Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is the taking of men into a military or naval force by compulsion, with or without notice. European navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means. The large size of the British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
in the
Age of Sail
The Age of Sail is a period that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid- 15th) to the mid- 19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the introduction of naval ...
meant impressment was most commonly associated with
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. It was used by the Royal Navy in wartime, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a means of crewing
warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster a ...
s, although legal sanction for the practice can be traced back to the time of
Edward I of England
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...
. The Royal Navy impressed many merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other, mostly European, nations. People liable to impressment were "eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 55 years". Non-
seamen were sometimes impressed as well, though rarely. In addition to the Royal Navy's use of impressment, the British Army also experimented with impressment from 1778 to 1780.
Impressment was strongly criticized by those who believed it to be contrary to the
British constitution. Though the public opposed conscription in general, impressment was repeatedly upheld by the courts, as it was deemed vital to the strength of the navy and, by extension, to the survival of the British realm and influence.
Impressment was essentially a Royal Navy practice, reflecting the sheer size of the British fleet and its substantial manpower demands. While other European navies applied forced recruitment in times of war, this was generally done as an extension of the practice of formal conscription applied by most European armies from the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
on. The U.S. Continental Navy also applied a form of impressment during the
American War of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
.
The impressment of seamen from American ships caused serious tensions between Britain and the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
in the years leading up to the
Revolutionary War. One of the
27 colonial grievances
7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube.
As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...
enumerated in the Declaration of Independence directly highlights the practice. It was again a cause of tension leading up to the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
. After the
defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Britain formally ended the practice; later conscription was not limited to the Royal Navy but covered all British armed forces.
Royal Navy recruiting and desertion
Working and living conditions for the average sailor in the Royal Navy in the 18th century were very harsh by modern standards. Naval pay was attractive in the 1750s, but towards the end of the century its value had been steadily eroded by rising prices. Sailors' pay on merchant ships was somewhat higher during peacetime, and could increase to double naval pay during wartime.
Until 19th-century reforms improved conditions, the Royal Navy was additionally known to pay wages up to two years in arrears. The Navy always withheld six months' pay as a standard policy, in order to discourage desertion. Naval wages had been set in 1653, and were not increased until April 1797 after sailors on 80 ships of the Channel Fleet based at Spithead
mutinied
Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among members ...
.
Despite this, there were still many volunteers for naval service. The work for individual sailors was less than on merchant ships, since the naval crew size was determined by the number needed to man guns – around four times more than the number of crew needed to simply sail the ship. Furthermore, the food supplied by the Navy was plentiful, regular, and of good quality by the standards of the day. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it was not at all unusual for impressed men to view life in the navy, hard though it was, as still preferable to their previous lives on shore, and to volunteer for further service when the opportunity came to leave the ship.
For major voyages, shipowners and governments routinely estimated that 50% of the sailors would die due to
scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Early symptoms of deficiency include weakness, feeling tired and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and bleeding ...
.
The main problem with naval recruitment, was a shortage of qualified and experienced seamen during wartime. For example, when the Navy had to quickly recruit an extra 20,000 men in the early 18th century, and 40,000 men in the late 18th century.
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
s, the Royal Navy, and the
Merchant Navy all competed for a small pool of ordinary and able seamen in wartime, and all three groups were usually short-handed. The recruitment figures presented to Parliament for the years 1755–1757 list 70,566 men, of whom 33,243 were volunteers (47%), 16,953 pressed men (24%), while another 20,370 were listed as volunteers separately (29%).
Although there are no records that explain why volunteers were separated into two groups, it is likely these were pressed men who became "volunteers" to get the sign-up bonus, two months' wages in advance and a higher wage. It is known that large numbers did this. Volunteering also protected the sailor from creditors, as the law forbade collecting debts accrued before enlistment. A disadvantage was that volunteers who deserted were liable to execution if captured, whereas pressed men were simply returned to service. Other records confirm similar percentages throughout the 18th century.
Average annual recruitment 1736–1783
All three groups also suffered high levels of desertion. In the 18th century, British desertion rates on naval ships averaged 25% annually, with slight difference between volunteers and pressed men. The rate of desertion started high, then fell heavily after a few months on board a ship, and generally became negligible after a year — because Navy pay ran months or years in
arrears, desertion might mean not only abandoning companions in the ship's company, but also the loss of a large amount of money already earned. If a naval ship had taken a
prize, a deserting seaman would forfeit his share of the prize money. In a report on proposed changes to the RN written by
Admiral Nelson in 1803, he noted that since 1793 more than 42,000 sailors had deserted.
