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diff --git a/6766.txt b/6766.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58fb188 --- /dev/null +++ b/6766.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10784 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore, by John R. Hutchinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore + +Author: John R. Hutchinson + + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6766] +This file was first posted on January 24, 2003 +Last Updated: June 14, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRESS-GANG AFLOAT AND ASHORE *** + + + + +Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from +images generously made available by the CWRU Preservation +Department Digital Library. + + + + + + + + + +THE PRESS-GANG AFLOAT AND ASHORE + +By J. R. Hutchinson + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. HOW THE PRESS-GANG CAME IN. + +II. WHY THE GANG WAS NECESSARY. + +III. WHAT THE PRESS-GANG WAS. + +IV. WHOM THE GANG MIGHT TAKE. + +V. WHAT THE GANG DID AFLOAT. + +VI. EVADING THE GANG. + +VII. WHAT THE GANG DID ASHORE. + +VIII. AT GRIPS WITH THE GANG. + +IX. THE GANG AT PLAY. + +X. WOMEN AND THE PRESS-GANG. + +XI. IN THE CLUTCH OF THE GANG. + +XII. HOW THE GANG WENT OUT. + +APPENDIX: ADMIRAL YOUNG'S TORPEDO. + +INDEX + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS: + + + +AN UNWELCOME VISIT FROM THE PRESS GANG. + +MANNING THE NAVY. Reproduced by kind permission from a rare print in the +collection of Mr. A. M. BROADLEY. + +THE PRESS-GANG SEIZING A VICTIM. + +SEIZING A WATERMAN ON TOWER HILL ON THE MORNING OF HIS WEDDING DAY. + +JACK IN THE BILBOES. From the Painting by MORLAND. + +ONE OF THE RAREST OF PRESS-GANG RECORDS. A play-bill announcing the +suspension of the Gang's operations on "Play Nights," in the collection +of Mr. A. M. BROADLEY, by whose kind permission it is reproduced. + +SAILORS CAROUSING. From the Mezzotint after J. IBBETSON. + +ANNE MILLS WHO SERVED ON BOARD THE _MAIDSTONE_ IN 1740. + +MARY ANNE TALBOT. + +MARY ANNE TALBOT DRESSED AS A SAILOR. + +THE PRESS GANG, OR ENGLISH LIBERTY DISPLAYED. + +ADMIRAL YOUNG'S TORPEDO. Reproduced from the Original Drawing at the +Public Record Office. + + + + + +THE PRESS-GANG. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +HOW THE PRESS-GANG CAME IN. + + + +The practice of pressing men--that is to say, of taking by intimidation +or force those who will not volunteer--would seem to have been +world-wide in its adoption. + +Wherever man desired to have a thing done, and was powerful enough +to insure the doing of it, there he attained his end by the simple +expedient of compelling others to do for him what he, unaided, could not +do for himself. + +The individual, provided he did not conspire in sufficient numbers to +impede or defeat the end in view, counted only as a food-consuming atom +in the human mass which was set to work out the purpose of the master +mind and hand. His face value in the problem was that of a living wage. +If he sought to enhance his value by opposing the master hand, the +master hand seized him and wrung his withers. + +So long as the compelling power confined the doing of the things it +desired done to works of construction, it met with little opposition +in its designs, experienced little difficulty in coercing the labour +necessary for piling its walls, excavating its tanks, raising its +pyramids and castles, or for levelling its roads and building its ships +and cities. These were the commonplace achievements of peace, at +which even the coerced might toil unafraid; for apart from the normal +incidence of death, such works entailed little danger to the lives +of the multitudes who wrought upon them. Men could in consequence be +procured for them by the exercise of the minimum of coercion--by, that +is to say, the mere threat of it. + +When peace went to the wall and the pressed man was called upon to go to +battle, the case assumed another aspect, an acuter phase. Given a state +of war, the danger to life and limb, the incidence of death, at once +jumped enormously, and in proportion as these disquieting factors in the +pressed man's lot mounted up, just in that proportion did his opposition +to the power that sought to take him become the more determined, +strenuous, and undisguised. + +Particularly was this true of warlike operations upon the sea, for to +the extraordinary and terrible risks of war were here added the ordinary +but ever-present dangers of wind and wave and storm, sufficient in +themselves to appal the unaccustomed and to antagonise the unwilling. +In face of these superlative risks the difficulty of procuring men was +accentuated a thousand-fold, and with it both the nature and the degree +of the coercive force necessary to be exercised for their procuration. + +In these circumstances the Ruling Power had no option but to resort +to more exigent means of attaining its end. In times of peace, working +through myriad hands, it had constructed a thousand monuments of +ornamental or utilitarian industry. These, with the commonweal they +represented, were now threatened and must be protected at all costs. +What more reasonable than to demand of those who had built, or of +their successors in the perpetual inheritance of toil, that they should +protect what they had reared. Hitherto, in most cases, the men required +to meet the national need had submitted at a threat. They had to live, +and coercive toil meant at least a living wage. Now, made rebellious by +a fearful looking forward to the risks they were called upon to incur, +they had to be met by more effective measures. Faced by this emergency, +Power did not mince matters. It laid violent hands upon the unwilling +subject and forced him, _nolens volens_, to sail its ships, to man its +guns, and to fight its battles by sea as he already, under less overt +compulsion, did its bidding by land. + +It is with this phase of pressing--pressing open, violent and +unashamed--that we purpose here to deal, and more particularly with +pressing as it applies to the sea and sailors, to the Navy and the +defence of an Island Kingdom. + +At what time the pressing of men for the sea service of the Crown was +first resorted to in these islands it is impossible to determine. There +is evidence, however, that the practice was not only in vogue, but +firmly established as an adjunct of power, as early as the days of the +Saxon kings. It was, in fact, coeval with feudalism, of which it may be +described as a side-issue incidental to a maritime situation; for though +it is impossible to point to any species of fee, as understood of the +tenure of land, under which the holder was liable to render service at +sea, yet it must not be forgotten that the great ports of the kingdom, +and more especially the Cinque Ports, were from time immemorial bound +to find ships for national purposes, whenever called upon to do so, in +return for the peculiar rights and privileges conferred upon them by +the Crown. The supply of ships necessarily involved the supply of men +to sail and fight them, and in this supply, or, rather, in the mode +of obtaining it, we have undoubtedly the origin of the later impress +system. + +With the reign of John the practice springs into sudden prominence. +The incessant activities of that uneasy king led to almost incessant +pressing, and at certain crises in his reign commission after commission +is directed, in feverish succession, to the sheriffs of counties and the +bailiffs of seaports throughout the kingdom, straitly enjoining them +to arrest and stay all ships within their respective jurisdictions, and +with the ships the mariners who sail them. [Footnote: By a plausible +euphemism they were said to be "hired." As a matter of fact, both +ships and men were retained during the royal pleasure at rates fixed by +custom.] No exception was taken to these edicts. Long usage rendered the +royal lien indefeasible. [Footnote: In more modern times the pressing +of ships, though still put forward as a prerogative of the Crown, was +confined in the main to unforeseen exigencies of transport. On the fall +of Louisburg in 1760, vessels were pressed at that port in order to +carry the prisoners of war to France (_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1491--Capt. +Byron, 17 June 1760); and in 1764, again, we find Capt. Brereton, of the +_Falmouth_, forcibly impressing the East India ship _Revenge_ for +the purpose of transporting to Fort St. George, in British India, +the company, numbering some four hundred and twenty-one souls, of the +_Siam_, then recently condemned at Manilla as unseaworthy.--_Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1498--Letters of Capt. Brereton, 1764.] + +In the carrying out of the royal commands there was consequently, at +this stage in the development of pressing, little if any resort to +direct coercion. From the very nature of the case the principle of +coercion was there, but it was there only in the bud. The king's right +to hale whom he would into his service being practically undisputed, a +threat of reprisals in the event of disobedience answered all purposes, +and even this threat was as yet more often implied than openly +expressed. King John was perhaps the first to clothe it in words. +Requisitioning the services of the mariners of Wales, a notoriously +disloyal body, he gave the warrant, issued in 1208, a severely minatory +turn. "Know ye for certain," it ran, "that if ye act contrary to this, +we will cause you and the masters of your vessels to be hanged, and all +your goods to be seized for our use." + +At this point in the gradual subjection of the seaman to the needs of +the nation, defensive or the contrary, we are confronted by an event +as remarkable in its nature as it is epoch-making in its consequences. +Magna Charta was sealed on the 13th of June 1215, and within a year of +that date, on, namely, the 14th of April then next ensuing, King John +issued his commission to the barons of twenty-two seaports, requiring +them, in terms admitting of neither misconstruction nor compromise, +to arrest all ships, and to assemble those ships, together with their +companies, in the River of Thames before a certain day. [Footnote: +Hardy, _Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum_, 1833.] This wholesale embargo upon +the shipping and seamen of the nation, imposed as it was immediately +after the ensealing of Magna Charta, raises a question of great +constitutional interest. In what sense, and to what extent, was the +Charter of English Liberties intended to apply to the seafaring man? + +Essentially a tyrant and a ruthless promise-breaker, John's natural +cruelty would in itself sufficiently account for the dire penalties +threatened under the warrant of 1208; but neither his tyranny, his +faithlessness of character, nor his very human irritation at +the concessions wrung from him by his barons, can explain to our +satisfaction why, having granted a charter affirming and safeguarding +the liberties of, ostensibly, every class of his people, he should +immediately inflict upon one of those classes, and that, too, the one +least of all concerned in his historic dispute, the pains of a most +rigorous impressment. The only rational explanation of his conduct is, +that in thus acting he was contravening no convention, doing violence to +no covenant, but was, on the contrary, merely exercising, in accordance +with time-honoured usage, an already well-recognised, clearly denned and +firmly seated prerogative which the great charter he had so recently put +his hand to was in no sense intended to limit or annul. + +This view of the case is confirmed by subsequent events. Press warrants, +identical in every respect save one with the historic warrant of 1216, +continued to emanate from the Crown long after King John had gone to his +account, and, what is more to the point, to emanate unchallenged. Stubbs +himself, our greatest constitutional authority, repeatedly admits as +much. Every crisis in the destinies of the Island Kingdom--and they were +many and frequent--produced its batch of these procuratory documents, +every batch its quota of pressed men. The inference is plain. The +mariner was the bondsman of the sea, and to him the _Nullus liber homo +capiatur_ clause of the Great Charter was never intended to apply. In +his case a dead-letter from the first, it so remained throughout the +entire chapter of his vicissitudes. + +The chief point wherein the warrants of later times differed from those +of King John was this: As time went on the penalties they imposed on +those who resisted the press became less and less severe. The death +penalty fell into speedy disuse, if, indeed, it was ever inflicted at +all. Imprisonment for a term of from one to two years, with forfeiture +of goods, was held to meet all the exigencies of the case. Gradually +even this modified practice underwent amelioration, until at length +it dawned upon the official intelligence that a seaman who was free +to respond to the summons of the boatswain's whistle constituted an +infinitely more valuable physical asset than one who cursed his king and +his Maker in irons. All punishment of the condign order, for contempt +or resistance of the press, now went by the board, and in its stead the +seaman was merely admonished in paternal fashion, as in a Proclamation +of 1623, to take the king's shilling "dutifully and reverently" when it +was tendered to him. + +In its apparent guilelessness the admonition was nevertheless woefully +deceptive. Like the subdued beat of drum by which, some five years +later, the seamen of London were lured to Tower Hill, there to be seized +and thrown bodily into the waiting fleet, it masked under its mild +exterior the old threat of coercion in a new form. The ancient pains and +penalties were indeed no more; but for the back of the sailor who was +so ill-advised as to defy the press there was another rod in pickle. He +could now be taken forcibly. + +For side by side with the negative change involved in the abolition +of the old punishments, there had been in progress, throughout the +intervening centuries, a positive development of far worse omen for the +hapless sailor-man. The root-principle of direct coercion, necessarily +inherent in any system that seeks to foist an arbitrary and obnoxious +status upon any considerable body of men, was slowly but surely bursting +into bud. The years that had seen the unprested seaman freed from the +dread of the yardarm and the horrors of the forepeak, had bred a new +terror for him. Centuries of usage had strengthened the arm of that +hated personage the Press-Master, and the compulsion which had once +skulked under cover of a threat now threw off its disguise and stalked +the seafaring man for what it really was--Force, open and unashamed. The +_dernier ressort_ of former days was now the first resort. The seafaring +man who refused the king's service when "admonished" thereto had short +shrift. He was "first knocked down, and then bade to stand in the king's +name." Such, literally and without undue exaggeration, was the later +system which, reaching the climax of its insolent pretensions to +justifiable violence in the eighteenth century, for upwards of a hundred +years bestrode the neck of the unfortunate sailor like some monstrous +Old Man of the Sea. + +Outbursts of violent pressing before the dawn of the eighteenth century, +though spasmodic and on the whole infrequent, were not entirely unknown. +Times of national stress were peculiarly productive of them. Thus when, +in 1545, there was reason to fear a French invasion, pressing of the +most violent and unprecedented character was openly resorted to in order +to man the fleet. The class who suffered most severely on that occasion +were the fisher folk of Devon, "the most part" of whom were "taken +as marryners to serve the king." [Footnote: _State Papers_, Henry +VIII.