Hamel ended up spending thirteen years in Joseon, until he escaped to a Dutch trading mission to Dejima island, Japan in 1666.

[2]: 122–123 On 17 August 1653, while sailing to Japan on the ship "De Sperwer" ("The Sparrowhawk"), Hamel and thirty-five other crewmates survived a deadly shipwreck on the island Gapado, which itself was off the coast of Quelpart, Joseon (now Jeju, South Korea).

After meeting with the travelers, the local prefect Yi Wonjin sent an announcement to King Hyojong of Joseon that described the situation and requested advice on how to deal with the Dutchmen.

In October, the local government brought Jan Janse Weltevree, a Dutchman who himself had become shipwrecked on Korea 27 years prior, to converse with Hamel and his crew.

Although the announcement dismissed any chance of the crew's release, it declared that the Korean government had "a moral obligation to ease their existence," It also called for the castaways to be sent to Seoul.

Because of this, and mounting pressure to dispose of the Dutchmen, in 1657, King Hyojong banished Hamel and his crew to a military garrison in Jeolla Province on the Southwest corner of the peninsula.

[2]: 68–69  At one point, Hamel and his crew resorted to begging, a vocation they actually found rewarding since, as foreigners, they had no trouble drawing a large crowd.

Of the twenty-two Dutchmen still alive, five went to Suncheon, five went to Namwon, and twelve, including Hamel, went to the headquarters of the Left Provincial Naval District, near modern-day Yeosu.

Down to eight from the original twelve, the group slowly gathered supplies and negotiated the purchase of a small fishing boat from a local Korean.

On 4 September 1666, an especially dark day with good tidal conditions, the men left their compound, loaded their boat, and headed out to sea.

[2]: 76–79 Hamel and seven of his crewmates managed to escape to Japan where the Dutch operated a small trade mission on an artificial island in the Nagasaki harbor called Dejima.

[2]: 125  Although his crew continued on to the Netherlands in 1668, Hamel himself stayed in Batavia until 1670 trying, in vain, to secure fourteen years of back salary from the Dutch East India Company.

[17] On 30 December 1997, a gingko tree believed to be mentioned in Hamel's book [ko] was designated as a natural monument of South Korea.

[21] On 7 October 2015, the Dutch airline company KLM dedicated a Hamel-themed Delft Blue house to a South Korean businessman.