The Impress Service and impressment at sea
![Luke Clennell02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Luke_Clennell02.jpg)
The Impress Service, colloquially called the "press-gang" was formed to force sailors to serve on naval vessels.
There was no concept of "joining the navy" as a fixed career-path for non-officers at the time, since seamen remained attached to a ship only for the duration of its commission. They were encouraged to stay in the Navy after the commission but could leave to seek other employment when the ship was paid off. Impressment relied on the legal power of the King to call men to military service, as well as to recruit volunteers, who were paid a bounty upon joining, unlike pressed men. Seamen were not covered by
Magna Carta
(Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the ...
and "failure to allow oneself to be pressed" was punishable by hanging, although the punishment became less severe over time.
[Conditions of service in Britain's maritime organisations](_blank)
pp. 39–40.
In Elizabethan times a statute regulated impressment as a form of recruitment, and with the introduction of the
Vagabonds Act in 1597, men of disrepute (
vagrants) found themselves drafted into service. In 1703, an act passed limiting the impressment of boys under 18 years of age to those who were not apprenticed. A further act in 1740 raised the maximum age to 55. Although no foreigner could normally be pressed, they lost their protection if they married a British woman or had worked on a British merchant ship for two years. Some governments, including Britain, issued "protections" against impressment which protected men had to carry on their person at all times; but in times of crisis the Admiralty would order a "hot press", which meant that no-one remained exempt.
![Captain John Quilliam RN](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Captain_John_Quilliam_RN.jpg)
The Royal Navy also impressed seamen from inbound British merchant ships at sea, though this was done by individual warships, rather than by the Impress Service. Impressment, particularly ''press gangs'', became consistently unpopular with the British public (as well as in the American colonies), and local officials often acted against them, to the point of imprisoning officers from the Impress Service or opposing them by force of arms.
Basis
At the time of the
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...
over half the Royal Navy's 120,000 sailors were pressed men. The power of the Impressment Service to conscript was limited by law to seafarers, including merchant seamen, longshoremen and fishermen. There is no basis to the widespread impression that civilians without any seafaring background were randomly seized from home, country lane or workplace by press gangs or that the latter were employed inland away from coastal ports.
However, convicted petty criminals were often given the option of volunteering for naval service as unskilled "quota men" by inland courts (see below).
![Easton Massacre Memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Easton_Massacre_Memorial.JPG)
There were occasions when the local populace would band together to oppose the activities of the press where these exceeded legal bounds. One such incident, the
Easton Massacre
The Easton Massacre was an incident in which sailors of the British Royal Navy shot and killed three residents of Easton, Portland, Dorset, during an attempt to press male members of the town into service. This was contrary to the normal restr ...
in 1803 (see caption at right), resulted in a press gang firing on a crowd, killing four people in the village of Easton on the Isle of Portland, where they were trying to impress the quarrymen.
In 1808, Thomas Urquhart was saved from a press gang of three or four men when a London passersby intervened.
Urquhart complained to local officials, identified at least one of the men involved and successfully sued for damages in the
Court of King's Bench. He went on to lobby for changes in law and practice, publishing ''Letters on the evils of impressment: with the outline of a plan for doing them away, on which depend the wealth, prosperity, and consequence of Great Britain'' in 1816.
Patrolling in or near sea ports, the press gang would try to find men aged between 15 and 55 with seafaring or river-boat experience, but this was not essential. Potential crewmen with no experience were called "
landsmen". From 1740, landsmen were legally exempt from impressment, but this was on occasion ignored in wartime unless the person seized was an
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
or a "
gentleman
A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...
". Two landsmen were considered by captains to be the equivalent of one able seaman. If a landsman was able to prove his status to the Admiralty he was usually released. Court records do however show fights breaking out as people attempted to avoid what was perceived as wrongful impressment, and the London ''Times'' reported occasions when press gangs instituted a "hot press" (ignoring protections against impressment) in order to man the navy.