--Lord Russell to the Privy Council, 22 Aug. 1545. Bourne, who +cites the incident in his _Tudor Seamen_, misses the essential point +that the fishermen were forcibly pressed.] + +During the Civil Wars of the next century both parties to the strife +issued press warrants which were enforced with the utmost rigour. The +Restoration saw a marked recrudescence of similar measures. How great +was the need of men at that time, and how exigent the means employed +to procure them, may be gathered from the fact, cited by Pepys, that in +1666 the fleet lay idle for a whole fortnight "without any demand for a +farthing worth of anything, but only to get men." The genial diarist +was deeply moved by the scenes of violence that followed. They were, he +roundly declares, "a shame to think of." + +The origin of the term "pressing," with its cognates "to press" and +"pressed," is not less remarkable than the genesis of the violence it +so aptly describes. Originally the man who was required for the king's +service at sea, like his twin brother the soldier, was not "pressed" +in the sense in which we now use the term. He was merely subjected to a +process called "presting." To "prest" a man meant to enlist him by +means of what was technically known as "prest" money--"prest" being the +English equivalent of the obsolete French _prest_, now _pret_, meaning +"ready." In the recruiter's vocabulary, therefore, "prest" money stood +for what is nowadays, in both services, commonly termed the "king's +shilling," and the man who, either voluntarily or under duress, accepted +or received that shilling at the recruiter's hands, was said to be +"prested" or "prest." In other words, having taken the king's ready +money, he was thenceforth, during the king's pleasure, "ready" for the +king's service. + +By the transfer of the prest shilling from the hand of the recruiter to +the pouch of the seaman a subtle contract, as between the latter and +his sovereign, was supposed to be set up, than which no more solemn or +binding pact could exist save between a man and his Maker. One of the +parties to the contract was more often than not, it is true, a strongly +dissenting party; but although under the common law of the land this +circumstance would have rendered any similar contract null and void, in +this amazing transaction between the king and his "prest" subject it was +held to be of no vitiating force. From the moment the king's shilling, +by whatever means, found its way into the sailor's possession, from that +moment he was the king's man, bound in heavy penalties to toe the +line of duty, and, should circumstances demand it, to fight the king's +enemies to the death, be that fate either theirs or his. + +By some strange irony of circumstance there happened to be in the +English language a word--"pressed"--which tallied almost exactly in +pronunciation with the old French word _prest_, so long employed, as we +have seen, to differentiate from his fellows the man who, by the devious +means we have here described, was made "ready" for the sea service. +"Press" means to constrain, to urge with force--definitions precisely +connoting the development and manner of violent enlistment. Hence, as +the change from covert to overt violence grew in strength, "pressing," +in the mouths of the people at large, came to be synonymous with that +most obnoxious, oppressive and fear-inspiring system of recruiting +which, in the course of time, took the place of its milder and more +humane antecedent, "presting." The "prest" man disappeared, [Footnote: +The Law Officers of the Crown retained him, on paper, until the close +of the eighteenth century--an example in which they were followed by +the Admiralty. To admit his disappearance would have been to knock the +bottom out of their case.] and in his stead there came upon the +scene his later substitute the "pressed" man, "forced," as Pepys so +graphically describes his condition, "against all law to be gone." +An odder coincidence than this gradual substitution of "pressed" for +_prest,_ or one more grimly appropriate in its application, it would +surely be impossible to discover in the whose history of nomenclature. + +With the growth of the power and violence of the impress there was +gradually inaugurated another change, which perhaps played a larger part +than any other feature of the system in making it finally obnoxious to +the nation at large--finally, because, as we shall see, the nation +long endured its exactions with pathetic submission and lamentable +indifference. The incidence of pressing was no longer confined, as in +its earlier stages, to the overflow of the populace upon the country's +rivers, and bays, and seas. Gradually, as naval needs grew in volume and +urgency, the press net was cast wider and wider, until at length, during +the great century of struggle, when the system was almost constantly +working at its highest pressure and greatest efficiency, practically +every class of the population of these islands was subjected to its +merciless inroads, if not decimated by its indiscriminate exactions. + +On the very threshold of the century we stumble upon an episode +curiously indicative of the set of the tide. Czar Peter of Russia had +been recently in England, acquiring a knowledge of English customs +which, on his return home, he immediately began to put in practice. His +navy, such as it was, was wretchedly manned. [Footnote: The navy got +together by Czar Peter had all but disappeared by the time Catherine II. +came to the throne. "Ichabod" was written over the doors of the +Russian Admiralty. Their ships of war were few in number, unseaworthy, +ill-found, ill-manned. Two thousand able-bodied seamen could with +difficulty be got together in an emergency. The nominal fighting +strength of the fleet stood high, but that strength in reality consisted +of men "one half of whom had never sailed out of the Gulf of Finland, +whilst the other half had never sailed anywhere at all." When the fleet +was ordered to sea, the Admiralty "put soldiers on board, and by calling +them sailors persuaded themselves that they really were so."--_State +Papers, Russia,_ vol. lxxvii.--Macartney, Nov. 16-27, 1766.] Russian +serfs made bad sailors and worse seamen. In the English ships thronging +the quays at Archangel there was, however, plenty of good stuff-men who +could use the sea without being sick, men capable of carrying a ship to +her destination without piling her up on the rocks or seeking nightly +shelter under the land. He accordingly pressed every ninth man out of +those ships. + +When news of this high-handed proceeding reached England, it roused the +Queen and her advisers to indignation. Winter though it was, they lost +no time in dispatching Charles Whitworth, a rising diplomat of the +suavest type, as "Envoy Extraordinary to our Good (but naughty) Brother +the Czar of Muscovy," with instructions to demand the release, immediate +and unconditional, of the pressed men. Whitworth found the Czar at +Moscow. The Autocrat of All the Russias listened affably enough to what +he had to say, but refused his demand in terms that left scant room +for doubt as to his sincerity of purpose, and none for protracted +"conversations." "Every Prince," he declared for sole answer, "can take +what he likes out of his own havens." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1436--Capt. J. Anderson's letters and enclosures; _State Papers, +Russia_, vol. iv.--Whitworth to Secretary Harley.] The position thus +taken up was unassailable. Centuries of usage hedged the prerogative in, +and Queen Anne herself, in the few years she had been on the throne, had +not only exercised it with a free hand, but had laid that hand without +scruple upon many a foreign seaman. + +The lengths to which the system had gone by the end of the third quarter +of the century is thrown into vivid relief by two incidents, one of +which occurred in 1726, the other fifty years later. + +In the former year one William Kingston, pressed in the Downs--a man +who hailed from Lyme Regis and habitually "used the sea"--was, +notwithstanding that fact, discharged by express Admiralty order +because he was a "substantial man and had a landed estate." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1473--Capt Charles Browne, 25 March 1726, and +endorsement.] + +The incident of 1776, known as the Duncan case, occurred, or rather +began, at North Shields. Lieutenant Oaks, captain of the press-gang in +that town, one day met in the streets a man who, unfortunately for his +future, "had the appearance of a seaman." He accordingly pressed him; +whereupon the man, whose name was Duncan, produced the title-deeds +of certain house property in London, down Wapping way, worth some six +pounds per annum, and claimed his discharge on the ground that as a +freeholder and a voter he was immune from the press. The lieutenant +laughed the suggestion to scorn, and Duncan was shipped south to the +fleet. + +The matter did not end there. Duncan's friends espoused his cause and +took energetic steps for his release. Threatened with an action at law, +and averse from incurring either unnecessary risks or opprobrium where +pressed men were concerned, the Admiralty referred the case to Mr. +Attorney-General (afterwards Lord) Thurlow for his opinion. + +The point of law Thurlow was called upon to resolve was, "Whether being +a freeholder is an exception from being pressed;" and as Duncan was +represented in counsel's instructions--on what ground, other than his +"appearance," is not clear--to be a man Who habitually used the sea, it +is hardly matter for surprise that the great jurist's opinion, biassed +as it obviously was by that alleged fact, should have been altogether +inimical to the pressed man and favourable to the Admiralty. + +"I see no reason," he writes, in his crabbed hand and nervous diction, +"why men using the sea, and being otherwise fit objects to be impressed +into His Majesty's service, should be exempted only because they +are Freeholders. Nor did I ever read or hear of such an exemption. +Therefore, unless some use or practice, which I am ignorant of, gives +occasion to this doubt, I see no reason for a Mariner being discharged, +seriously, because he is a Freeholder. It's a qualification easily +attained: a single house at Wapping would ship a first-rate man-of-war. +If a Freeholder is exempt, _eo nomine_, it will be impossible to go +on with the pressing service. [Footnote: It would have been equally +impossible to go on with the naval service had the fleet contained many +freeholders like John Barnes. Granted leave of absence from his ship, +the _Neptune,_ early in May, "in order to give his vote in the city," +he "return'd not till the 8th of August."--_Admiralty Records_ 1. +2653--Capt. Whorwood, 23 Aug. 1741.] There is no knowing a Freeholder +by sight: and if claiming that character, or even showing deeds is +sufficient, few Sailors will be without it." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 7. 299--Law Officers' Opinions, 1756-77, No. 64.] + +Backed by this opinion, so nicely in keeping with its own inclinations, +the Admiralty kept the man. Its views, like its practice, had undergone +an antipodal change since the Kingston incident of fifty years before. +And possession, commonly reputed to be nine points of the law, more +than made up for the lack of that element in Mr. Attorney-General's +sophistical reasoning. + +In this respect Thurlow was in good company, for although Coke, who +lived before violent pressing became the rule, had given it as his +opinion that the king could not lawfully press men to serve him in his +wars, the legal luminaries who came after him, and more particularly +those of the eighteenth century, differed from him almost to a man. +Blackstone, whilst admitting that no statute expressly legalised +pressing, reminded the nation--with a leer, we might almost say--that +many statutes strongly implied, and hence--so he put it--amply justified +it. In thus begging the question he had in mind the so-called Statutes +of Exemption which, in protecting from impressment certain persons or +classes of persons, proceeded on the assumption, so dear to the Sea +Lords, that the Crown possessed the right to press all. This also +was the view taken by Yorke, Solicitor-General in 1757. "I take the +prerogative," he declares, "to be most clearly legal." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 7. 298--Law Officers' Opinions, 1733-56, No. 102.] + +Another group of lawyers took similar, though less exalted ground. Of +these the most eminent was that "great oracle of law," Lord Mansfield. +"The power of pressing," he contends, "is founded upon immemorial usage +allowed for ages. If not, it can have no ground to stand upon. The +practice is deduced from that trite maxim of the Constitutional Law +of England, that private mischief had better be submitted to than that +public detriment should ensue." + +The sea-lawyer had yet to be heard. With him "private mischief" counted +for much, the usage of past ages for very little. He lived and suffered +in the present. Of common law he knew nothing, but he possessed a fine +appreciation of common justice, and this forced from him an indictment +of the system that held him in thrall as scathing in its truth, its +simplicity and its logic as it is spontaneous and untutored in its +diction. + +"You confidently tell us," said he, dipping his pen in the gall of +bitterness, "that our King is a father to us and our officers friends. +They are so, we must confess, in some respects, for Indeed they use us +like Children in Whiping us into Obedience. As for English Tars to +be the Legitimate Sons of Liberty, it is an Old Cry which we have +Experienced and Knows it to be False. God knows, the Constitution is +admirable well Callculated for the Safety and Happiness of His Majesty's +Subjects who live by Employments on Shore; but alass, we are not +Considered as Subjects of the same Sovereign, unless it be to Drag us by +Force from our Families to Fight the Battles of a Country which Refuses +us Protection." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--Petitions of the +Seamen of the Fleet, 1797.] + +Such, in rough outline, was the Impress System of the eighteenth +century. In its inception, its development, and more especially in its +extraordinary culmination, it perhaps constitutes the greatest anomaly, +as it undoubtedly constitutes the grossest imposition, any free +people ever submitted to. Although unlawful in the sense of having no +foundation in law, and oppressive and unjust in that it yearly enslaved, +under the most noxious conditions, thousands against their will, it was +nevertheless for more than a hundred years tolerated and fostered as the +readiest, speediest and most effective means humanly devisable for the +manning of a fleet whose toll upon a free people, in the same period +of time, swelled to more than thrice its original bulk. Standing as a +bulwark against aggression and conquest, it ground under its heel the +very people it protected, and made them slaves in order to keep them +free. Masquerading as a protector, it dragged the wage-earner from +his home and cast his starving family upon the doubtful mercies of the +parish. And as if this were not enough, whilst justifying its existence +on the score of public benefit it played havoc with the fisheries, +clipped the wings of the merchant service, and sucked the life-blood out +of trade. + +It was on the rising tide of such egregious contradictions as these that +the press-gang came in; for the press-gang was at once the embodiment +and the active exponent of all that was anomalous or bad in the Impress +System. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WHY THE GANG WAS NECESSARY. + + + +The root of the necessity that seized the British sailor and made of him +what he in time became, the most abject creature and the most efficient +fighting unit the world has ever produced, lay in the fact that he was +island-born. + +In that island a great and vigorous people had sprung into being--a +people great in their ambitions, commerce and dominion; vigorous in +holding what they had won against the assaults, meditated or actual, of +those who envied their greatness and coveted their possessions. Of this +island people, as of their world-wide interests, the "chiefest defence" +was a "good fleet at sea." [Footnote: This famous phrase is used, +perhaps for the first time, by Josiah Burchett, sometime Secretary to +the Admiralty, in his _Observations on the Navy_, 1700.] + +The Peace of Utrecht, marking though it did the close of the protracted +war of the Spanish Succession, brought to the Island Kingdom not peace, +but a sword; for although its Navy was now as unrivalled as its commerce +and empire, the supreme struggle for existence, under the guise of the +mastery of the sea, was only just begun. Decade after decade, as that +struggle waxed and waned but went remorselessly on, the Navy grew in +ships, the ships in tonnage and weight of metal, and with their growth +the demand for men, imperative as the very existence of the nation, +mounted ever higher and higher. In 1756 fifty thousand sufficed for the +nation's needs. By 1780 the number had reached ninety-two thousand; and +with 1802 it touched high-water mark in the unprecedented total of +one hundred and twenty-nine thousand men in actual sea pay. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 7. 