Impressment

Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is a type of conscription of people into a military force, especially a naval force, via intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group. The navies of several European nations used various means of impressment starting in the late 16th century and continuing into the 19th century. The large size of the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail meant that impressment was most commonly associated with Great Britain and Ireland. 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 warships, although legal sanction for the practice can be traced back to the time of Edward I of England.
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 criticised 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 utilized forms of forced recruitment in times of war, it was generally an extension of their formal conscription practices applied during the Napoleonic Wars and onwards.
The impressment of seamen from American ships caused serious tensions between Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. One of the 27 colonial grievances enumerated in the Declaration of Independence directly highlights the practice: "He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands." It was again a cause of tension leading up to the War of 1812.

Origins

During the feudal period, all men were expected to defend the realm when called upon, and impressment was a normal practice in the navies and the armies of medieval Europe. In England, in the early part of the 17th century, ideas about personal liberty and the limited power of the state began to develop, and by the time the Civil War erupted in 1642, the impressment of soldiers had already been abolished. Parliament however, considered the navy too valuable to make similar concessions for sailors. Further revolutions in 1649, 1660 and 1688 did nothing to change that with successive regimes arriving at the same conclusion.
Army recruitment in England from that point, relied entirely upon volunteers, who received a bounty. Certain criminals were also permitted to join, in return for a pardon. A limited form of impressment in the British Army was briefly reintroduced in 1778 but only for men who were not in lawful employment and who had no substance sufficient for their support and maintenance. Additionally, they had to be fit and able-bodied, between the ages of 17 and 45, and over 5’4” in height. The act was amended the following year to include men who had abandoned their families and left them to the mercy of the parish. The age and height restrictions were also changed to between 16 and 50, and over 5’3”. However, the acts were repealed in May 1780. The acts also improved pay and conditions for volunteers but these positive advancements were retained.
As Britain grew into a world power, her navy became more important. The demands placed on it to protect trade and the colonies led to a massive increase in the number of ships, which had to be manned. Alternatives to impressment were tried but none were as effective and so it continued despite the prevalent conception of liberty among the British people. The press, as it was often shortened to, was therefore universally disliked.. Even the authorities were hostile; local councillors would often refuse to ratify press warrants, Judges and juries repeatedly acquitted men under trial for murder, because they had justifiably resisted the invasion of their personal liberties by press-gangs, and the Admiralty thought the whole process inefficient.
Before 1778, Royal Navy captains were responsible for recruiting, including impressment when required, their own crews. This burden was lessened somewhat, shortly before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, when the Comptroller of the Navy, Sir Charles Middleton introduced the Impress Service.

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. For major voyages, shipowners and governments routinely estimated that 50% of the sailors would die due to scurvy. 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 it 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.
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.
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. Privateers, 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, which included both pressed men and volunteers. The impressment service was responsible for raising 36,963 of those, of which 16,953 were pressed men and 20,370 were listed as volunteers.
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, although this threat was rarely carried out, whereas pressed men were simply returned to service. There was however, very little difference in the percentage of desertions from the two groups and some pressed men, who had initially petitioned for release had elected to remain in the service by the time their case was heard. Other records confirm similar percentages throughout the 18th century.
Average annual recruitment 1736–1783

Dates	Period	Royal Navy	Privateer	Merchant	Total
1736–1738	Peacetime	14,845		35,239	50,084
1739–1748	War of Jenkins' Ear	43,303	2,602	30,392	76,297
1753–1755	Peacetime	17,369		40,862	58,231
1756–1763	Seven Years' War	74,771	3,286	37,584	115,641
1773–1775	Peacetime	18,540		50,903	69,443
1775–1783	American Revolutionary War	67,747	3,749	44,947	116,443

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 Royal Navy 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

The Impress Service was a permanent shore-based organisation with three main functions: to recruit volunteers, to press men into service, and to control desertion by rounding up stragglers and drunks who were already serving in the navy. 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 and "failure to allow oneself to be pressed" was punishable by hanging, although the punishment became less severe over time.
In Elizabethan times a statute regulated impressment as a form of recruitment, and with the introduction of the Vagabonds Act 1597, men of disrepute found themselves drafted into service. The Navigation Act 1703 limited the impressment of boys under 18 years of age to those who were not apprenticed. The Exemption from Impressment Act 1739 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 that 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.
File:Captain John Quilliam RN.jpg|thumb|left|Captain John Quilliam RN. Quilliam was impressed into the Royal Navy in 1794. Unlike most impressed sailors, Quilliam rose rapidly in the Royal Navy and by 1797 had attained the rank of midshipman. He served with distinction at the Battle of Trafalgar, as first lieutenant on HMS Victory, before being promoted to the rank of captain, serving on the Newfoundland Station. He retired from the Royal Navy in 1815.
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 and ran the risk of physical assault. One press gang leader, working in the fishing ports of Mousehole and Newlyn in Cornwall, wrote that he was severely beaten by three or four men who also attempted to hang him. After escaping, he sent his servant to fetch a local constable for assistance, whereupon the townsfolk of Newlyn "fell on my man, knocked him off , broke his head and threw him over a cliff so that he was taken up dead."