Merchant seamen ashore from their ships (and usually conspicuous by their clothing and general appearance) were however another matter. Anyone with seafaring experience encountered in the street would first be asked to volunteer for naval service. If the potential recruit refused he was often plied with alcohol or simply seized and taken. A commonly held belief is that a trick was used in
tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...
s, surreptitiously dropping a
King's shilling
The King's shilling, sometimes called the Queen's shilling when the Sovereign is female, is a historical slang term referring to the earnest payment of one shilling given to recruits to the Armed forces of the United Kingdom in the 18th, 19th and 2 ...
("prest money") into a man's drink, as by "finding" the shilling in his possession he was deemed to have volunteered, and that this led to some tavern owners putting glass bottoms in their tankards. However, this is a legend; press officers were subject to fines for using trickery and a volunteer had a "cooling-off" period in which to change his mind.
The great majority of men pressed were taken from merchant ships at sea, especially those homeward bound for Britain. This was legal as long as the Navy replaced the man they took, and many Naval captains would take the best seamen, replacing them with malcontents and landsmen from their own ship. It was also common for "trusted" volunteers to act as substitutes; they would then desert as soon as the merchant ship docked, and return to their Navy ship.
Outbound merchant ships, officers and apprentices were exempt from impressment. When war broke out the Navy would deploy frigates and vessels off the coast to intercept inbound merchantmen. Reportedly some merchant captains redirected their ships to Irish ports to offload favoured crewmen, before making final landfall in England. In 1740, a merchantman fired on a cruiser attempting to impress its crew; threats of similar violence to avoid sailors being pressed were supposedly not uncommon, especially with the
East India
East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha
and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magadh ...
ships whose crews had been away from their families and England for a considerable time. In times of an extreme shortage of men, the Navy would "embargo" the coast for a short time; merchantmen had to supply a portion of their crew in exchange for permission to sail.
Many merchant ships had hiding places constructed where their best crew could hide when approached by a Naval vessel.
The owners of British
whalers, because of the Press, often appointed a master to them whilst the vessels were in port in order to protect the whalers' crews. Otherwise the Press could take the men for naval service. The owners would then appoint an actual master to replace the placeholder masters.
In addition to impressment, Britain also used the
Quota System (or ''The Quod'') from 1795 to 1815, whereby each county was required to supply a certain number of volunteers, based on its population and the number of its seaports. Unlike impressment, the Quota System often resulted in criminals serving on board ships as counties who failed to meet their quota offered prisoners the option of completing their sentence or volunteering. Apart from the probably lower quality of recruits taken by this means, another downside of the Quota System was the frequent introduction of disease, especially
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
, to healthy ships.
In Ireland
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
formed a separate but subordinate state, the
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label=Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...
, between 1534 and 1800. All of Ireland was united to Great Britain to form the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great B ...
between 1801 and 1922. The Royal Navy recruited heavily in Ireland during this period, including using impressment. For example, in 1734, impressment took place in
Wicklow
Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...
. Impressment was also common during the Napoleonic wars, although poverty in Ireland made sure that volunteers were usually available.
British North America
One of the largest impressment operations occurred in the spring of 1757 in New York City, then still under British
colonial rule. Three thousand British soldiers cordoned off the city, and plucked clean the taverns and other sailors' gathering places. "All kinds of tradesmen and Negroes" were hauled in, nearly eight hundred in all. Four hundred of these were "retained in the service".
The Royal Navy also used impressment extensively in
British North America from 1775 to 1815. Its press gangs sparked resistance, riots, and political turmoil in seaports such as
Halifax,
St John's, and
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
. Nevertheless, the Royal Navy extended the reach of its press gangs into coastal areas of British North America by the early 19th century. In response, sailors and residents fought back with a range of tactics. They sometimes reacted violently. The riots in St John's in 1794 and
Halifax in 1805 led to a prohibition on impressment on shore for much of the Napoleonic Wars. The protest came from a wide swath of the urban community, including elites, rather than just the vulnerable sailors, and had a lasting negative impact on civil–naval relations in what became Canada. The local communities did not encourage their young men to volunteer for the Royal Navy.
