Impressment
- Forced
Recruitment into the Royal Navy
The ‘pressing’ of men into the service of the Crown was very
much a contentious issue during its time of operation and there was much comment
passed. The overwhelming modern understanding is of all and sundry being picked
up by less than discerning press gangs. This is not unnatural considering that
this was a perception put over by contemporaneous opponents of the press.
However, it is far from the reality, which was very much more complicated.
Already by the 17th century sailing ships were highly
complex machines, which required skilled hands to operate their mechanisms and
this would continue into the 18th and 19th centuries.
Sailors learned their skills through time and experience, in the main begun as
boys. Whether on naval warships, privateers, merchantmen of the great chartered
companies, or lesser merchantmen, the ‘people’ (that is to say all who were not
held ‘officers’ rank) were drawn from the same pool of labour. All signed on
per voyage and theoretically could choose whom they served. However, even if
war on land was the concern of relatively small groups of often-mercenary
groups of professional warriors, war at sea already required more of a mass
participation. As warships grew both in number and size, very large numbers of
men were needed to prosecute state wishes when required in long and frequent
periods of war. (Men-o-war were generally laid up in
the shorter periods of peace in between.)
The traditional perspective of the Royal Navy during these
centuries is of crews receiving unremitting hell. Whilst some good modern research has shown this to be not entirely accurate,
life was far from luxurious for anyone at sea in these centuries, whether
‘officer’ or one of the ‘people’, on warships or merchantmen. It is true that a
great many men genuinely ‘took the sovereign’s shilling’ and if sailors’ songs
are to be believed, perhaps for reasons which may often have reflected a
nationalistic defence which is not apparent elsewhere in society at this time.
Nevertheless, a great many men did not want to serve the monarch, whether they had already spent time
on warships, or not.
This was, however, immaterial to commands of warships that
needed seamen as crews. If merchant seamen could be induced, through bounties,
to join voluntarily - well and good. But if not, men
still had to be procured. Interestingly, far more men were pressed at sea than
on shore. Homeward bound merchantmen on their final approaches to discharge
were often boarded and ‘volunteers’ were called for. If not gaining the
requisite number, men were simply pressed and this included individuals who
were theoretically ‘protected’ from just such an eventuality.
The more traditional view of the press-gang
is on shore though. Far from having great power, those charged with the task of
obtaining men by pressing had to operate in conditions that were less than
ideal. If they were not careful they themselves could end up in prison and some
were even murdered. Skilled seamen were sought after, preferably from
merchantmen, but not uncommonly from other warships. Landsmen were not wanted,
as they required long training in the basics. Nevertheless, though it was
necessary to make up the numbers onboard with landsmen it seems that these were
mostly volunteers in the true sense of the word. It was most unusual, though
not absolutely out of the question, for press-gangs to range the countryside
picking up any able-bodied males they encountered.
For excellent detailed analysis of conditions in the R.N. during
the Seven Years War (1756-1763) including the press, currently in print, see
N.A.M. Rodger’s The
Wooden World: An Anatomy the Georgian Navy (London:
Fontana Press, 1986).