Pioneering spirit of Hamel

By Choe Chong-dae

Over the last few centuries, some foreigners have made remarkable and very diverse contributions to Korean culture and society.

When Korea was still unknown to Europeans in the early 17th century, a trading ship from the Netherlands while sailing to Japan was shipwrecked in heavy winds off the coast of Korea in 1627. The survivors were well received by the Joseon Court of Korea.

Among them was a man called Jan Janse de Weltevree who later adopted the Korean name Park Yeon. Weltevree settled down and naturalized in Korea and he familiarized himself with the Korean way of living. Presumably, he communicated with Koreans initially by writing down Chinese characters, which he had picked up while living in China.

In 1653, 26 years after Weltevree's arrival in Korea, another Dutch commercial ship, the Sparrow Hawk, was grounded off the coast of Jeju Island with a crew of 64 aboard. Weltevree was dispatched to Jeju Island to investigate the newly arrived Dutch sailors, of which 36 had survived. Among them was a fellow called Hendrik Hamel. They were moved to Seoul and involuntarily assigned to serve as musketeers in the Royal Court guard.

In 1656, they were sent into exile to Gangjin County in South Jeolla Province because they had devised a plot to escape, begging the envoy from China to help them flee. During their turbulent life in exile, for more than seven years, Hamel and his companions familiarized themselves further with Korean culture and customs.

In 1663, severe famine, drought and contagious diseases forced the Dutchmen to disperse to three different areas. Of the 22 Dutchmen still alive, five transferred to Suncheon, five to Namwon and 12 including Hamel to the headquarters of the Left Provincial Naval District in the southwestern coastal city of Yeosu. Though many years had passed, they never forgot their homeland, the Netherlands.

Realizing Yeosu was the best place for an escape, Hamel and his companions purchased a small boat with money they had earned as itinerant beggars. In 1666, having lived in Korea for 13 years, they escaped to Japan. Hamel returned to the Netherlands by way of Nagasaki where the Dutch maintained a trading post with regular boat services to Batavia.

In 1668, he published an account of his extraordinary experiences in Korea, entitled “Hamel's Journal and a Description of the Kingdom of Korea 1653-1666.” It was this account that first introduced Korea to the Europeans. A copy of the journal is now on display at the Hamel Memorial Museum in Yeosu. It was donated by the National Archive in The Hague in 2012.

Hamel's adaptation to life in exile in Korea reminded me of the phrase “survival of the fittest” coined by Herbert Spencer. It states that organisms that are best adjusted to their environment are the most successful in surviving.

I visited Gangin recently and was struck by the stone walls at Byeongyeong village arranged in a herringbone pattern. Remarkably, many parts of the wall had been built with thinner slated rocks and cobbles put in a zigzag shape between the thicker stones on the bottom and top. The distinctive construction of the stone wall is called “Hamel style” by the residents of the town.

As matter of fact, herringbone (comb) pattern also appeared in the Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement site in Seoul; other examples from the Neolithic period are to be found in Finland and its neighboring regions. Later, this pattern was widely adopted in Western Europe in places such as Rome and the Netherlands.

In recognition of his singular adventures, Hamel is called the Dutch Marco Polo. If it were not for Hamel's pioneering spirit, the “Hermit Kingdom” of Korea would have remained in the shadows and unknown to Western countries until the 18th century.

Choe Chong-dae (choecd@naver.com) is a guest columnist of The Korea Times. He is president of Dae-kwang International Co., and director of the Korean-Swedish Association.