Continental Navy
The American
Continental Navy
The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War and was founded October 13, 1775. The fleet cumulatively became relatively substantial through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron John Adams ...
impressed men into its service during the American Revolutionary War. The
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
authorized construction of thirteen frigates, including in 1775. The senior captain of the Continental Navy,
James Nicholson, was appointed to command ''Virginia''. When it was fitted out in 1777, Nicholson received orders to sail to
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
. Many of Nicholson's crew had deserted to sign on as privateers, for higher pay at less risk. Therefore, Nicholson impressed about thirty citizens of
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, an act expressly forbidden by Maryland law. Maryland governor
Thomas Johnson demanded immediate release of the impressed men and Congress convinced Nicholson to release them all. Nicholson avoided impressment on land and instead stopped two American merchant ships at sea in 1780, to impress men from their crews.
The individual states did not deny the concept of impressment for their own navies, but were reluctant to grant the right to the Continental Congress. The concept of drafting men into armed service remained contentious, even after adoption of the federal constitution.
There is one documented case of a British seaman impressed by the
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
in 1810.
Conflict with the United States
In 1795, the
Jay Treaty went into effect, addressing many issues left unresolved after the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, and averting a renewed conflict. However, the treaty's neglect to address British impressment of sailors from American ships and ports became a major cause of complaint among those who disapproved of it. While non-British subjects were not impressed, at this point Britain did not recognize
naturalised
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...
American citizenship and treated anyone born a British subject as still "British"; as a result, the Royal Navy impressed over 9,000 sailors who claimed to be American citizens.
During the wars with France (1793 to 1815), the Royal Navy aggressively reclaimed British deserters on board ships of other nations, both by halting and searching merchant ships, and, in many cases, by searching American port cities. Although these impressments were illegal, Jefferson ignored them to remain on good terms with Britain as he was negotiating to obtain "the Floridas". This tolerance changed in 1805 when the British began seizing American merchantmen trading with the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
and condemning the ships and their cargoes as a prize and enforcing impressment on their crews.
Under the
Rule of 1756, in times of war direct trade between a neutral European state and a British colony was forbidden if such trade had not existed in time of peace. The Americans had found a way around this policy by "landing" cargoes from Europe in the United States and issuing certificates that duty had been paid. The ship would then sail, with the cargo never having been offloaded or duty actually paid, as now
bona fide
In human interactions, good faith ( la, bona fides) is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case ...
commerce between neutral America and the West Indies. The British became aware of the practice during the court case involving the seizure of the ''Essex''. The court ruled that the cargo of the ''Essex'' had never been intended for American markets so the voyage had not been ''broken'' and could thus be considered continuous. The end result was the blockade of
New York Harbor
New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...
by two British frigates, the ''Cambrian'' and the ''Leander'', which provoked public demonstrations.
For the next year scores of American ships were condemned in admiralty courts and American seamen were impressed with increasing frequency until, in the early summer of 1807, when three deserters from the British frigate lying in
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...
enlisted on the American frigate . After searching the ''Chesapeake'', the deserters, David Martin, John Strachan, and William Ware, were found to be native-born Americans who had been wrongly impressed. The search also established that another crew member, listed as Jenkin Ratford, was actually a British deserter; however, he could not be found. Admiral Berkeley angrily issued an order to all commanders in the North Atlantic Squadron to search the ''Chesapeake'' if encountered on the high seas. Eight miles southeast of
Cape Henry
Cape Henry is a cape on the Atlantic shore of Virginia located in the northeast corner of Virginia Beach. It is the southern boundary of the entrance to the long estuary of the Chesapeake Bay.
Across the mouth of the bay to the north is Cape Cha ...
a boat from the British frigate intercepted her but
Commodore Barron declined to permit his crew to be mustered. The ''Leopard'' began approaching and the commander shouted a warning to which Barron replied "I don't hear what you say". The ''Leopard'' then fired two shots across the bow and almost immediately poured a broadside into the American ship. The ''Chesapeake'' did not return fire but the British ship fired another two broadsides. Three crew were killed and eighteen wounded. The British boarding party not only arrested the British deserter but also the three Americans. The
''Chesapeake''–''Leopard'' affair provoked an outcry for war from all parts of the country and Jefferson later wrote: "The affair of the ''Chesapeake'' put war into my hand, I had only to open it and let havoc loose". He ordered the state governors to ready their militias but the
Embargo Act of 1807 he eventually passed only ordered all British armed vessels out of American waters and forbade all contact with them if they remained.
As a cause of the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, the impressment and ship seizures caused serious diplomatic tension, and helped to turn American public opinion against Britain. Impressment was widely perceived as humiliating and dishonoring the U.S. because it was unable to protect its ships and sailors.
