(Updated, March 2019) A half-length portrait seated very slightly to left in a captain’s undress coat and epaulettes. His sword is the one presented to him by the crew of ‘Nemesis’ and rests in the crook of his left arm. His right hand is gripping the scabbard. He wears his C.B. flanked by medals for China and the Baltic. In the left background is what appears to be the bombardment of Bomarsund.

The sitter had an unusual service career. Joining the Navy in 1811 he was a master by 1822 and continued until 1836 when his interest in steam propulsion prompted him to study the subject in Glasgow and the USA. In 1839 he accepted the command of a new armed iron paddle steamer, the ‘Nemesis’, which had been built for the East India Company. In 1841 he took her to China to fight the Opium War (for a related print see PAH8192) and did so well that by orders in council, he was created a commissioned lieutenant in the Royal Navy, with the ‘Nemesis’ thereby to be regarded as if she was a Queen’s ship. He was subsequently promoted to commander in 1843 and then to captain the next year.

In this rank he served against the Russians in the Baltic in 1854-55 in command first of the ‘Hecla’ and then (in 1855) the ‘Blenheim’: he was also awarded the C.B. in the latter year. It was during this period that the portrait was painted. The fortress of Bomarsund, in the Åland Islands off the south-west coast of Finland, was a key outpost for the Russian forces during the Crimean War. Hall was in 'Hecla', with two other ships under his command, when they attacked Bomarsund on 21 June 1854 (though to little effect), and this painting is inscribed ‘Bomarsund 1854’.

The 'Blenheim' was Hall's last command, though his subsequent promotions on the retired list took him to full admiral in 1875. The Museum also has his papers.