle steamer, and made a valuable contribution to operations in the Chinese war (1840-43) for which he was awarded naval rank. He subsequently commanded the Dragon steam frigate in the Mediterranean (1847-50), and the Hecla and the Blenheim in the Baltic (1854-55).

Hall was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1847; and after his retirement from active service, he became a rear-admiral in 1863, vice-admiral in 1869 and admiral in 1875. He was nominated a KCB in 1867. He also published two pamphlets: Sailors' Homes, their Origin and Progress (1852, 2nd edition 1854) and Our National Defences .

For more biographical information, see Hall's entry in the Dictionary of National Biography and in O'Byrne (ed), A naval biographical dictionary (1849).

Reference: University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department, Online Archive Catalogue ( http://calmview.bham.ac.uk/ ). Accessed May 2002.

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Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the University Archivist, Special Collections. Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

According to the vendor of this volume, it originally formed part of a collection of papers of and by Hall which were sold by a bookseller.