End of impressment
Britain fought the war against Napoleon on the high seas, enlarging its Royal Navy from 135 ships in 1793 to 584 in 1812, and expanding personnel from 36,000 seamen in 1793 to 114,000 in 1812. In spring 1814 Napoleon surrendered, the allies
restored the Bourbon kings to the throne, and France was no longer an enemy of Great Britain. The naval war was over and Britain could now sharply reduce its Royal Navy. It had no need to impress sailors, and never again used that means of forced recruitment, although it did not officially renounce the practice.
By the time of Britain's next major war,
against Russia in 1853, a new system of fixed-term engagements had given the Royal Navy a sufficient number of volunteer recruits to meet its manpower needs. Throughout the remainder of the 19th century changes in manpower needs and improved conditions of service permitted the Royal Navy to rely on voluntary enlistment to meet its requirements, augmented by the recall of reservists when necessary. This continued to be the case until World War I, when organised conscription was introduced in 1916 for all the military services.
English and later British naval impressment laws
The first Act of Parliament legalising this practice was passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1563 and was known as "An Act touching political considerations for the maintenance of the navy". It was renewed many times until 1631. In the
Vagabonds Act 1597
The Vagabonds Act 1597 (39 Eliz. c. 4) was an Act of the Parliament of England, which aimed to address concerns of vagrancy.
Background
The Ninth Elizabethan Parliament had opened on 24 October 1597, with Parliament concerned about the dearth ...
, several lists of persons were subject to impressment for service in the fleet. Following the execution of
King Charles I, the
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason.
"Rump" n ...
passed several acts in 1649 and 1650 concerning the encouragement of officers, mariners and for the impressment of seamen (e.g.
22 February 1648/9). In 1695 an Act was passed to build a permanent register of 30,000 men for ready call-up by the navy, "without having recourse to the barbarous and unconstitutional practice of pressing". The act also established basic rules and benefits for all types of seamen, including access to
Greenwich Hospital.
With wars raging
in Europe and
in America the Navigation Act 1703 (2 & 3 Ann. c. 6) was passed "for the of Seamen and better Encouragement of Navigation, and the Protection of the Coal Trade". This act gave parish authorities the power to
indenture
An indenture is a legal contract that reflects or covers a debt or purchase obligation. It specifically refers to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, it is an instrument used for commercia ...
and apprentice boys to the sea, from as young as 10, until age 21; it also reaffirmed that rogues and
vagabond
Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...
s were subject to be pressed into the navy. The act establishes administration and regulations for the act, including youth who volunteer for the indenture and certain seamen engaged in the coal trade supplying cities, are exempt from impressment for three years. This act was followed by the
Recruiting Act 1703
The Recruiting Act 1703 (2 & 3 Ann. c.13) was an Act of the Parliament of England, after the start of the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe, with Queen Anne's War in America. It was long titled ''An Act for raising Recruits for the Land Fo ...
(2 & 3 Ann. c. 13), which allows impressing able-bodied men into the army and navy who did not have visible means of subsistence; also as a wartime measure the act relaxes English crewing requirements under the
Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts, or more broadly the Acts of Trade and Navigation, were a long series of English laws that developed, promoted, and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and commerce between other countries and with its own colonies. The ...
, to make experienced English seamen more available to serve on ships of war. In 1740, impressment was limited to men between 18 and 45, and it also exempted foreigners.
As part of a wider effort to build colonial capability and harass its enemies, Parliament passed the Trade to America Act 1707 (6 Ann. c. 64). Section 9 mandated that mariners serving on board privateers and trading ships in any part of America, and those on shore, are not liable for impressment. Lingering questions remained whether the law applied only to the navy, or to civil authorities as well, and whether it applied only to the current war or to all future wars.
[Rodger (2004), p. 316.] Two attorneys-general of Great Britain, one in 1716, and another in 1740, issued opinions that the 1707 Act was no longer in effect, but many American colonists disagreed.
Despite doubts over the continuing legality of impressment in continental waters, but for similar reasons, Parliament passed the Sugar Trade Act 1746 (19 Geo. 2 c. 30) stating that impressment was forbidden in the West Indies, but it added certain exceptions and made no specific mention of America. This would lead to the
Knowles Riot
The Knowles Riot, also known as the Impressment Riot of 1747, was a three-day riot in Boston that began on 17 November 1747, in response to the impressment of 46 Bostonians by Admiral Charles Knowles into the navy. Hundreds of mostly working-cla ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
the following year, and continuing colonial questions, particularly in heavily maritime
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
.
