Hall, Basil, 1788-1844, British naval officer and traveler. In the service from 1802 to 1823, he commanded vessels on scientific assignments and voyages of exploration. He wrote of them in his Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo (1818); in Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chile, Peru, and Mexico (2 vol., 1823, repr. 1968); and in Fragments of Voyages and Travels (1831-33), in three series, each series in three volumes. After leaving the navy he traveled in the United States, his Travels in North America (3 vol., 1829) forming a valuable description of America.