Ferdinand-Alphonse Hamelin (2 September 1796 – 10 January 1864), French admiral, was born in Pont-l'Évêque, Normandy. He was the nephew of Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, a successful rear admiral in the French Navy of the Napoleonic era.
Early career
Hamelain went to sea in 1806 as cabin boy with his uncle, Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, on the frigate Vénus in the era of Napoleon and the French Empire. The Vénus was part of the French squadron in the Indian Ocean during the Mauritius Campaign of 1809-1811, and young Hamelin had an opportunity of seeing much active service. She, in company with another and a smaller vessel, captured the English frigate Ceylon in 1810, but was immediately afterwards captured herself by the Boadicea, under Commodore Josias Rowley (1765–1842). Young Hamelin was a prisoner of war for a short time.
Career after the First French Empire fell
thumb|left|Portrait of Ferdinand Hamelin
He returned to France in 1811. On the fall of the Empire he had better fortune than most of the Napoleonic officers who were turned ashore. In 1821 he became lieutenant, and in 1823 took part in the French expedition under the Duke of Angoulême into Spain. In 1828 he was appointed captain of the Actéon, and was engaged till 1831 on the coast of Algiers and in the conquest of the town and country. His first command as flag officer was in the Pacific, where he showed much tact during the dispute over the Marquesas Islands with England in 1844.