The last law was passed in 1835, in which the power to impress was reaffirmed. This limited the length of service of a pressed man to five years, and added the provision that a man could not be pressed twice. Although Britain abandoned the practice of impressment in 1815, impressment remained legal until the early 1900s, and the various laws authorising impressment have never been repealed.
British army impressment laws
Starting in 1645, the
New Model Army
The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...
raised by
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
to overthrow
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
was largely manned by impressment.
After the
restoration of the monarchy
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
*Restoration ecology
...
, impressment into the army was discontinued.
During the American Revolutionary War, after the losses at the
Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion ...
and the impending hostilities with France, the existing voluntary enlistment measures were judged to be insufficient. Between 1775 and 1781, the regular army increased from 48,000 to 110,000. Two acts were passed, the
Recruiting Act 1778
The Recruiting Act 1778 (18 Geo.3 c.53) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which created a bounty system for volunteers and instituted impressment to recruit more soldiers for the Army and Royal Marines. The Act received royal assent ...
and the
Recruiting Act 1779
The Recruiting Act 1779 (19 Geo.3 c.10) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. It was a press Act for the recruiting of his Majesty's Land Forces. After the losses in the American Revolutionary War and the apprehended hostilities with Fra ...
, for the impression of individuals into the British Army. The chief advantages of these acts was in the number of volunteers brought in under the apprehension of impressment. To avoid impressment, some recruits incapacitated themselves by cutting off the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, making it impossible to use a
musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...
or
sword
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...
. The Recruiting Act of 1779 was repealed on 26 May 1780, and army impressment was permanently discontinued.
During the experiment, the British government allowed army impressment under severely restricted circumstances — both acts emphasized volunteering over impressment, and offered strong incentives to volunteers as a "
carrot and stick" tactic, to encourage the men to volunteer lest they be pressed instead. The impressment portion of the 1778 Act applied only to Scotland and the area around London, excluding Wales and the rest of England, to avoid interfering with harvesting. The 1779 Act applied to all of Great Britain, but was initially suspended everywhere except the area around London, and actually applied to all of Great Britain for only six months, until the 1779 act was repealed in May 1780, and army impressment ceased in Britain.
Unlike naval impressment, army impressment applied only to "able-bodied idle, and disorderly Persons, who could not, upon Examination, prove themselves to exercise and industriously follow some lawful Trade or Employment, or to have some Substance sufficient for their Support and Maintenance", as well as smugglers, according to the 1778 law, but excluding from that any men who were voters, or harvest workers. The 1779 law extended impressment also to "incorrigible rogues" who had abandoned their families, and left them as expenses on the parish.
[Curtis, chapter 3.] Impressed apprentices were released under appeal from their masters, and impressed foreigners were released when requested by their countries' embassies.
In popular culture
Literature
*''
Poor Jack
''Poor Jack'' is a novel by the English author Frederick Marryat, published in 1840.
It tells the story of Thomas Saunders, a sailor's son and neglected street urchin struggling to survive in Greenwich, London in the early 19th century. ("Poor ...
'' (1840) by
Frederick Marryat
Captain Frederick Marryat (10 July 1792 – 9 August 1848) was a Royal Navy officer, a novelist, and an acquaintance of Charles Dickens. He is noted today as an early pioneer of nautical fiction, particularly for his semi-autobiographical novel ...
, features a scene in which a press-gang board a merchantman and collar a young sailor below decks. When brought on deck he finds he has been impressed by his own brother.
*The events in
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many st ...
's novel ''
Sylvia's Lovers
''Sylvia's Lovers'' (1863) is a novel written by Elizabeth Gaskell, which she called "the saddest story I ever wrote".
Plot summary
The novel begins in the 1790s in the coastal town of Monkshaven (modeled on Whitby, England) against the backgro ...
'' (1863) take place against the background of the practice of impressment during the early phases of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. Charlie Kinraid is forcibly enlisted in the Royal Navy by a press gang and later Sylvia Robson's father is executed for leading a revengeful raid on press-gang collaborators.
