IMPRESSMENT

'Impressment' (colloquially, "''press-ganging''") is the act of conscripting people to serve in the military or navy, usually by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664, 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. 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. The navy had little interest in impressing people who were not ordinary or able seamen, since they would be of no use on board a ship.
Impressment was strongly criticized by those who believed it contrary to the British constitution, but as it was deemed vital to the strength of the navy and, by extension, to the survival of the realm, it was repeatedly upheld by the courts. The impressment of seamen from American ships caused serious tensions between Britain and the United States in the years leading up to the War of 1812. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, Britain ended the practice and never resumed.

Contents

Recruiting and desertion

The Impress Service and impressment at sea

Conflict with the United States

End of impressment

See also

External links

References

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 ship's 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.

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 in 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. However, 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 popular captains and other naval officers were often petitioned by sailors to be allowed to join their ships' companies.
In addition to impressment, England also used the Quota System (or ''The Quod'') from 1795 to 1815, where 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 or inexperienced landsmen serving on board ship.
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.

Conflict with the United States

In 1795 the Jay Treaty went into effect, addressing many issues left unresolved after the American Revolution and averting a renewed conflict. However, the treaty neglected to address British impressment of sailors from American ships and ports, a major cause of complaint among those who disapproved of the treaty.
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. The Royal Navy did not recognize naturalized American citizenship, treating anyone born a British subject as still "British" — as a result, the Royal Navy impressed over 6,000 sailors who were claimed as American citizens, as well as British subjects. While not directly mentioned as a reason for the declaration of war in the War of 1812, impressment certainly caused serious diplomatic tension and helped to turn American public opinion against Britain.

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; it 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.

See also

★ Quota System — a companion approach to manning the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

★ Able Seaman

★ Conscription

★ Ordinary Seaman

★ Shanghaiing

★ Lapanka — World War II impressing of civilians for forced labor in Germany.

★ H.M.S. ''Defiant'' - A novel, later made into the movie ''Damn the Defiant!'', which depicts impressment. The various Aubrey and Maturin books of Patrick O'Brian also deal with impressment on occasion.

External links

★ The Impress Service, article on "press gangs" in British ports, charged with impressing sailors into the Navy. The article is not totally accurate, however.

★ Pressed Men: example of impressment of HMS ''Pandora'' crew in 1790.

References

★ Cray, Robert E., “Remembering the USS ''Chesapeake'': The Politics of Maritime. Death and Impressment,” ''Journal of the Early Republic'' (Fall 2005) vol 25

★ N.A.M. Roger. ''The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy.'' W.W. Norton and Company, 1986.

★ Anthony Steel, "Impressment in the Monroe-Pinkney Negotiation, 1806-1807," ''The American Historical Review,'' Vol. 57, No. 2 (Jan., 1952), pp. 352-369 online in JSTOR

★ Roland G. Usher, Jr. "Royal Navy Impressment During the American Revolution," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 37, No. 4 (Mar., 1951), pp. 673-688 online in JSTOR