Impressment
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Impressment (colloquially, "press-ganging") is the act of conscripting people to serve in the military or navy. It was used by the Royal Navy during the 18th century and early 19th century in time of war as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to the time of King Edward I. The Royal Navy impressed many British merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other nations of the world. People liable to impressment were eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 55 years, though very rarely non-seamen were impressed as well. If they believed that they were impressed unfairly, pressed men were able to submit appeals to the Admiralty, and those appeals were often successful. It is also important to note that the navy had little interest in impressing people who were not ordinary or able seamen, since they would be of little use on board a ship.
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[edit] Recruiting and desertion
Working and living conditions for the average sailor in the Royal Navy in the middle of the 18th century, though harsh by modern standards, were generally better than conditions on British merchant ships (and often better than conditions on land for the poor), but pay was normally lower. The main problem with recruiting, though, was a simple lack of qualified seamen at time of war, when it was necessary to launch many additional warships — privateers, the navy, and the merchant marine all competed for a small pool of ordinary and able seamen in wartime, and all three groups were usually short-handed. Impressment sometimes forced sailors to serve on navy ships when they did not want to, but on the other hand, it also gave them an exit from their engagement with merchant ships, with full back-salary paid by the merchant. All three groups also dealt with high levels of desertion, as seamen moved about frequently looking for the best deal and most comfortable working conditions. In the middle of the 18th century, desertion rates on naval ships were about the same for volunteers and pressed men, starting high, then falling heavily after a few months onboard a ship, and generally becoming negligible after a year — navy pay ran months or years in arrears, and desertion might mean not only abandoning companions in the ships company, but also the loss of a large amount of money already earned (though authorities were sometimes lenient on this point). If a navy ship had taken a prize, a deserting seaman would also forfeit his share of the prize money.
[edit] The Impress Service and impressment at sea
The Impress Service was formed to force sailors to serve on naval vessels (there was no concept of joining the navy for non-officers at the time), based legally on the 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). The Royal Navy also impressed seamen from inbound British merchant ships at sea, though this was done by individual warships rather than the Impress Service. Impressment, particularly press gangs, were consistently unpopular with the British public (as well as the American colonies), and local officials often acted against them, to the point of imprisoning officers from the Impressment Service or opposing them by force of arms. It is important to note, though, that about half of the seamen the Impressment Service brought in were volunteers, not pressed men (though some might have volunteered to make the best of a bad situation, avoiding impressment and collecting the volunteer bounty), and that popular captains and other naval officers were often petitioned by sailors to be allowed to join their ships' companies.
Impressment was usually abandoned in peacetime, since there was a surplus of seamen available and willing to work in the navy, and merchant ship salaries usually fell, making them a less attractive alternative.
[edit] Conflict with the United States
In the late 1700s and early 1800s, particularly after the American Revolution and French Revolution, 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. The Royal Navy did not recognize naturalized American citizenship, treating anyone born a British subject as "British" — as a result, the Royal Navy impressed over 6,000 sailors during the early 1800s who were claimed as American citizens as well as British subjects. This was one of several factors leading to the War of 1812 in North America.
In 1794, the Jay Treaty was ratified by Congress. The treaty, negotiated with Britain by John Jay, defused a situation that could have led to war. However, the treaty neglected to address British impressment of American sailors, which caused many American citizens to disapprove greatly. This controversy helped bring about the rise of political parties in the United States.
[edit] End of impressment
British impressment ended in practice after 1814, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars — the Royal Navy fought no major naval actions again until World War I, a century later, when conscription was used for all the military services. The last law concerning impressment was passed in 1835, and limited the length of service of a pressed man to five years and added the provison that a man could not be pressed twice. The various laws authorising impressment have not been repealed.
[edit] See also
- Able Seaman
- Conscription
- Ordinary Seaman
- Shanghaiing
- Lapanka - World War II impressing of civilians for forced labor in Germany.
[edit] External links
- The Impress Service, article on "press gangs" in British ports, charged with impressing sailors into the Navy
- Pressed Men: example of impressment of HMS Pandora crew in 1790
[edit] References
- N.A.M. Roger. The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy. W.W. Norton and Company, 1986.