*In
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
's novel ''
Billy Budd, Sailor
''Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)'' is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, left unfinished at his death in 1891. Acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece when a hastily transcribed version was finally published in 1924, it quick ...
'', first published in 1924, and in the
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
and
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
based on it, Billy is impressed to service on a British warship from the ''Rights-of-Man'', a merchant ship.
* In ''
A Ship of the Line
''A Ship of the Line'' is an historical seafaring novel by C. S. Forester. It follows his fictional hero Horatio Hornblower during his tour as captain of a ship of the line. By internal chronology, ''A Ship of the Line'', which follows ''The ...
'' by
C. S. Forester
Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (27 August 1899 – 2 April 1966), known by his pen name Cecil Scott "C. S." Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series depicting a Roya ...
, Captain
Horatio Hornblower
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films, radio and television programmes, an ...
is depicted, when urgently needing sailors to make up his crew, as stopping a ship of the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
and impressing a large part of its sailors – the sailors being very reluctant, since conditions in the Royal navy ships were far worse than in those of the civilian Company.
*In
China Miéville's 2002 novel ''
The Scar'', many members of The Armada society are pressganged from various ships to live on the floating colony. Miéville favours the word "pressganged" and has used it in numerous works of fiction to refer to people compelled to join some organisation or faction against their wills for political purposes.
![The liberty of the subject by James Gillray](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/The_liberty_of_the_subject_by_James_Gillray.jpg)
Poetry
*
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.
Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...
's first published poem, "On the Cruelty of Forcement to Man" (c. 1812, when she was six years old), addressed impressment.
* John Ashton's 1888 compilation ''Modern Street Ballads'' includes "Victory", relating the plight of a young aristocratic lady whose parents, disapproving of her poor suitor, arrange to have him pressed to service aboard
Lord Nelson's
flagship of that name, aboard which he is killed at the
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...
.
Caricature
*
James Gillray (1756-1815); Caricaturist, portrays impressment by the visual satire in his engraving "The Liberty of the Subject" (October 15 1779).
Music
* The narrator of the folk song
Lowlands of Holland
The Lowlands of Holland (Roud 484) is a Scottish folk song in which a young woman sings about her husband, who was conscripted or "pressed" by the English into an Anglo-Dutch conflict in Europe or the West Indies.
In 1741 James Oswald published ...
is a woman whose husband has been impressed.
* Garage punk band
The Murder City Devils
The Murder City Devils is an American garage rock band formed in 1996.
History
The band's original lineup, consisting of Spencer Moody, Dann Gallucci, Derek Fudesco, Coady Willis, and Nate Manny, formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1996. Gabe Ke ...
' song "Press Gang", from their album ''In Name and Blood'', is about a man who becomes "a victim of the press gang", a group of soldiers which brings him from a ship at sea to a town and publicly hangs him for unnamed offenses.
* Folk singer
Richard Digance
Richard Digance (pronounced DYE-jance; born 24 February 1949) is an English comedian and folk singer.
Early life
Digance was born in Plaistow, East London. After his family moved to nearby East Ham, he attended Vicarage Lane Primary School ...
wrote "I Hear The Pressgang", describing the tale of a man forcibly enlisted into the Royal Navy who later drowned at sea. The song asks who will look after his wife, child and farm whilst he is gone.
* The title track of
The Unthanks
The Unthanks (until 2009 called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset) are an English folk group known for their eclectic approach in combining traditional English folk, particularly Northumbrian folk music, with other musical genres."They may call ...
album
Here's the Tender Coming
''Here's the Tender Coming'', the third album by English folk group the Unthanks, and the first under The Unthanks moniker, was released in the United Kingdom on 14 September 2009 and in North America on 23 March 2010. It was Folk Album of t ...
describes the pressing of men into service.
Cinema
* ''
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film)'': One night in Portsmouth, England in 1787, a press gang breaks into a local tavern and presses all of the men drinking there into naval service.
* ''
H.M.S. Defiant
''H.M.S. Defiant'' (released as ''Damn the Defiant!'' in the United States) is a British naval war CinemaScope and Technicolor film from 1962 starring Alec Guinness and Dirk Bogarde. It tells the story of a mutiny aboard the fictitious ship ...
'' (Lewis Gilbert, 1962): the opening scene depicts a press gang in Spithead, England, during the Napoleonic Wars forcibly recruiting men at night in pubs or in the street. Later, we see them on the deck being "compulsorily enlisted".
See also
*
Blood tribute
The so-called "blood tribute" ( pt, tributo de sangue) was how forced recruitment into the Brazilian Armed Forces was known until the introduction of mandatory military service based on the Sortition Law in 1916. An older law had already establ ...
*
Conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
*
Draft evasion
Draft evasion is any successful attempt to elude a government-imposed obligation to serve in the military forces of one's nation. Sometimes draft evasion involves refusing to comply with the military draft laws of one's nation. Illegal draft ev ...
*
Impressment in Nova Scotia
*
King's shilling
The King's shilling, sometimes called the Queen's shilling when the Sovereign is female, is a historical slang term referring to the earnest payment of one shilling given to recruits to the Armed forces of the United Kingdom in the 18th, 19th and 2 ...
, a token given to someone as a sign of impressment
*
Knowles Riot
The Knowles Riot, also known as the Impressment Riot of 1747, was a three-day riot in Boston that began on 17 November 1747, in response to the impressment of 46 Bostonians by Admiral Charles Knowles into the navy. Hundreds of mostly working-cla ...
, 1747 impressment riot in Boston
*
Military recruitment
Military recruitment refers to the activity of attracting people to, and selecting them for, military training and employment.
Demographics
Gender
Across the world, a large majority of recruits to state armed forces and non-state armed ...
*
Quota System (Royal Navy), a companion approach to manning the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars
*
Roundup (history)
A roundup is a police operation of interpellation and arrest of people taken at random from a public place, or targeting a particular population by ethnicity, appearance, or other perceived membership in a targeted group. To ensure operat ...
*
Shanghaiing
References
Informational notes
Citations
Bibliography
* Brunsman, Denver, "The Evil Necessity: British Naval Impressment in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World" (Univ. of Virginia Press: 2013)
* Cray, Robert E., "Remembering the USS ''Chesapeake'': The Politics of Maritime. Death and Impressment," ''Journal of the Early Republic'' (Fall 2005) vol 25 pp 445–74.
* Curtis, Edward, ''The Organization of the British Army in the American Revolution''. 1972,
* Dancy, J. Ross. ''The Myth of the Press Gang: Volunteers, Impressment and the Naval Manpower'' (2015)
* Ennis, Daniel James. ''Enter the Press-Gang: Naval Impressment in Eighteenth-Century British Literature'' (University of Delaware Press, 2002).
* Lewis, Michael. ''A Social History of the Navy 1793-1815'' (1960).
* Mercer, Keith. "North Atlantic Press Gangs: Impressment and Naval-civilian Relations in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, 1749--1815"
PhD Dissertation, Dalhousie U, 2008) online free* Miller, Nathan. ''Sea of Glory'', 1974,
* Nash, Gary, ''The Urban Crucible, The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution'', 1986,
*
Rodger, N. A. M.
Nicholas Andrew Martin Rodger FSA FRHistS FBA (born 12 November 1949) is a historian of the Royal Navy and senior research fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
Life and academia
The son of Lieutenant Commander Ian Alexander Rodger, Royal Navy ...
''The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy.'' W. W. Norton and Company, 1986.
* Rodger, N. A. M. ''The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815.'' W. W. Norton and Company, 2004.
* Rogers, Nicholas "The Press Gang: Naval Impressment and its Opponents in Georgian Britain" (2007)
* Sawtell, Clement Cleveland, "Impressment of American Seamen by the British," ''Essex Institute Historical Collections'' 76#4 (October 1940): pp. 314–44.
* Selement, George. "Impressment and the American Merchant Marine 1782–1812: an American View." ''The Mariner's Mirror'' 59#4 (1973): 409–418.
* Smith, Page, ''A new age now begins'', 1976,
*
* Steel, Anthony. "Anthony Merry and the Anglo-American Dispute about Impressment, 1803-6." ''Cambridge Historical Journal'' 9#3 (1949): 331-51
online
*
External links
*
basic article on "press gangs" in British ports, charged with impressing sailors into the Navy.
example of impressment of HMS ''Pandora'' crew in 1790
PBS documentary on War of 1812 with chapter on impressment
{{Authority control
History of the Royal Navy
American Revolution
Conscription in the United Kingdom
Conscription in the United States
War of 1812
Slave soldiers