567-Navy Progress, 1756-1805. These figures are +below rather than above the mark, since the official returns on which +they are based are admittedly deficient.] + +Beset by this enormous and steadily growing demand, the Admiralty, the +defensive proxy of the nation, had perforce to face the question as to +where and how the men were to be obtained. + +The source of supply was never at any time in doubt. Here, ready to +hand, were some hundreds of thousands of persons using the sea, or +following vocations merging into the sea in the capacity of colliers, +bargemen, boatmen, longshoremen, fishermen and deep-sea sailors or +merchantmen, who constituted the natural Naval Reserve of an Island +Kingdom--a reserve ample, if judiciously drawn upon, to meet, and more +than meet, the Navy's every need. + +The question of means was one more complicated, more delicate, and hence +incomparably more difficult of solution. To draw largely upon these +seafaring classes, numerous and fit though they were, meant detriment +to trade, and if the Navy was the fist, trade was the backbone of the +nation. The sufferings of trade, moreover, reacted unpleasantly upon +those in power at Whitehall. Methods of procuration must therefore be +devised of a nature such as to insure that neither trade nor Admiralty +should suffer--that they should, in fact, enjoy what the unfortunate +sailor never knew, some reasonable measure of ease. + +In its efforts to extricate itself and trade from the complex +difficulties of the situation, Admiralty had at its back what an +eighteenth century Beresford would doubtless have regarded as the finest +talent of the service. Neither the unemployed admiral nor the half-pay +captain had at that time, in his enforced retirement at Bath or +Cheltenham, taken seriously to parliamenteering, company promoting, +or the concocting of pedigrees as a substitute for walking the +quarter-deck. His occupation was indeed gone, but in its stead there +had come to him what he had rarely enjoyed whilst on the active service +list--opportunity. Carried away by the stimulus of so unprecedented +a situation as that afforded by the chance to make himself heard, +he rushed into print with projects and suggestions which would have +revolutionised the naval policy and defence of the country at a stroke +had they been carried into effect. Or he devoted his leisure to the +invention of signal codes, semaphore systems, embryo torpedoes, gun +carriages, and--what is more to our point--methods ostensibly calculated +to man the fleet in the easiest, least oppressive and most expeditious +manner possible for a free people. Armed with these schemes, he +bombarded the Admiralty with all the pertinacity he had shown in his +quarter-deck days in applying for leave or seeking promotion. Many, +perhaps most, of the inventions which it was thus sought to father upon +the Sea Lords, were happily never more heard of; but here and there one, +commending itself by its seeming practicability, was selected for trial +and duly put to the test. + +Fair to look upon while still in the air, these fruits of leisured +superannuation proved deceptively unsound when plucked by the hand of +experiment. Registration, first adopted in 1696, held out undeniable +advantages to the seaman. Under its provisions he drew a yearly +allowance when not required at sea, and extra prize-money when on +active service. Yet the bait did not tempt him, and the system was +soon discarded as useless and inoperative. Bounty, defined by some +sentimentalist as a "bribe to Neptune," for a while made a stronger +appeal; but, ranging as it did from five to almost any number of pounds +under one hundred per head, it proved a bribe indeed, and by putting an +irresistible premium on desertion threatened to decimate the very ships +it was intended to man. In 1795 what was commonly known as the Quota +Scheme superseded it. This was a plan of Pitt's devising, under which +each county contributed to the fleet according to its population, the +quota varying from one thousand and eighty-one men for Yorkshire to +twenty-three for Rutland, whilst a minor Act levied special toll on +seaports, London leading the way with five thousand seven hundred and +four men. Like its predecessor Bounty, however, this mode of recruiting +drained the Navy in order to feed it. Both systems, moreover, possessed +another and more serious defect. When their initial enthusiasm had +cooled, the counties, perhaps from force of habit as component parts of +a country whose backbone was trade, bought in the cheapest market. Hence +the Quota Man, consisting as he generally did of the offscourings of the +merchant service, was seldom or never worth the money paid for him. An +old man-o'-war's-man, picking up a miserable specimen of this class of +recruit by the slack of his ragged breeches, remarked to his grinning +messmates as he dangled the disreputable object before their eyes: +"'Ere's a lubber as cost a guinea a pound!" He was not far out in his +estimate. + +As in the case of the good old method of recruiting by beat of drum and +the lure of the king's shilling, system after system thus failed to draw +into its net, however speciously that net was spread, either the class +or the number of men whose services it was desired to requisition. And +whilst these futilities were working out their own condemnation the +stormcloud of necessity grew bigger and bigger on the national horizon. +Let trade suffer as it might, there was nothing for it but to discard +all new-fangled notions and to revert to the system which the usage +of ages had sanctioned. The return was imperative. Failing what Junius +stigmatised as the "spur of the Press," the right men in the right +numbers were not to be procured. The wisdom of the nation was at fault. +It could find no other way. + +There were, moreover, other reasons why the press-gang was to the Navy +an indispensable appendage--reasons perhaps of little moment singly, +but of tremendous weight in the scale of naval necessity when lumped +together and taken in the aggregate. + +Of these the most prominent was that fatal flaw in naval administration +which Nelson was in the habit of anathematising as the "Infernal +System." Due partly to lack of foresight and false economy at Whitehall, +partly to the character of the sailor himself, it resolved itself into +this, that whenever a ship was paid off and put out of commission, all +on board of her, excepting only her captain and her lieutenants, ceased +to be officially connected with the Navy. Now, as ships were for various +reasons constantly going out of commission, and as the paying off of a +first-second-or third-rate automatically discharged from their country's +employ a body of men many hundreds in number, the "lowering" effects of +such a system, working year in, year out, upon a fleet always in chronic +difficulties for men, may be more readily imagined than described. + +To a certain limited extent the loss to the service was minimised by +a process called "turning over"; that is to say, the company of a +ship paying off was turned over bodily, or as nearly intact as it was +possible to preserve it, to another ship which at the moment chanced to +be ready, or making ready, for sea. Or it might be that the commander of +a ship paying off, transferred to another ship fitting out, carried the +best men of his late command, commonly known as "old standers," along +with him. + +Unfortunately, the occasion of fitting out did not always coincide with +the occasion of paying off; and although turnovers were frequently made +by Admiralty order, there were serious obstacles in the way of their +becoming general. Once the men were paid off, the Admiralty had no +further hold upon them. By a stretch of authority they might, it is +true, be confined to quarters or on board a guardship; but if in these +circumstances they rose in a body and got ashore, they could neither +be retaken nor punished as deserters, but--to use the good old service +term--had to be "rose" again by means of the press-gang. Turnovers, +accordingly, depended mainly upon two closely related circumstances: the +goodwill of the men, and the popularity of commanders. A captain who +was notorious for his use of the lash or the irons, or who was reputed +unlucky, rarely if ever got a turnover except by the adoption of the +most stringent measures. One who, on the other hand, treated his men +with common humanity, who bested the enemy in fair fight and sent rich +prizes into port, never wanted for "followers," and rarely, if ever, +had recourse to the gang. [Footnote: In his Autobiography Lord Dundonald +asserts that he was only once obliged to resort to pressing--a statement +so remarkable, considering the times he lived in, as to call for +explanation. The occasion was when, returning from a year's "exile in a +tub," a converted collier that "sailed like a hay-stack," he fitted out +the _Pallas_ at Portsmouth and could obtain no volunteers. Setting +his gangs to work, he got together a scratch crew of the wretchedest +description; yet so marvellous were the personality and disciplinary +ability of the man, that with only this unpromising material ready +to his hand he intercepted the Spanish trade off Cape Finisterre and +captured four successive prizes of very great value. The _Pallas_ +returned to Portsmouth with "three large golden candlesticks, each about +five feet high, placed upon the mast-heads," and from that time onward +Dundonald's reputation as a "lucky" commander was made. He never again +had occasion to invoke the aid of the gang.] Under such men the seaman +would gladly serve "even in a dung barge." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 2733--Capt. Young, 28 Sept. 1776.] Unhappily for the +service, such commanders were comparatively few, and in their absence +the Infernal System drained the Navy of its best blood and accentuated a +hundred-fold the already overwhelming need for the impress. + +The old-time sailor, [Footnote: The use of the word "sailor" was +long regarded with disfavour by the Navy Board, who saw in it only a +colourless substitute for the good old terms "seaman" and "mariner." +Capt. Bertie, of the _Ruby_ gunship, once reported the pressing of a +"sailor," Thomas Letting by name, out of a collier in Yarmouth Roads, +and was called upon by My Lords to define the new-fangled term. This +he did with admirable circumlocution. "As for explaining the word +'sailor,'" said he, "I can doe it no otherwise than (by) letting of +you know that Thomas Letting is a Sailor."--_Admiralty Records_ 1. +1468--Capt. Bertie, 6 May 1706.] again, was essentially a creature of +contradictions. Notorious for a "swearing rogue," who punctuated his +strange sea-lingo with horrid oaths and appalling blasphemies, he +made the responses required by the services of his Church with all the +superstitious awe and tender piety of a child. Inconspicuous for his +thrift or "forehandedness," it was nevertheless a common circumstance +with him to have hundreds of pounds, in pay and prize-money, to his +credit at his bankers, the Navy Pay-Office; and though during a voyage +he earned his money as hardly as a horse, and was as poor as a church +mouse, yet the moment he stepped ashore he made it fly by the handful +and squandered it, as the saying went, like an ass. When he was sober, +which was seldom enough provided he could obtain drink, he possessed +scarcely a rag to his back; but when he was drunk he was himself +the first to acknowledge that he had "too many cloths in the wind." +According to his own showing, his wishes in life were limited to three: +"An island of tobacco, a river of rum, and--more rum;" but according +to those who knew him better than he knew himself, he would at any time +sacrifice all three, together with everything else he possessed, for the +gratification of a fourth and unconfessed desire, the dearest wish of +his life, woman. Ward's description of him, slightly paraphrased, fits +him to a hair: "A salt-water vagabond, who is never at home but when +he is at sea, and never contented but when he is ashore; never at ease +until he has drawn his pay, and never satisfied until he has spent +it; and when his pocket is empty he is just as much respected as a +father-in-law is when he has beggared himself to give a good portion +with his daughter." [Footnote: Ward, _Wooden World Dissected_, 1744.] +With all this he was brave beyond belief on the deck of a ship, timid to +the point of cowardice on the back of a horse; and although he fought to +a victorious finish many of his country's most desperate fights, and +did more than any other man of his time to make her the great nation +she became, yet his roving life robbed him of his patriotism and made it +necessary to wring from him by violent means the allegiance he shirked. +It was at this point that he came in contact with what he hated most in +life, yet dearly loved to dodge--the press-gang. + +That such a creature of contradictions should be averse from serving the +country he loved is perhaps the most consistent trait in his +character; for here at least the sailor had substantial grounds for his +inconsistency. + +For one thing, his aversion to naval service was as old as the Navy +itself, having grown with its growth. We have seen in what manner King +John was obliged to admonish the sailor in order to induce him to take +his prest-money; and Edward III., referring to his attitude in the +fourteenth century, is said to have summed up the situation in the +pregnant words: "There is navy enough in England, were there only +the will." Raleigh, recalling with bitterness of soul those glorious +Elizabethan days when no adventurer ever dreamt of pressing, scoffed +at the seamen of King James's time as degenerates who went on board a +man-of-war "with as great a grudging as if it were to be slaves in the +galleys." A hundred years did not improve matters. The sailors of Queen +Anne entered her ships like men "dragged to execution." [Footnote: +Justice, _Dominion and Laws of the Sea_, 1705, Appendix on Pressing.] + +In the merchant service, where the sailor received his initiation into +the art and mystery of the sea, life during the period under review, and +indeed for long after, was hard enough in all conscience. Systematic +and unspeakably inhuman brutality made the merchant seaman's lot a daily +inferno. Traders sailing out of Liverpool, Bristol and a score of other +British ports depended almost entirely for their crews upon drugged rum, +so evil was their reputation in this respect amongst seafaring men. In +the East India Company's ships, even, the conditions were little short +of unendurable. Men had rather be hanged than sail to the Indies in +them. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1463, 1472--Letters of Captains +Bouler and Billingsley, and numerous instances.] + +Of all these bitternesses the sailor tasted freely. Cosmopolite that +he was, he wandered far a-sea and incurred the blows and curses of many +masters, happy if, amid his manifold tribulations, he could still call +his soul his own. Just here, indeed, was where the shoe of naval service +pinched him most sorely; for though upon the whole life on board a +man-of-war was not many shades worse than life aboard a trader, it yet +introduced into his already sadly circumscribed vista of happiness the +additional element of absolute loss of free-will, and the additional +dangers of being shot as an enemy or hanged as a deserter. These +additional things, the littles that yet meant so much, bred in him a +hatred of the service so implacable that nothing less drastic than the +warrant and the hanger could cope with or subdue it. Eradicated it never +was. + +The keynote to the sailor's treatment in the Navy may be said to have +been profane abuse. Officers of all ranks kept the Recording Angel +fearfully busy. With scarcely an exception they were men of blunt speech +and rough tongue who never hesitated to call a spade a spade, and the +ordinary seaman something many degrees worse. These were technicalities +of the service which had neither use nor meaning elsewhere. But to the +navigation of the ship, to daily routine and the maintenance of that +exact discipline on which the Navy prided itself, they were as essential +as is milk to the making of cheese. Nothing could be done without them. +Decent language was thrown away upon a set of fellows who had been bred +in that very shambles of language, the merchant marine. To them "'twas +just all the same as High Dutch." They neither understood it nor +appreciated its force. But a volley of thumping oaths, bellowed at them +from the brazen throat of a speaking-trumpet, and freely interlarded +with adjectives expressive of the foulness of their persons, and the +ultimate state and destination of their eyes and limbs, saved the +situation and sometimes the ship. Officers addicted to this necessary +flow of language were sensible of only one restraint. Visiting parties +caused them embarrassment, and when this was the case they fell back +upon the tactics of the commander who, unable to express himself with +his usual fluency because of the presence of ladies on the quarter-deck, +hailed the foreyard-arm in some such terms as these: "Foreyard-arm +there! God bless you! God bless you! God bless you! _You know what I +mean!_" + +Hard words break no bones, and to quarter-deck language, as such, the +sailor entertained no rooted objection. What he did object to, and +object to with all the dogged insistence of his nature, was the fact +that this habitual flow of profane scurrility was only the prelude to +what, with grim pleasantry, he was accustomed to describe as "serving +out slops." Anything intended to cover his back was "slops" to the +sailor, and the punishments meted out to him covered him like a garment. + +The old code of naval laws, the _Monumenta Juridica_ or _Black Book_ of +the Admiralty, contained many curious disciplinary methods, not a few +of which too long survived the age they originated in. If, for instance, +one sailor robbed another and was found guilty of the crime, boiling +pitch was poured over his head and he was powdered with feathers "to +mark him," after which he was marooned on the first island the ship fell +in with. Seamen guilty of undressing themselves while at sea were ducked +three times from the yard-arm--a more humane use of that spar than +converting it into a gallows. On this code were based Admiral the +Earl of Lindsay's "Instructions" of 1695. These included ducking, +keel-hauling, fasting, flogging, weighting until the "heart or back be +ready to break," and "gogging" or scraping the tongue with hoop-iron +for obscene or profane swearing; for although the "gentlemen of the +quarter-deck" might swear to their heart's content, that form of +recreation was strictly taboo in other parts of the ship. Here we have +the origin of the brutal discipline of the next century, summed up in +the Consolidation Act of George II. [Footnote: 22 George II. c. 33.]--an +Act wherein ten out of thirty-six articles awarded capital punishment +without option, and twelve death or minor penalties. + +Of the latter, the one most commonly in use was flogging at the gangway +or jears. This duty fell to the lot of the boatswain's mate. [Footnote: +"As it is the Custom of the Army to punish with the Drums, so it is +the known Practice of the Navy to punish with the Boatswain's +Mate."--_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1482--Capt. (afterwards Admiral) +Boscawen, 25 Feb. 1746-7.] The instrument employed was the +cat-o'-nine-tails, the regulation dose twelve lashes; but since the +actual number was left to the captain's discretion or malice, as the +case might be, it not infrequently ran into three figures. Thus John +Watts, able seaman on board H.M.S. _Harwich,_ Capt. Andrew Douglas +commander, in 1704 received one hundred and seventy lashes for striking +a shipmate in self-defence, his captain meanwhile standing by and +exhorting the boatswain's mate to "Swinge the Dog, for hee has a Tough +Hide"--and that, too, with a cat waxed to make it bite the harder. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5265--Courts-Martial, 1704-5.] + +It was just this unearned increment of blows--this dash of bitter added +to the regulation cup--that made Jack's gorge rise. He was not the sort +of chap, it must be confessed, to be ruled with a feather. "An impudent +rascal" at the best of times, he often "deserved a great deal and had +but little." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1472--Capt. Balchen, 26 +Jan. 1716-7.] But unmerited punishment, too often devilishly devised, +maliciously inflicted and inhumanly carried out, broke the back of his +sense of justice, already sadly overstrained, and inspired him with a +mortal hatred of all things naval. + +For the slightest offence he was "drubbed at the gears"; for serious +offences, from ship to ship. If, when reefing topsails on a dark night +or in the teeth of a sudden squall, he did not handle the canvas with +all the celerity desired by the officer of the watch, he and his fellow +yardsmen were flogged _en bloc_. He was made to run the gauntlet, often +with the blood gushing from nose and ears as the result of a previous +dose of the cat, until he fell to the deck comatose and at the point of +death. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1466--Complaint of ye Abuse of +a Sayler in the _Litchfield_, 1704. In this case the man actually died.] +Logs of wood were bound to his legs as shackles, and whatever the nature +of his offence, he invariably began his expiation of it, the preliminary +canter, so to speak, in irons. If he had a lame leg or a bad foot, he +was "started" with a rope's-end as a "slacker." If he happened to be +the last to tumble up when his watch was called, the rattan [Footnote: +Carried at one time by both commissioned and warrant officers.] raised +weals on his back or drew blood from his head; and, as if to add insult +to injury, for any of these, and a hundred and one other offences, he +was liable to be black-listed and to lose his allowance of grog. + +Some things, too, were reckoned sins aboard ship which, unhappily for +the sailor, could not well be avoided. Laughing, or even permitting the +features to relax in a smile in the official presence, was such a sin. +"He beats us for laughing," declare the company of the _Solebay_, in +a complaint against their commander, "more like Doggs than Men." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1435--Capt. Aldred, 29 Feb. 1703-4.] +One of the _Nymph's_ company, in or about the year 1797, received three +dozen for what was officially termed "Silent Contempt"--"which was +nothing more than this, that when flogged by the boatswain's mate the +man smiled." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--Petitions, 1793-7.] +This was the "Unpardonable Crime" of the service. + +Contrariwise, a man was beaten if he sulked. And as a rule the sailor +was sulky enough. Works of supererogation, such as polishing everything +polishable--the shot for the guns, in extreme cases, not even +excepted--until it shone like the tropical sun at noonday, left him +little leisure or inclination for mirth. "Very pretty to look at," +said Wellington, when confronted with these glaring evidences of +hyper-discipline, "but there is one thing wanting. I have not seen a +bright face in the ship." + +A painful tale of discipline run mad, or nearly so, is unfolded by that +fascinating series of sailor-records, the Admiralty Petitions. Many of +them, it must in justice be owned, bear unqualified testimony to the +kindness and humanity of officers; but in the great majority of cases +the evidence they adduce is overwhelmingly to the contrary. And if their +language is sometimes bombastic, if their style is almost uniformly +illiterate, if they are the productions of a band of mutinous dogs +standing out for rights which they never possessed and deserving of a +halter rather than a hearing, these are circumstances that do not in +the least detract from the veracity of the allegations they advance. The +sailor appealed to his king, or to the Admiralty, "the same as a child +to its father"; and no one who peruses the story of his wrongs, as set +forth in these documents, can doubt for a moment that he speaks the +truth with all a child's simplicity. + +The seamen of the _Reunion_ open the tale of oppression and ill-usage. +"Our Captain oblidges us to Wash our Linnen twice a week in Salt Water +and to put 2 Shirts on every Week, and if they do not look as Clean as +if they were washed in Fresh Water, he stops the person's Grog which has +the misfortune to displease him; and if our Hair is not Tyd to please +him, he orders it to be Cutt Off." On the _Amphitrite_ "flogging is +their portion." The men of the _Winchelsea_ "wold sooner be Shot at like +a Targaite than to Remain." The treatment systematically meted out +to the _Shannon's_ crew is more than the heart "can Cleaverly +Bear"--enough, in short, to make them "rise and Steer the Ship into an +Enemies Port." The seamen of the _Glory_ are made wretched by "beating, +blacking, tarring, putting our heads in Bags," and by being forced to +"drink half a Gallon of Salt Water" for the most trivial breaches of +discipline or decorum. On the _Blanch,_ if they get wet and hang or +spread their clothes to dry, the captain "thros them overboard." The +_Nassau's_ company find it impossible to put the abuse they receive on +paper. It is "above Humanity." Though put on board to fight for king and +country, they are used worse than dogs. They have no encouragement to +"face the Enemy with a chearful Heart." Besides being kept "more +like Convicts than free-born Britons," the _Nymph's_ company have an +unspeakable grievance. "When Engaged with the Enemy off Brest, March +the 9th, 1797, they even Beat us at our Quarters, though on the Verge of +Eternity." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5l25--Petitions, 1793-7.] + +On the principle advanced by Rochefoucault, that there is something +not displeasing to us in the misfortunes of our friends, the sailor +doubtless derived a sort of negative satisfaction from the fact that he +was not the only one on shipboard liable to the pains and penalties of +irascibility, brutality and excessive disciplinary zeal. Particularly +was this true of his special friend the "sky-pilot" or chaplain, that +super-person who perhaps most often fell a victim to quarter-deck +ebullitions. Notably there is on record the case of one John +Cruickshank, chaplain of H.M.S. _Assurance,_ who was clapped in irons, +court-martialled and dismissed the service merely because he happened +to take--what no sailor could ever condemn him for-a drop too much, and +whilst in that condition insisted on preaching to the ship's company +when they were on the very point of going into action. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 5265--Courts-Martial, 1704-5. His zeal was +unusual. Most naval chaplains thought "of nothing more than making His +Majesty's ships sinecures"] There is also that other case of the "saucy +Surgeon of the _Seahorse_" who incurred his captain's dire displeasure +all on account of candles, of which necessary articles he, having his +wife on board, thought himself entitled to a more liberal share than +was consistent with strict naval economy; and who was, moreover, so +"troblesome about his Provisions, that if he did not always Chuse out +of ye best in ye whole Ship," he straightway got his back up and +"threatened to Murder the Steward." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1470--Capt. Blowers, 3 Jan. 1710-11.] Such interludes as these would +assuredly have proved highly diverting to the foremast-man had it not +been for the cat and that savage litter of minor punishments awaiting +the man who smiled. + +In the matter of provisions, there can be little doubt that the sailor +shared to the full the desire evinced by the surgeon of the _Seahorse_ +to take blood-vengeance upon someone on account of them. His +"belly-timber," as old Misson so aptly if indelicately describes it, was +mostly worm-eaten or rotten, his drink indescribably nasty. + +Charles II. is said to have made his breakfast off ship's diet the +morning he left the _Naseby,_ and to have pronounced it good; and Nelson +in 1803 declared it "could not possibly be improved upon." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 580-Memorandum on the State of the Fleet, 1803.] +Such, however, was not the opinion of the chaplain of the _Dartmouth,_ +for after dining with his captain on an occasion which deserves to +become historic, he swore that "although he liked that Sort of Living +very well, as for the King's Allowance there was but a Sheat of +Browne Paper between it and Hell." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1464--Misdemenors Comited by Mr Edward Lewis, Chapling on Board H. M. +Shipp Dartmouth, 1 Oct. 1702.] Which of these opinions came nearest to +the truth, the sequel will serve to show. + +On the face of it the sailor's dietary was not so bad. A ship's stores, +in 1719, included ostensibly such items as bread, wine, beef, pork, +peas, oatmeal, butter, cheese, water and beer, and if Jack had but had +his fair share of these commodities, and had it in decent condition, +he would have had little reason to grumble about the king's allowance. +Unhappily for him, the humanities of diet were little studied by the +Victualling Board. + +Taking the beef, the staple article of consumption on shipboard, cooking +caused it to shrink as much as 45 per cent., thus reducing the sailor's +allowance by nearly one-half. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1495--Capt. Barrington, 23 Dec. 1770.] The residuum was often "mere +carrion," totally unfit for human consumption. "Junk," the sailor +contemptuously called it, likening it, in point of texture, +digestibility and nutritive properties, to the product of picked oakum, +which it in many respects strongly resembled. The pork, though it lost +less in the cooking, was rancid, putrid stuff, repellent in odour and +colour-particulars in which it found close competitors in the butter and +cheese, which had often to be thrown overboard because they "stunk +the ship." [Footnote: To disinfect a ship after she had been fouled by +putrid rations or disease, burning sulphur and vinegar were commonly +employed. Their use was preferable to the means adopted by the carpenter +of the _Feversham_, who in order to "sweeten ship" once "turn'd on +the cock in the hould" and through forgetfulness "left it running for +eighteen howers," thereby not only endangering the vessel's safety, +but incidentally spoiling twenty-one barrels of powder in the +magazine.--_Admiralty Records_ 1. 2653--Capt. Watson, 18 April 1741.] +The peas "would not break." Boiled for eight hours on end, they came +through the ordeal "almost as hard as shott." Only the biscuit, apart +from the butter and cheese, possessed the quality of softness. Damp, +sea-water, mildew and weevil converted "hard" into "soft tack" and added +another horror to the sailor's mess. The water he washed these varied +abominations down with was frequently "stuff that beasts would cough +at." His beer was no better. It would not keep, and was in consequence +both "stinking and sour." [Footnote: According to Raleigh, old oil +and fish casks were used for the storing of ship's beer in Elizabeth's +reign.] Although the contractor was obliged to make oath that he had +used both malt and hops in the brewing, it often consisted of nothing +more stimulating than "water coloured and bittered," and sometimes the +"stingy dog of a brewer" even went so far as to omit the "wormwood." + +Such a dietary as this made a meal only an unavoidable part of the day's +punishment and inspired the sailor with profound loathing. "Good +Eating is an infallible Antidote against murmuring, as many a Big-Belly +Place-Man can instance," he says in one of his petitions. Poor fellow! +his opportunities of putting it to the test were few enough. On Mondays, +Wednesdays and Fridays, the so-called Banyan days of the service, when +his hateful ration of meat was withheld and in its stead he regaled +himself on plum-duff--the "plums," according to an old regulation, "not +worse than Malaga"--he had a taste of it. Hence the banyan day, though +in reality a fast-day, became indelibly associated in his simple mind +and vocabulary with occasions of feasting and plenty, and so remains to +this day. + +If the sailor's only delicacy was duff, his only comforts were rum and +tobacco, and to explore some unknown island, and discover therein a +goodly river of the famous Jamaica spirit, flowing deep and fragrant +between towering mountains of "pig tail," is commonly reputed to have +been the cherished wish of his heart. With tobacco the Navy Board did +not provide him, nor afford dishonest pursers opportunity to "make dead +men chew," [Footnote: Said of pursers who manipulated the Muster Books, +which it was part of their duty to keep, in such a way as to make it +appear that men "discharged dead" had drawn a larger quantity of tobacco +than was actually the case, the difference in value of course going +into their own pockets.] until 1798; but rum they allowed him at a +comparatively early date. When sickness prevailed on board, when beer +ran short or had to be turned over the side to preserve a sweet ship, +rum or wine was issued, and although the Admiralty at first looked +askance at the innovation, and at times left commanders of ships to foot +the bill for spirits thus served out, the practice made gradual headway, +until at length it ousted beer altogether and received the stamp of +official approval. Half a pint, dealt out each morning and evening in +equal portions, was the regular allowance--a quantity often doubled were +the weather unusually severe or the men engaged in the arduous duty +of watering ship. At first the ration of rum was served neat and +appreciated accordingly; but about 1740 the practice of adding water was +introduced. This was Admiral Vernon's doing. Vernon was best known to +his men as "Old Grog," a nickname originating in a famous grogram coat +he affected in dirty weather; and as the rum and water now served out +to them was little to their liking, they marked their disapproval of the +mixture, as well as of the man who invented it, by dubbing it "grog." +The sailor was not without his sense of humour. + +The worst feature of rum, from the sailor's point of view, worse by far +than dilution, was the fact that it could be so easily stopped. Here his +partiality for the spirit told heavily against him. His grog was stopped +because he liked it, rather than because he deserved to lose it. The +malice of the thing did not make for a contented ship. + +The life of the man-o'-war's-man, according to Lord Nelson, was on an +average "finished at forty-five years." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 580--Memorandum on the State of the Fleet, 1803.] Bad food and +strenuous labour under exceptionally trying conditions sapped his +vitals, made him prematurely old, and exposed him to a host of ills +peculiar to his vocation. He "fell down daily," to employ the old +formula, in spotted or putrid fevers. He was racked by agues, distorted +by rheumatic pains, ruptured or double-ruptured by the strain of +pulling, hauling and lifting heavy weights. He ate no meal without +incurring the pangs of acute indigestion, to which he was fearfully +subject. He was liable to a "prodigious inflammation of the head, nose +and eyes," occasioned by exposure. Scurvy, his most inveterate and +merciless enemy, "beat up" for him on every voyage and dragged his +brine-sodden body down to a lingering death. Or, did he escape these +dangers and a watery grave, protracted disease sooner or later rendered +him helpless, or a brush with the enemy disabled him for ever from +earning his bread. + +His surgeons were, as a rule, a sorry lot. Not only were they deficient +in numbers, they commonly lacked both professional training and skill. +Their methods were consequently of the crudest description, and long +continued so. The approved treatment for rupture, to which the sailor +was painfully liable, was to hang the patient up by the heels until the +prolapsus was reduced. Pepys relates how he met a seaman returning from +fighting the Dutch with his eye-socket "stopped with oakum," and as late +at least as the Battle of Trafalgar it was customary, in amputations, +to treat the bleeding stump with boiling pitch as a cauterant. In his +general attitude towards the sick and wounded the old-time naval surgeon +was not unlike Garth, Queen Anne's famous physician. At the Kit Cat Club +he one day sat so long over his wine that Steele ventured to remind +him of his patients. "No matter," said Garth. "Nine have such bad +constitutions that no physician can save them, and the other six such +good ones that all the physicans in the world could not kill them." + +Many were the devices resorted to in order to keep the man-o'-war's-man +healthy and fit. As early as 1602 a magic electuary, invented by one +"Doctor Cogbourne, famous for fluxes," was by direction of the Navy +Commissioners supplied for his use in the West Indies. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1464--Capt. Barker, 14 Oct. 1702.] By Admiral +Vernon and his commanders he was dosed freely with "Elixir of Vitriol," +which they not only "reckoned the best general medicine next to +rhubarb," but pinned their faith to as a sovereign specific for scurvy +and fevers. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 161--Admiral Vernon, 31 +Oct. 1741.] Lime-juice, known as a valuable anti-scorbutic as early as +the days of Drake and Raleigh, was not added to his rations till 1795. +He did not find it very palatable. The secret of fortifying it was +unknown, and oil had to be floated on its surface to make it keep. +Sour-crout was much more to his taste as a preventive of scurvy, and +in 1777, at the request of Admiral Montagu, then Governor and +Commander-in-Chief over the Island of Newfoundland, the Admiralty caused +to be sent out, for the use of the squadron on that station, where +vegetables were unprocurable, a sufficient quantity of that succulent +preparation to supply twelve hundred men for a period of two months. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 471--Admiral Montagu, 28 Feb. 1777, +and endorsement.] + +Rice the sailor detested. Of all species of "soft tack" it was least to +his liking. He nicknamed it "strike-me-blind," being firmly convinced +that its continued use would rob him of his eyesight. Tea was not added +to his dietary till 1824, but as early as 1795 he could regale himself +on cocoa. For the rest, sugar, essence of malt, essence of spruce, +mustard, cloves, opium and "Jesuits'" or Peruvian bark were considered +essential to his well-being on shipboard. He was further allowed a +barber-one to every hundred men-without whose attentions it was found +impossible to keep him "clean and healthy." + +With books he was for many years "very scantily supplied." It was not +till 1812, indeed, that the Admiralty, shocked by the discovery that he +had practically nothing to elevate his mind but daily association with +the quarter-deck, began to pour into the fleet copious supplies of +literature for his use. Thereafter the sailor could beguile his leisure +with such books as the _Old Chaplains Farewell Letter_, Wilson's +_Maxims, The Whole Duty of Man_, Seeker's _Duties of the Sick_, and, +lest returning health should dissipate the piety begotten of his +ailments, Gibson's _Advice after Sickness_. Thousands of pounds were +spent upon this improving literature, which was distributed to the fleet +in strict accordance with the amount of storage room available at the +various dockyards. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ Accountant-General, +Misc. (Various), No. l06--Accounts of the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, +Chaplain-General to the Fleet, 1812-7.] + +A fundamental principle of man-o'-war routine was that the sailor formed +no part of it for hospital purposes. Hence sickness was not encouraged. +If the sailor-patient did not recover within a reasonable time, he was +"put on shore sick," sometimes to the great terror of the populace, who, +were he supposed to be afflicted with an infectious disease, fled +from him "as if he had the plague." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +2732--Capt. Young, 24 June 1740.] On shore he was treated for thirty +days at his country's charges. If incurable, or permanently disabled, he +was then turned adrift and left to shift for himself. A clean record +and a sufficiently serious wound entitled him to a small pension or +admission to Greenwich Hospital, an institution which had religiously +docked his small pay of sixpence a month throughout his entire service. +Failing these, there remained for him only the streets and the beggar's +role. + +His pay was far from princely. From 3d. a day in the reign of King John +it rose by grudging increments to 20s. a month in 1626, and 24s. in +1797. Years sometimes elapsed before he touched a penny of his earnings, +except in the form of "slop" clothing and tobacco. Amongst the instances +of deferred wages in which the Admiralty records abound, there may be +cited the case of the _Dreadnought_, whose men in 1711 had four years' +pay due; and of the _Dunkirk_, to whose company, in the year following, +six and a half years' was owing. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1470--Capt. Bennett, 8 March 1710-11. _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1471--Capt. +Butler, 19 March, 1711-12,] And at the time of the Nore Mutiny it was +authoritatively stated that there were ships then in the fleet which +had not been paid off for eight, ten, twelve and in one instance even +fifteen years. "Keep the pay, keep the man," was the policy of the +century--a sadly mistaken policy, as we shall presently see. + +In another important article of contentment the sailor was hardly better +off. The system of deferred pay amounted practically to a stoppage of +all leave for the period, however protracted, during which the pay was +withheld. Thus the _Monmouth's_ men had in 1706 been in the ship "almost +six years, and had never had the opportunity of seeing their families +but once." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1468-Capt. Baker, 3 Nov. +1706.] In Boscawen's ship, the _Dreadnought_, there were in 1744 two +hundred and fifty men who "had not set foot on shore near two year." +Admiral Penrose once paid off in a seventy-four at Plymouth, many +of whose crew had "never set foot on land for six or seven years"; +[Footnote: Penrose (Sir V. C., Vice-Admiral of the Blue), _Observations +on Corporeal Punishment, Impressment, etc.,_ 1824.] and Brenton, in +his _Naval History_, instances the case of a ship whose company, after +having been eleven years in the East Indies, on returning to England +were drafted straightway into another ship and sent back to that quarter +of the globe without so much as an hour's leave ashore. + +What was true of pay and leave was also true of prize-money. The +sailor was systematically kept out of it, and hence out of the means of +enjoyment and carousal it afforded him, for inconscionable periods. From +a moral point of view the check was hardly to his detriment. But +the Navy was not a school of morals, and withholding the sailor's +hard-earned prize-money over an indefinite term of years neither made +for a contented heart nor enhanced his love for a service that first +absorbed him against his will, and then, having got him in its clutches, +imposed upon and bested him at every turn. + +Although the prime object in withholding his pay was to prevent his +running from his ship, so far from compassing that desirable end it had +exactly the contrary effect. Both the preventive and the disease were of +long standing. With De Ruyter in the Thames in 1667, menacing London +and the kingdom, the seamen of the fleet flocked to town in hundreds, +clamouring for their wages, whilst their wives besieged the Navy Office +in Seething Lane, shrieking: "This is what comes of not paying our +husbands!" + +Essentially a creature of contradictions, the sailor rarely, if he could +avoid it, steered the course laid down for him, and in nothing perhaps +was this idiosyncrasy so glaringly apparent as in his behaviour as his +country's creditor. He "would get to London if he could." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 2732--Capt. Young, 12 Dec. 1742.] "An +unaccountable humour" impelled him "to quit His Majesty's service +without leave." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 480--Shirley, Governor +of Massachusetts, 12 Sept. 1746.] Once the whim seized him, no ties of +deferred pay or prize-money had power to hold him back. The one he could +obtain on conditions; the other he could dispose of at a discount which, +though ruinously heavy, still left him enough to frolic on. + +The weapon of deferred pay was thus a two-edged one. If it hurt the +sailor, it also cut the fingers of those who employed it against him. So +exigent were the needs of the service, he could "run" with impunity. +For if he ran whilst his pay was in arrears, he did so with the full +knowledge that, barring untimely recapture by the press-gang, he would +receive a free pardon, together with payment of all dues, on the sole +condition, which he never kept if he could help it, of returning to his +ship when his money was gone. He therefore deserted for two reasons: +First, to obtain his pay; second, to spend it. + +The penalty for desertion, under a well-known statute of George I., +[Footnote: 13 George I., art. 7.] was death by hanging. As time went on, +however, discipline in this respect suffered a grave relapse, and fear +of the halter no longer served to check the continual exodus from the +fleet. If the runaway sailor were taken, "it would only be a whipping +bout." So he openly boasted. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1479--Capt. Boscawen, 26 April 1743.] The "bout," it is true, at times +ran to six, or even seven hundred lashes--the latter being the heaviest +dose of the cat ever administered in the British navy; [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 482--Admiral Lord Colvill, 12 Nov. 1765.] but +even this terrible ordeal had no power to hold the sailor to his duty, +and although Admiral Lord St. Vincent, better known in his day as +"hanging Jervis," did his utmost to revive the ancient custom of +stretching the sailor's neck, the trend of the times was against him, +and within twenty-five years of the reaffirming of the penalty, in the +22nd year of George II., hanging for desertion had become practically +obsolete. + +In the declining days of the practice a grim game at life and death was +played upon the deck of a king's ship lying in the River St. Lawrence. +The year was 1760. Quebec had only recently fallen before the British +onslaught. A few days before that event, at a juncture when every man in +the squadron was counted upon to play his part in the coming struggle, +and to play it well, three seamen, James Mike, Thomas Wilkinson and +William M'Millard by name, deserted from the _Vanguard_. Retaken some +months later, they were brought to trial; but as men were not easy to +replace in that latitude, the court, whilst sentencing all three to +suffer the extreme penalty of the law, added to their verdict a rider +to the effect that it would be good policy to spare two of them. Admiral +Lord Colvill, then Commander-in-Chief, issued his orders accordingly, +and at eleven o'clock on the morning of the 12th of July the condemned +men, preceded to the scaffold by two chaplains, were led to the +_Vanguard's_ forecastle, where they drew lots to determine which of them +should die. The fatal lot fell to James Mike, who, in presence of the +assembled boats of the squadron, was immediately "turned off" at the +foreyard-arm. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 482--Admiral Lord +Colvill, 10 July 1760; Captains' Logs, 1026--Log of H.M.S. _Vanguard_.] + +Encouraged in this grim fashion, desertion assumed alarming proportions. +Nelson estimated that whenever a large convoy of merchant ships +assembled at Portsmouth, at least a thousand men deserted from the +fleet. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 580--Memorandum on the State +of the Fleet, 1803.] This was a "liberty they would take," do what you +could to prevent it. + +Of those who thus deserted fully one-third, according to the same high +authority, never saw the fleet again. "From loss of clothes, drinking +and other debaucheries" they were "lost by death to the country." Some +few of the remainder, after drinking His Majesty's health in a final +bowl, voluntarily returned on board and "prayed for a fair wind"; but +the majority held aloof, taking their chances and their pleasures in +sailorly fashion until, their last stiver gone, they fell an easy prey +to the press-gang or the crimp. + +While the crimp was to the merchant service what the press-gang was +to the Navy, a kind of universal provider, there was in his method of +preying upon the sailor a radical difference. Like his French compeer, +the recruiting sergeant of the Pont Neuf in the days of Louis the +Well-Beloved, wherever sailors congregated the crimp might be heard +rattling his money-bags and crying: "Who wants any? Who wants any?" +Where the press-gang used the hanger or the cudgel, the crimp employed +dollars. The circumstance gave him a decided "pull" in the contest for +men, for the dollars he offered, whether in the way of pay or bounty, +were invariably fortified with rum. The two formed a contraption no +sailor could resist. "Money and liquor held out to a seaman," said +Nelson, "are too much for him." + +In law the offence of enticing seamen to desert His Majesty's service, +like desertion itself, was punishable with death; [Footnote: 22 +George n. cap. 33.] but in fact the penalty was either commuted to +imprisonment, or the offender was dealt with summarily, without invoking +the law. Crimps who were caught red-handed had short shrift. Two of the +fraternity, named respectively Henry Nathan and Sampson Samuel, were +once taken in the Downs. "Send Nathan and Samuel," ran the Admiralty +order in their case, "to Plymouth by the first conveyance. Admiral Young +is to order them on board a ship going on foreign service as soon as +possible." Another time an officer, boarding a boat filled with men as +it was making for an Indiaman at Gravesend, found in her six crimps, +all of whom suffered the same fate. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1542--Capt. Bazeley, 7 Feb. 1808. _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1513--Capt. +Bowater, 12 June 1796.] + +Men seduced by means of crimpage bounty were said to be "silver cooped," +and the art of silver cooping was not only practised at home, it was +world-wide. In whatever waters a British man-o'-war cast anchor, there +the crimp appeared, plying his crafty trade. His assiduity paid a high +compliment to the sterling qualities of the British seaman, but for the +Navy it spelt wholesale depletion. + +In home ports he was everywhere in evidence. No ship of war could lie in +Leith Roads but she lost a good part of her crew through his seductions. +"M'Kirdy & M'Lean, petty-fogging writers," were the chief crimps at +Greenock. Sheerness crimps gave "great advance money." Liverpool was +infested with them, all the leading merchant shippers at Bristol, +London and other great ports having "agents" there, who offered the +man-o'-war's-man tempting bounties and substantial wages to induce him +to desert his ship. A specially active agent of Bristol shipowners was +one Vernon Ley, who plied his trade chiefly at Exeter and Plymouth, +whence he was known to send to Bristol, in the space of six months, as +many as seventy or eighty men, whom he provided with postchaises for the +journey and 8 Pounds per man as bounty. James White, a publican who kept +the "Pail of Barm" at Bedminster, made a close second in his activity +and success. Spithead had its regular contingent of crimps, and many an +East India ship sailing from that famous anchorage was "entirely manned" +by their efforts, of course at the expense of the ships of war lying +there. At Chatham, crimpage bounty varied from fifteen to twenty +guineas per head; and at Cork, a favourite recruiting ground for both +merchantmen and privateers, the same sum could be had any day, with high +wages to boot. + +In the Crown Colonies a similar state of things prevailed. Queen's ships +visiting Jamaica in or about the year 1716 lost so heavily they scarce +dared venture the return voyage to England, their men having "gone +a-wrecking" in the Gulf of Florida, where one armed sloop was reputed +to have recovered Spanish treasure to the value of a hundred thousand +dollars. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1471--Capt. Balchen, 13 May +1716.] Time did not lessen desertion in the island, though it wrought a +change in the cause. When Admiral Vernon was Commander-in-Chief there +in the forties, he lost five hundred men within a comparatively short +time--"seduced out," to use his own words, "through the temptations of +high wages and thirty gallons of rum, and conveyed drunk on board from +the punch-houses where they are seduced." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 233--Admiral Vernon, 5 Sept. 1742. A rare recruiting sheet of 1780, +which has for its headpiece a volunteer shouting: "Rum for nothing!" +describes Jamaica as "that delightful Island, abounding in Rum, Sugar +and Spanish Dollars, where there is delicious living and plenty of GROGG +and PUNCH."] + +At Louisberg, in the Island of Cape Breton, the North American Squadron +in 1746 lost so many men through the seductions practised by New England +skippers frequenting that port, that Townsend, the admiral in command, +indited a strongly worded protest to Shirley, then Governor of +Massachusetts; but the latter, though deploring the "vile behaviour" +of the skippers in question, could do nothing to put a stop to it. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 480--Townsend, 17 Aug.; Shirley, 12 +Sept. 1746.] As a matter of fact he did not try. + +On the coast of Carolina many of the English merchantmen in 1743 paid +from seventeen to twenty guineas for the run home, and in addition "as +many pounds of Sugar, Gallons of Rum and pounds of Tobacco as pounds +in Money." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1 1479-Capt. Bladwell, 1 July +1743.] + +The lust for privateering had much to answer for in this respect. So +possessed were the Virginians by the desire to get rich at the expense +of their enemies that they quite "forgot their allegiance to the King." +By the offer of inordinately high wages and rich prizes they did their +utmost to seduce carpenters, gunners, sailmakers and able seamen from +His Majesty's ships. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1480--Capt. +Lord Alexander Banff, 21 Oct. 1744.] Any ship forced to winter at Rhode +Island, again, always counted upon losing enough men to "disable her +from putting to sea" when the spring came. Here, too, the privateering +spirit was to blame, Rhode Island being notorious for its enterprise in +that form of piracy. Another impenitent sinner in her inroads upon the +companies of king's ships was Boston, where "a sett of people made it +their Business" to entice them away. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1440--Capt. Askew, 27 Aug. 1748.] No ship could clean, refit, victual +or winter there without "the loss of all her men." Capt. Young, of +the _Jason_, was in 1753 left there with never a soul on board except +"officers and servants, widows' men, the quarter-deck gentlemen and +those called idlers." The rest had been seduced at 30 Pounds per head. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2732--Capt. Young, 6 Oct. 1753. The +"widows' men" here humorously alluded to would not add much to the +effectiveness of the depleted company. They were imaginary sailors, +borne on the ship's books for pay and prize-money which went to +Greenwich Hospital.] + +So it went on. Day in, day out, at home and abroad, this ceaseless drain +of men, linking hands in the decimation of the fleet with those able +adjutants Disease and Death, accentuated progressively and enormously +the naval needs of the country. For the apprehension and return of +deserters from ships in home ports a drag-net system of rewards and +conduct-money sprang into being; but this the sailor to some extent +contrived to elude. He "stuck a cockade in his hat" and made shift to +pass for a soldier on leave; or he laid furtive hands on a horse and +set up for an equestrian traveller. In the neighbourhood of all great +seaport towns, as on all main roads leading to that paradise and +ultimate goal of the deserter, the metropolis, horse-stealing by sailors +"on the run" prevailed to an alarming extent; and although there was +a time when the law strung him up for the crime of borrowing horses to +help him on his way, as it had once hanged him for deserting, the naval +needs of the country eventually changed all that and brought him a +permanent reprieve. Thenceforth, instead of sending the happy-go-lucky, +devil-may-care felon to the gallows, they turned him over to the +press-gang and so re-consigned him, penniless and protesting, to the +duty he detested. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WHAT THE PRESS-GANG WAS. + + + +From the standpoint of a systematic supply of men to the fleet, the +press-gang was a legitimate means to an imperative end. This was the +official view. In how different a light the people came to regard the +petty man-trap of power, we shall presently see. + +Designed as it was for the taking up of able-bodied adults, the main +idea in the formation of the gang was strength and efficiency. It was +accordingly composed of the stoutest men procurable, dare-devil fellows +capable of giving a good account of themselves in fight, or of carrying +off their unwilling prey against long odds. Brute strength combined +with animal courage being thus the first requisite of the ganger, it +followed--not perhaps as a matter of course so much as a matter of +fact--that his other qualities were seldom such as to endear him to the +people. Wilkes denounced him for a "lawless ruffian," and one of the +newspapers of his time describes him, with commendable candour and +undeniable truth, as a "profligate and abandoned wretch, perpetually +lounging about the streets and incessantly vomiting out oaths and horrid +curses." [Footnote: _London Chronicle,_ 16 March 1762.] + +The getting of a gang together presented little difficulty. The first +business of the officer charged with its formation was to find suitable +quarters, rent not to exceed twenty shillings a week, inclusive of fire +and candle. Here he hung out a flag as the sign of authority and a bait +for volunteers. As a rule, they were easily procurable. All the roughs +of the town were at his disposal, and when these did not yield material +enough recourse was had to beat of drum, that instrument, together with +the man who thumped it, being either hired at half-a-crown a day or +"loaned" from the nearest barracks. Selected members of the crowd thus +assembled were then plied with drink "to invite them to enter"--an +invitation they seldom refused. + +It goes without saying that gangs raised in this manner were of an +exceedingly mixed character. On the principle of setting a thief +to catch a thief, seafaring men of course had first preference, but +landsmen were by no means excluded. The gang operating at Godalming in +1782 may be cited as typical of the average inland gang. It consisted of +three farmers, one weaver, one bricklayer, one labourer, and two others +whose regular occupations are not divulged. They were probably sailors. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1502--Capt. Boston, Report on +Rendezvous, 1782.] + +Landsmen entered on the express understanding that they should not +be pressed when the gang broke up. Sailor gangsmen, on the contrary, +enjoyed no such immunity. The most they could hope for, when their +arduous duties came to an end, was permission to "choose their ship." +The concession was no mean one. By choosing his ship discreetly the +gangsman avoided encounters with men he had pressed, thus preserving his +head unbroken and his skin intact. + +Ship-gangs, unlike those operating on land, were composed entirely of +seamen. For dash, courage and efficiency, they had no equal and few +rivals. + +Apart from the officers commanding it, the number of men that went to +the making of a gang varied from two to twenty or more according to the +urgency of the occasion that called it into being and the importance or +ill-repute of the centre selected as the scene of its operations. +For Edinburgh and Leith twenty-one men, directed by a captain, two +lieutenants and four midshipmen, were considered none too many. Greenock +kept the same number of officers and twenty men fully employed, for +here there was much visiting of ships on the water, a fast cutter being +retained for that purpose. The Liverpool gang numbered eighteen men, +directed by seven officers and backed by a flotilla of three tenders, +each under the command of a special lieutenant. Towns such as +Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Great Yarmouth, Cowes and Haverfordwest also had +gangs of at least twenty men each, with boats as required; and Deal, +Dover and Folkstone five gangs between them, totalling fifty men and +fifteen officers, and employing as many boats as gangs for pressing in +the Downs. + +In the case of ship-gangs, operating directly from a ship of war in +harbour or at sea, the officers in charge were as a matter of course +selected from the available ward or gun-room contingent. Few, if any, of +the naval men whose names at one time or another spring into prominence +during the century, escaped this unpleasant but necessary duty in their +younger days. But on shore an altogether different order of things +prevailed. + + [Illustration: MANNING THE NAVY. Reproduced by kind permission from a +rare print in the collection of Mr. A. M. Broadley.] + +The impress service ashore was essentially the grave of promotion. +Whether through age, fault, misfortune or lack of influence in high +places, the officers who directed it were generally disappointed men, +service derelicts whose chances of ever sporting a second "swab," or +of again commanding a ship, had practically vanished. Naval men afloat +spoke of them with good-natured contempt as "Yellow Admirals," the +fictitious rank denoting a kind of service quarantine that knew no +pratique. + +Like the salt junk of the foremast--man, the Yellow Admiral got +fearfully "out of character" through over-keeping. With the service he +lost all touch save in one degrading particular. His pay was better +than his reputation, but his position was isolated, his duties and his +actions subject to little official supervision. With opportunity came +peculiar temptations to bribery and peculation, and to these he often +succumbed. The absence of congenial society frequently weighed heavy +upon him and drove him to immoderate drinking. Had he lived a generation +or so later the average impress officer ashore could have echoed with +perfect truth, and almost nightly iteration, the crapulous sentiment +in which Byron is said to have toasted his hosts when dining on board +H.M.S. _Hector_ at Malta:-- + + "Glorious Hector, son of Priam, + Was ever mortal drunk as I am!" + +[Footnote: The authenticity of the anecdote, notwithstanding the fact +that it was long current in naval circles, is more than doubtful. When +Bryon visited Malta in 1808 the _Hector_ was doing duty at Plymouth as a +prison-ship, and naval records disclose no other ship of that name till +1864.] + +A lieutenant attached to the gang at Chester is responsible for a piece +of descriptive writing, of a biographical nature, which perhaps depicts +the impress officer of the century at his worst. Addressing a brother +lieutenant at Waterford, to which station his superior was on the point +of being transferred, "I think but right," says he, "to give you a +character of Capt. P., who is to be your Regulating Captain. I have been +with him six months here, and if it had not been that he is leaving +the place, I should have wrote to the Board of Admiralty to have been +removed from under his command. At first you'll think him a Fine old +Fellow, but if it's possible he will make you Quarrel with all your +Acquaintance. Be very Careful not to Introduce him to any Family that +you have a regard for, for although he is near Seventy Years of Age, he +is the greatest Debauchee you ever met with--a Man of No Religion, a +Man who is Capable of any Meanness, Arbitrary and Tyrannicall in his +Disposition. This City has been several times just on the point of +writing against him to the Board of Admiralty. He has a wife, and +Children grown up to Man's Estate. The Woman he brings over with him +is Bird the Builder's Daughter. To Conclude, there is not a House in +Chester that he can go into but his own and the Rendezvous, after having +been Six Months in one of the agreeablest Cities in England." [Footnote: +_Ad,_ 1. 1500--Lieut. Shuckford, 7 March 1780.] + +Ignorant of the fact that his reputation had thus preceded him, Capt. P. +found himself assailed, on his arrival at Waterford, by a "most Infamous +Epitaph," emanating none knew whence, nor cared. This circumstance, +accentuated by certain indiscretions of which the hectoring old officer +was guilty shortly after his arrival, aroused strong hostility against +him. A mob of fishwives, attacking his house at Passage, smashed the +windows and were with difficulty restrained from levelling the place +with the ground. His junior officers conspired against him. Piqued by +the loss of certain perquisites which the newcomer remorselessly swept +away, they denounced him to the Admiralty, who ordered an inquiry into +his conduct. After a hearing of ten days it went heavily against him, +practically every charge being proved. He was immediately superseded and +never again employed--a sad ending to a career of forty years under such +men as Anson, Boscawen, Hawke and Vernon. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1500--Capt. Bennett, 13 Nov. 1780, and enclosures constituting the +inquiry.] Yet such was the ultimate fate of many an impress officer. +A stronger light focussed him ashore, and habits, proclivities and +weaknesses that escaped censure at sea, were here projected odiously +upon the sensitive retina of public opinion. + +Of the younger men who drifted into the shore service there were some, +it need scarcely be said, who for obvious reasons escaped, or, rather, +did not succumb to the common odium. A notable example of this type +of officer was Capt. Jahleel Brenton, who for some years commanded the +gangs at Leith and Greenock. Though a man of blunt sensibilities and +speech, he possessed qualities which carried him out of the stagnant +back-water of pressing into the swim of service afloat, where he +eventually secured a baronetcy and the rank of Vice-Admiral. Singularly +enough, he was American-born. + +The senior officer in charge of a gang, commonly known as the Regulating +Captain, might in rank be either captain or lieutenant. It was his duty +to hire, but not to "keep" the official headquarters of the gang, to +organise that body, to direct its operations, to account for all moneys +expended and men pressed, and to "regulate" or inspect the latter and +certify them fit for service or otherwise. In this last-named duty a +surgeon often assisted him, usually a local practitioner, who received a +shilling a head for his pains. One or more lieutenants, each of whom had +one or more midshipmen at his beck and call, served under the Regulating +Captain. They "kept" the headquarters and led the gang, or contingents +of the gang, on pressing forays, thus coming in for much of the hard +work, and many of the harder knocks, that unpopular body was liable to. +Sometimes, as in the case of Dover, Deal and Folkestone, several gangs +were grouped under a single regulating officer. + +The pay of the Regulating Captain was 1 Pound a day, with an additional +5s. subsistence money. Lieutenants received their usual service pay, and +for subsistence 3s. 6d. In special cases grants were made for coach-hire +[Footnote: Capt. William Bennett's bill for the double journey between +Waterford and Cork, on the occasion of the inquiry into the conduct +of the Regulating Officer at the former place, over which he presided, +amounted to forty-three guineas--a sum he considered "as moderate as +any gentleman's could have been, laying aside the wearing of my uniform +every day." Half the amount went in chaise and horse hire, "there +being," we are told, "no chaises upon the road as in England," and +"only one to be had at Cork, all the rest being gone to Dublin with +the Lawyers and the Players, the Sessions being just ended and the Play +House broke up" (_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1503--Capt. Bennett, 24 March +1782). Nelson's bill for posting from Burnham, Norfolk, to London +and back, 260 miles, in the year 1789, amounted to 19 Pounds, 55. 2d. +(_Admiralty Records_ Victualling Dept, Miscellanea, No. 26).] and +such purposes as "entertainments to the Mayor and Corporation, the +Magistrates and the Officers of the Regulars and the Militia, by way of +return for their civilities and for their assistance in carrying on the +impress." The grant to the Newcastle officers, under this head, in 1763 +amounted to upwards of 93 Pounds. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1493--Capt. Bover, 6 March 1763, and endorsement.] + +"Road-money" was generally allowed at the rate of 3d. a mile for +officers and 1d. a mile for gangers when on the press; but as a matter +of fact these modest figures were often largely exceeded--to the no +small emolument of the regulating officer. Lieut. Gaydon, commanding at +Ilfracombe, in 1795 debited the Navy Board with a sum of 148 Pounds for +1776 miles of travel; Capt. Gibbs, of Swansea, with 190 Pounds for 1561 +miles; and Capt. Longcroft, of Haverfordwest, with 524 Pounds for 8388 +miles--a charge characterised by Admiral M'Bride, who that year reported +upon the working of the impress, as "immense." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 579--Admiral M'Bride, 19 March 1795.] He might well have +used a stronger term. + +An item which it was at one time permissible to charge, possesses a +special interest. This was a bonus of 1s. a head on all men pressed--a +bonus that was in reality nothing more than the historic prest shilling +of other days, now no longer paid to pressed men, diverted into the +pockets of those who did the pressing. The practice, however, was +short-lived. Tending as it did to fill the ships with unserviceable men, +it was speedily discontinued and the historic shilling made over to the +certifying surgeon. + +The shore midshipman could boast but little affinity with his namesake +of the quarter-deck. John Richards, midshipman of the Godalming gang, +had never in his life set foot on board a man-of-war or been to sea. His +age was forty. The case of James Good, of Hull, is even more remarkable. +He had served as "Midshipman of the Impress" for thirty years out of +sixty-three. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1455--Capt. Acklom, +6 Oct. 1814. _Admiralty Records_ 1.1502--Capt. Boston, Report on +Rendezvous, 1782.] The pay of these elderly youths at no time exceeded a +guinea a week. + +The gangsman was more variously, if not more generously remunerated. At +Deal, in 1743, he had 1s. per day for his boat, and "found himself," or, +in the alternative, "ten shillings for every good seaman procured, in +full for his trouble and the hire of the boat." At Dover, in 1776, he +received 2s. 6d. a day; at Godalming, six years later, 10s. 6d. a week; +and at Exeter, during the American War of Independence, when the demand +for seamen was phenomenal, 14s. a week, 5s. for every man pressed, and +clothing and shoes "when he deserved it." Pay and allowances were thus +far from uniform. Both depended largely upon the scarcity or abundance +of suitable gangsmen, the demand for seamen, and the astuteness of the +officer organising the gang. Some gangs not on regular wages received as +much as "twenty shillings for each man impressed, and six-pence a mile +for as many miles as they could make it appear each man had travelled, +not exceeding twenty, besides (a noteworthy addition) the twelve-pence +press-money "; but if a man pressed under these conditions were found +to be unserviceable after his appearance on shipboard, all money +considerations for his capture were either withheld or recalled. On the +whole, considering the arduous and disagreeable nature of the gangsman's +calling, the Navy Board cannot be accused of dealing any too generously +by him. + +"If ever you intend to man the fleet without being cheated by the +captains and pursers," Charles II. is credited with having once said +to his council, "you may go to bed." What in this sense was true of the +service afloat was certainly not less true of that loosely organised and +laxly supervised naval department, the impress ashore. Considering the +repute of the officers engaged in it, and the opportunities they enjoyed +for peculation and the taking of bribes--considering, above all, the +extreme difficulty of keeping a watchful eye upon officers scattered +throughout the length and breadth of the land, the wonder is, not that +irregularities crept in, but that they should have been, upon the whole, +so few and so venial. + +To allow the gangsmen to go fishing for sea-fish or dredging for +oysters, as was commonly done when there was little prospect of a catch +on land, was no more heinous than the custom prevailing--to everybody's +knowledge--at King's Lynn in Norfolk, where the gang had no need to +go a-fishing because, regularly as the cobbles came in, the midshipman +attached to the gang appeared on the quay and had the "insolence to +demand Three of the Best Fysh for the Regulating Captain, the Lieutenant +and himself." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1546--Petition of the +Owners of the Fishing Cobbles of Lynn, 3 March 1809.] And if, again, +rating a gangsman in choicest quarterdeck language were no serious +offence, why should not the Regulating Captain rate his son as +midshipman, even though "not proper to be employed as such." And +similarly, granting it to be right to earn half a sovereign by pressing +a man contrary to law, where was the wrong in "clearing him of the +impress" for the same amount, as was commonly done by the middies at +Sunderland and Shields. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1557--Capt. +Bell, 27 June 1806, enclosure.] These were works of supererogation +rather than sins against the service, and little official notice was +taken of them unless, as in the case of Liverpool, they were carried +to such lengths as to create a public scandal. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 579--Admiral Child, 30 Jan. 1800.] + +There were, as a matter of course, some officers in the service who went +far beyond the limits of such venial irregularities and, like Falstaff, +"misused the king's press damnably." Though according to the terms +of their warrant they were "to take care not to demand or receive any +money, gratuity, reward, or any other consideration whatsoever for the +sparing, exchanging or discharging any person or persons impressed or to +be impressed," the taking of "gratifications" for these express purposes +prevailed to a notorious extent. The difficulty was to fasten the +offence upon the offenders. "Bailed men," as they were called, did not +"peach." Their immunity from the press was too dearly bought to admit of +their indulging personal animus against the officer who had taken their +money. It was only through some tangle of circumstance over which the +delinquent had no control that the truth leaked out. Such a case was +that of the officer in command of the _Mary_ tender at Sunderland, a +lieutenant of over thirty years' standing. Having pressed one Michael +Dryden, a master's mate whom he ought never to have pressed at all, he +so far "forgot" himself as to accept a bribe of 15 Pounds for the man's +release, and then, "having that day been dining with a party of military +officers," forgot to release the man. The double lapse of memory +proved his ruin. Representations were made to the Admiralty, and the +unfortunately constituted lieutenant was "broke" and black-listed. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2740--Lieut. Atkinson, 24 June 1798, +and endorsement.] + +Another species of fraud upon which the Admiralty was equally severe, +was that long practised with impunity by a certain regulating officer at +Poole. Not only did he habitually put back the dates on which men were +pressed, thus "bearing" them for subsistence money they never received, +he made it a further practice to enter on his books the names of +fictitious pressed men who opportunely "escaped" after adding their +quota to his dishonest perquisites. So general was misappropriation of +funds by means of this ingenious fraud that detection was deservedly +visited with instant dismissal. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1526--Capt. Boyle, 2 Oct. 1801, and endorsement.] + +Though to the gangsman all things were reputedly lawful, some things +were by no means expedient. He could with impunity deprive almost any +ablebodied adult of his freedom, and he could sometimes, with equal +impunity, add to his scanty earnings by restoring that freedom for a +consideration in coin of the realm; but when, like Josh Cooper, sometime +gangsman at Hull, he extended his prerogative to the occupants of +hen-roosts, he was apt to find himself at cross-purposes with the law as +interpreted by the sitting magistrates. + +Amongst less questionable perquisites accruing to the gangsman two only +need be mentioned here. One was the "straggling-money" paid to him +for the apprehension of deserters--20s. for every deserter taken, with +"conduct" money to boot; the other, the anker of brandy designedly +thrown overboard by smugglers when chased by a gang engaged in pressing +afloat. Occasionally the brandy checked the pursuit; but more often +it gave an added zest to the chase and so hastened the capture of the +fugitive donors. + +To the unscrupulous outsider the opportunities for illicit gain afforded +by the service made an irresistible appeal. Sham gangs and make-believe +press-masters abounded, thriving exceedingly upon the fears and +credulity of the people until capture put a term to their activities +and sent them to the pillory, the prison or the fleet they pretended to +cater for. + +Their mode of operation seldom varied. They pressed a man, and then took +money for "discharging" him; or they threatened to press and were bought +off. One Philpot was in 1709 fined ten nobles and sentenced to the +pillory for this fraud. He had many imitators, amongst them John Love, +who posed as a midshipman, and William Moore, his gangsman, both of +whom were eventually brought to justice and turned over to His Majesty's +ships. + +The role adopted by these last-named pretenders was a favourite one with +men engaged in crimping for the merchant service. Shrewsbury in 1780 +received a visit from one of these individuals--"a Person named Hopkins, +who appeared in a Lieutenant's Uniform and committed many fraudulant +Actions and Scandalous Abuses in raising Men," as he said, "for the +Navy." Two months later another impostor of the same type appeared at +Birmingham, where he scattered broadcast a leaflet, headed with the +royal arms and couched in the following seductive terms: "Eleven Pounds +for every Able Seaman, Five Pounds for every ordinary Seaman, and Three +Pounds for every Able-bodied Landsman, exclusive of a compleat set of +Sea Clothing, given by the Marine Society. All Good Seamen, and other +hearty young Fellows of Spirit, that are willing to serve on board any +of His Majesty's Vessels or Ships of War, Let them with Chearfulness +repair to the Sailors' Head Rendezvous in this Town, where a proper +Officer attends, who will give them every encouragement they can desire. +Now my Jolly Lads is the time to fill your Pockets with Dollars, Double +Doubloon's & Luidores. Conduct Money allowed, Chest and Bedding sent +Carriage Free." Soon after, the two united forces at Coventry, whither +Capt. Beecher desired to "send a party to take them," but to this +request the Admiralty turned a deaf ear. In their opinion the game was +not worth the candle. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1500--Letters of +Capt. Beecher, 1780] + +Ex-midshipman Rookhad, who when dismissed the service took to boarding +vessels in the Thames and extorting money and liquor from the masters as +a consideration for not pressing their men, did not escape so lightly. +Him the Admiralty prosecuted. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 298--Law +Officers' Opinions, 1733-56, No. 12. Process was by information in the +Court of King's Bench, for a misdemeanour.] + +It was in companies, however, that the sham ganger most frequently took +the road, for numbers not only enhanced his chances of obtaining money, +they materially diminished the risk of capture. One such gang was +composed of "eighteen desperate villians," who were nevertheless taken. +Another, a "parcel of fellows armed with cutlasses like a pressgang," +appeared at Dublin in 1743, where they boldly entered public-houses on +pretence of looking for sailors, and there extorted money and drink. +What became of them we are not told; but in the case of the pretended +gang whose victim, after handing over two guineas as the price of his +release, was pressed by a regularly constituted gang, we learn the +gratifying sequel. The real gang gave chase to the sham gang and pressed +every man of them. + +According to the "Humble Petition of Grace Blackmore of Stratford le +Bow, widow," on Friday the 29th of May, in an unknown year of Queen +Anne's reign, "there came to Bow ffaire severall pretended pressmasters, +endeavouring to impress." A tumult ensued. Murder was freely "cryed +out," apparently with good reason, for in the melee petitioner's +husband, then constable of Bow, was "wounded soe that he shortly after +dyed." [Footnote: _State Papers Domestic,_ Anne, xxxvi. No. 17.] + +There were occasions when the sham gang operated under cover of a real +press-warrant, and for this the Admiralty was directly to blame. It had +become customary at the Navy Office to send out warrants, whether to +commanders of ships or to Regulating Captains, in blank, the person +to whom the warrant was directed filling in the name for himself. Such +warrants were frequently stolen and put to irregular uses, and of this a +remarkable instance occurred in 1755. + +In that year one Nicholas Cooke, having by some means obtained +possession of such a warrant, "filled up the blank thereof by directing +it to himself, by the name and description of Lieutenant Nicholas Cooke, +tho' in truth not a Lieutenant nor an Officer in His Majesty's Navy," +hired a vessel--the _Providence_ snow of Dublin--and in her cruised the +coasts of Ireland, pressing men. After thus raising as many as he could +carry, he shaped his course for Liverpool, no doubt intending, on his +arrival at that port, to sell his unsuspecting victims to the merchant +ships in the Mersey at so much a head. Through bad seamanship, however, +the vessel was run aground at Seacombe, opposite to Liverpool, and Capt. +Darby, of H.M.S. _Seahorse_, perceiving her plight, and thinking to +render assistance in return for perhaps a man or two, took boat and +rowed across to her. To his astonishment he found her full of Irishmen +to the number of seventy-three, whom he immediately pressed and removed +to his own ship. The circumstance of the false warrant now came to +light, and with it another, of worse omen for the mock lieutenant. In +the hold a quantity of undeclared spirits was discovered, and this fact +afforded the Admiralty a handle they were not slow to avail themselves +of. They put the Excise Officers on the scent, and Cooke was prosecuted +for smuggling. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 298--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1733-56, No. 101.] + +The most successful sham gang ever organised was perhaps that said to +have been got together by a trio of mischievous Somerset girls. The +scene of the exploit was the Denny-Bowl quarry, near Taunton. The +quarrymen there were a hard-bitten set and great braggarts, openly +boasting that no gang dare attack them, and threatening, in the event +of so unlikely a contingency, to knock the gangsmen on the head and bury +them in the rubbish of the pit. There happened to be in the neighbouring +town "three merry maids," who heard of this tall talk and secretly +determined to put the vaunted courage of the quarrymen to the test. +They accordingly dressed themselves in men's clothing, stuck cockades in +their hats, and with hangers under their arms stealthily approached the +pit. Sixty men were at work there; but no sooner did they catch sight of +the supposed gang than they one and all threw down their tools and ran +for their lives. + +Officially known as the Rendezvous, a French term long associated with +English recruiting, the headquarters of the gang were more familiarly, +and for brevity's sake, called the "rondy." Publicans were partial to +having the rondy on their premises because of the trade it brought +them. Hence it was usually an alehouse, frequently one of the shadiest +description, situated in the lowest slum of the town; but on occasions, +as when the gang was of uncommon strength and the number of pressed +men dealt with proportionately large, a private house or other suitable +building was taken for the exclusive use of the service. It was +distinguished by a flag--a Jack--displayed upon a pole. The cost of the +two was 27s., and in theory they were supposed to last a year; but in +towns where the populace evinced their love for the press by hewing +down the pole and tearing the flag in ribbons, these emblems of national +liberty had frequently to be renewed. At King's Lynn as much as 13 +Pounds was spent upon them in four years--an outlay regarded by the +Navy Board with absolute dismay. It would have been not less dismayed, +perhaps, could it have seen the bunting displayed by rendezvous whose +surroundings were friendly. There the same old Jack did duty year after +year until, grimy and bedraggled, it more resembled the black flag than +anything else that flew, wanting only the skull and cross-bones to make +it a fitting emblem of authorised piracy. + +The rondy was hardly a spot to which one would have resorted for a +rest-cure. When not engaged in pressing, the gangsmen were a roistering, +drinking crew, under lax control and never averse from a row, either +amongst themselves or with outsiders. Sometimes the commanding officer +made the place his residence, and when this was the case some sort of +order prevailed. The floors were regularly swept, the beds made, the +frowsy "general" gratified by a weekly "tip" on pay-day. But when, on +the other hand, the gangsmen who did not "find themselves" occupied +the rondy to the exclusion of the officer, eating and sleeping there, +tramping in and out at all hours of the day and night, dragging pressed +men in to be "regulated" and locked up, and diverting such infrequent +intervals of leisure as they enjoyed by pastimes in which fear of the +"gent overhead" played no part--when this was the case the rondy became +a veritable bear-garden, a place of unspeakable confusion wherein papers +and pistols, boots and blankets, cutlasses, hats, beer-pots and staves +cumbered the floors, the lockers and the beds with a medley of articles +torn, rusty, mud-stained, dirt-begrimed and unkept. + +Amongst accessories essential to the efficient activity of gangs +stationed at coast or river towns the boat had first place. Sometimes +both sail and row-boats were employed. Luggers of the old type, fast +boats carrying a great press of sail, served best for overhauling ships; +but on inland waterways, such as the Thames, the Humber or the Tyne, a +"sort of wherry, constructed for rowing fast," was the favourite vehicle +of pursuit. The rate of hire varied from 1s. a day to two or more +guineas a week, according to the size and class of boat. At Cork it was +"five shillings Irish" per day. + +Accessories of a less indispensable nature, occasionally allowed, were, +at Dartmouth and a few other places, cockades for the gangsmen's hats, +supplied at a cost of 1s. each; at Tower Hill a messenger, pay 20s. a +week; and at Appledore an umbrella for use in rainy weather, price 12s. +6d. + +The arms of the gang comprised, first, a press-warrant, and, second, +such weapons as were necessary to enforce it. + +In the literature of the eighteenth century the warrant is inseparably +associated with the short, incurvated service sword commonly known as +the cutlass or hanger; but in the press-gang prints of the period the +gangsmen are generally armed with stout clubs answering to Smollett's +"good oak plant." Apart from this artistic evidence, however, there is +no valid reason for believing that the bludgeon ever came into general +use as the ganger's weapon. As early as the reign of Anne he went armed +with the "Queen's broad cutlash," and for most gangs, certainly for all +called upon to operate in rough neighbourhoods, the hanger remained the +stock weapon throughout the century. In expeditions involving special +risk or danger, the musket and the pistol supplemented what must have +been in itself no mean weapon. + +As we have already seen, the earliest recorded press-warrants emanated +from the king in person, whilst later ones were issued by the king in +council and endorsed by the naval authorities. As the need of men became +more and more imperative, however, this mode of issue was found to be +too cumbersome and inexpeditious. Hence, by the time the eighteenth +century came in, with its tremendously enhanced demands on behalf of the +Navy, the royal prerogative in respect to warrants had been virtually +delegated to the Admiralty, who issued them on their own initiative, +though ostensibly in pursuance of His Majesty's Orders in Council. + +An Admiralty warrant empowered the person to whom it was directed to +"impress" as many "seamen" as possibly he could procure, giving to each +man so impressed 1s. "for prest money." He was to impress none but such +as "were strong bodies and capable to serve the king"; and, having +so impressed such persons, he was to deliver them up to the officer +regulating the nearest rendezvous. All civil authorities were to be +"aiding and assisting" to him in the discharge of this duty. + +Now this document, the stereotyped press-warrant of the century, here +concisely summarised in its own phraseology, was not at all what it +purported to be. It was in fact a warrant out of time, an official +anachronism, a red-tape survival of that bygone period when pressing +still meant "presting" and force went no further than a threat. For men +were now no longer "prested." They were pressed, and that, too, in the +most drastic sense of the term. The king's shilling no longer changed +hands. Even in Pepys' time men were pressed "without money," and in +none of the accounts of expenses incurred in pressing during the century +which followed, excepting only a very few of the earlier ones, can +any such item as the king's shilling or prest-money be discovered. +Its abolition was a logical sequence of the change from presting to +pressing. + +The seaman, moreover, so far from being the sole quarry of the +warrant-holder, now sought concealment amongst a people almost without +exception equally liable with himself to the capture he endeavoured to +elude. Retained merely as a matter of form, and totally out of keeping +with altered conditions, the warrant was in effect obsolete save as an +instrument authorising one man to deprive another of his liberty in +the king's name. Even the standard of "able bodies and capable" had +deteriorated to such an extent that the officers of the fleet were kept +nearly as busy weeding out and rejecting men as were the officers of the +impress in taking them. + +Still, the warrant served. Stripped of its obsolete injunctions, it +read: "Go ye out into the highways and hedges, and water-ways, and +compel them to come in"--enough, surely, for any officer imbued with +zeal for His Majesty's service. + +Though according to the strict letter of the law as defined by various +decisions of the courts a press-warrant was legally executable only by +the officer to whom it was addressed, in practice the limitation was +very widely departed from, if not altogether ignored; for just as a +constable or sheriff may call upon bystanders to assist him in the +execution of his office, so the holder of a press-warrant, though +legally unable to delegate his authority by other means, could call upon +others to aid him in the execution of his duty. Naturally, the gangsmen +being at hand, and being at hand for that very purpose, he gave them +first preference. Hence, the gangsman pressed on the strength of a +warrant which in reality gave him no power to press. + +While the law relating to the intensive force of warrants was thus +deliberately set at naught, an extraordinary punctiliousness for legal +formality was displayed in another direction. According to tradition and +custom no warrant was valid until it had received the sanction of the +civil power. Solicitor-General Yorke could find no statutory authority +for such procedure. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 298--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1733-56, No. 102.] He accordingly pronounced it to be +non-essential to the validity of warrants. Nevertheless, save in cases +where the civil power refused its endorsement, it was universally +adhered to. What was bad law was notoriously good policy, for a +disaffected mayor, or an unfriendly Justice of the Peace, had it in his +power to make the path of the impress officer a thorny one indeed. "Make +unto yourselves friends," was therefore one of the first injunctions +laid upon officers whose duties unavoidably made them many enemies. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WHOM THE GANG MIGHT TAKE. + + + +In theory an authority for the taking of seafaring men only, the +press-warrant was in practice invested with all the force of a Writ +of Quo Warranto requiring every able-bodied male adult to show by what +right he remained at large. The difference between the theory and the +practice of pressing was consequently as wide as the poles. + +While the primary and ostensible objective of the impress remained +always what it had been from the outset, the seaman who had few if any +land-ties except those of blood or sex, from this root principle +there sprang up a very Upas tree of pretension, whose noxious branches +overspread practically every section of the community. Hence the +press-gang, the embodiment of this pretension, eventually threw aside +ostence and took its pick of all who came its way, let their occupation +or position be what it might. It was no duty of the gangsman to employ +his hanger in splitting hairs. "First catch your man," was for him the +greatest of all the commandments. Discrimination was for his masters. +The weeding out could be done when the pressing was over. + +The classes hardest hit by this lamentable want of discrimination were +the classes engaged in trade. "Mr. Coventry," wrote Pepys some four +years after the Restoration, "showed how the medium of the men the King +hath one year with another employed in his navy since his coming, hath +not been above 3000 men, or at most 4000; and now having occasion for +30,000, the remaining 26,000 _must be found out of the Trade of the +Nation_." Naturally. Where a nation of shopkeepers was concerned it +could hardly have been otherwise. They who go down to the sea in ships +and do business in great waters, returning laden with the spoils of the +commercial world, have perforce to render tribute unto Caesar; but Mr. +Commissioner Coventry little guessed, when he enunciated his corollary +with such nice precision, to what it was destined to lead in the next +hundred years or so. + +Under the merciless exactions of the press-gang Trade did not, however, +prove the submissive thing that was wont to stand at its doors and cry: +"Will you buy? will you buy?" or to bow prospective customers into its +rich emporiums with unctuous rubbing of hands and sauve words. +Trade knew its power and determined to use it. "Look you! my Lords +Commissioners," cried Trade, truculently cocking its hat in the face of +Admiralty, "I have had enough. You have taken my butcher, my baker, my +candlestick-maker, nor have you spared that worthy youth, the 'prentice +who was to have wed my daughter. My coachman, the driver of my gilded +chariot, goes in fear of you, and as for my sedan-chair man, he is no +more found. My colliers, draymen, watermen, the carpenters who build my +ships and the mariners who sail them, the ablest of these my necessary +helpers sling their hammocks in your fleet. You have crippled the +printing of my Bible and the brewing of my Beer, and I can bear no more. +Protect me from my arch-enemy the foreigner if you must and will, but +not, my Lords Commissioners, by such monstrous personal methods as +these." "Your servant!" said Admiralty, obsequious before the only power +it feared--"your servant to command!" and straightway set about finding +a remedy for the evils Trade complained of. + +Now, to attain this end, so desirable if Trade were to be placated, it +was necessary to define with precision either whom the gang might take, +or whom it might not take; and here Admiralty, though notoriously a body +without a brain, achieved a stroke of genius, for it brought down both +birds with a single stone. Postulating first of all the old _lex sine +lege_ fiction that every native-born Briton and every British male +subject born abroad was legally pressable, it laid it down as a logical +sequence that no man, whatever his vocation or station in life, +was lawfully exempt; that exemption was in consequence an official +indulgence and not a right; and that apart from such indulgence every +man, unless idiotic, blind, lame, maimed or otherwise physically unfit, +was not only liable to be pressed, but could be legally pressed for +the king's service at sea. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 300--Law +Officers' Opinions, 1778-83, No. 26; and _Admiralty Records_ 1. +581--Admiral Berkeley, 14 Feb. 1805, well express the official view.] +Having thus cleared the ground root and branch, Admiralty magnanimously +proceeded to frame a category of persons whom, as an act of grace and a +concession to Trade, it was willing to protect from assault and capture +by its emissary the press-gang. + +These exemptions from the wholesale incidence of the impress were not +granted all at once. Embodied from time to time in Acts of Parliament +and so-called acts of official grace--slowly and painfully wrung from a +reluctant Admiralty by the persistent demands and ever-growing power of +Trade--they spread themselves over the entire century of struggle for +the mastery of the sea, from which they were a reaction, and, touching +the lives of the common people in a hundred and one intimate points and +interests, culminated at length in the abolition of that most odious +system of oppression from which they had sprung, and in a charter +of liberties before which the famous charter of King John sinks into +insignificance. + + [Illustration: THE PRESS-GANG SEIZING A VICTIM.] + +As a matter of policy the foreigner had first place in the list of +exemptions. He could volunteer if he chose, [Footnote: Strenuous efforts +were made in 1709 to induce the "Poor Palatines"--seven thousand of them +encamped at Blackheath, and two thousand in Sir John Parson's brewhouse +at Camberwell--to enter for the navy. But the "thing was New to them to +go aboard a Man of Warr," so they declined the invitation, "having the +Notion of being sent to Carolina."--_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1437--Letters +of Capt. Aston.] but he must not be pressed. [Footnote: 13 George II. +cap. 17.] To deprive him of his right in this respect was to invite +unpleasant diplomatic complications, of which England had already +too many on her hands. Trade, too, looked upon the foreigner as her +perquisite, and Trade must be indulged. Moreover, he fostered mutiny in +the fleet, where he was prone to "fly in the face" of authority and to +refuse to work, much less fight, for an alien people. If, however, he +served on board British merchant ships for two years, or if he married +in England, he at once lost caste, since he then became a naturalised +British subject and was liable to have even his honeymoon curtailed by +a visit from the press-gang. Such, in fact, was the fate of one William +Castle of Bristol in 1806. Pressed there in that year on his return +from the West Indies, he was discharged as a person of alien birth; but +having immediately afterwards committed the indiscretion of taking a +Bristol woman to wife, he was again pressed, this time within three +weeks of his wedding-day, and kept by express order of Admiralty. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1537--Capt. Barker, 23 July 1806.] + +For some years after the passing of the Act exempting the foreigner, +his rights appear to have been generally, though by no means universally +respected. "Discharge him if not married or settled in England," was the +usual order when he chanced to be taken by the gang. With the turn of +the century, however, a reaction set in. Pressed men claiming to be +of alien birth were thenceforth only liberated "if unfit for service." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2733--Capt. Young, 11 March 1756, +endorsement, and numerous instances.] For this untoward change the +foreigner could blame none but himself. When taxed with having an +English wife, he could seldom or never be induced to admit the soft +impeachment. Consequently, whenever he was taken by the gang he was +assumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to have committed +the fatal act of naturalisation. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +581--Admiral Phillip, 26 Feb. 1805.] Alien seamen in distress through +shipwreck or other accidental causes, formed a humane exception to this +unwritten law. + +The negro was never reckoned an alien. Looked upon as a proprietary +subject of the Crown, and having no one in particular to speak up for +or defend him, he "shared the same fate as the free-born white man." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 482--Admiral Lord Colvill, 29 Oct. +1762.] Many blacks, picked up in the West Indies or on the American +coast "without hurting commerce," were to be found on board our ships +of war, where, when not incapacitated by climatic conditions, they +made active, alert seamen and "generally imagined themselves free." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 585--Admiral Donnelly, 22 Feb. 1815.] +Their point of view, poor fellows, was doubtless a strictly comparative +one. + +Theoretically exempt by virtue of his calling, whatever that might be, +the landsman was in reality scarcely less marked down by the gang than +his unfortunate brother the seafaring man; for notwithstanding all its +professions to the contrary, Admiralty could not afford to ignore +the potentialities of the reserve the landsman represented. Hence no +occupation, no property qualification, could or did protect him. As +early as 1705 old Justice, in his treatise on sea law, deplores bitterly +the "barbarous custom of pressing promiscuously landsmen and seamen," +and declares that the gang, in its purblind zeal, "hurried away +tradesmen from their houses, 'prentices and journeymen from their +masters' shops, and even housekeepers (householders) too." By 1744 +the practice had become confirmed. In that year Capt. Innes, of His +Majesty's armed sloop the _Hind_, applied to the Lords Commissioners for +"Twenty Landsmen from Twenty to Twenty-five years of Age." The Admiralty +order, "Let the Regulating Captains send them as he desires," [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1983--Capt. Innes, 3 May 1744, and endorsement.] +leaves no room for doubt as to the class of men provided. They were +pressed men, not volunteers. + +Nor is this a solitary instance of a practice that was rapidly growing +to large proportions. Many a landsman, in the years that followed, +shared the fate of the Irish "country farmer" who went into Waterford +to sell his corn, and was there pressed and sent on board the tender; of +James Whitefoot, the Bristol glover, "a timid, unformed young man, the +comfort and support of his parents," who, although he had "never seen +a ship in his life," was yet pressed whilst "passing to follow his +business," which knew him no more; and of Winstanley, the London +butcher, who served for upwards of sixteen years as a pressed man. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1501--Capt. Bligh, 16 May 1781. +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1531--Duchess of Gordon, 14 Feb. 1804. _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 584--Humble Petition of Betsey Winstanley, 2 Sept. 1814.] +Wilkes' historic barber would have entered upon the same enforced career +had not that astute Alderman discovered, to the astonishment of the +nation at large, that a warrant which authorised the pressing of seamen +did not necessarily authorise the pressing of a city tonsor. + +Amongst landsmen the harvester, as a worker of vital utility to the +country, enjoyed a degree of exemption accorded to few. Impress officers +had particular instructions concerning him. They were to delete him from +the category of those who might be taken. Armed with a certificate from +the minister and churchwardens of his parish, this migratory farm-hand, +provided always he were not a sailor masquerading in that disguise, +could traverse the length and breadth of the land to all intents and +purposes a free man. To him, as well as to the grower of corn who +depended so largely upon his aid in getting his crop, the concession +proved an inestimable boon. There were violations of the harvester's +status, it is true; [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--Memorial of +Sir William Oglander, Bart., July 1796.] but these were too infrequent +to affect seriously the industry he represented. + +So far as the press was concerned, the harvester was better off than the +gentleman, for while the former could dress as he pleased, the latter +was often obliged to dress as he could, and in this lay an element of +danger. So long as his clothes were as good as the blood he boasted, and +he wore them with an aplomb suggestive of position and influence, the +gentleman was safe; but let his pretensions to gentility lie more in the +past than in the suit on his back, and woe betide him! In spite of his +protestations the gang took him, and he was lucky indeed if, like the +gentleman who narrates his experience in the _Review_ for the both of +February 1706, he was able to convince his captors that he was foreign +born by "talking Latin and Greek." + +To the people at large, whether landsmen or seafarers, the Act exempting +from the press every male under eighteen and over fifty-five years of +age would have brought a sorely needed relief had not Admiralty been a +past-master in the subtle art of outwitting the law. In this instance +a simple regulation did the trick. Every man or boy who claimed the +benefit of the age-limit when pressed, was required to prove his claim +ere he could obtain his discharge. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. +300--Law Officers' Opinions, 1778-83, No. 43: "It is incumbent on those +who claim to be exempted to prove the facts."] The impossibility of any +general compliance with such a demand on the part of persons often as +ignorant of birth certificates as they were of the sea, practically +wiped the exemption off the slate. + +In the eyes of the Regulating Captain no man was older than he looked, +no lad as young as he avowed. Hence thousands of pressed men over +fifty-five, who did not look the age they could not prove, figured on +the books of the fleet with boys whose precocity of appearance gave +the lie to their assertions. George Stephens, son of a clerk in the +Transport Office, suffered impressment when barely thirteen; and the son +of a corporal in Lord Elkinton's regiment, one Alexander M'Donald, +was listed in the same manner while still "under the age of twelve." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 583--Vice-Admiral Hunter, 10 May +1813. _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1503--Capt. Butchart, 22 Jan. 1782, and +enclosure.] The gang did not pause by the way to discuss such questions. + +Apprentices fell into a double category--those bound to the sea, those +apprenticed on land. Nominally, the sea apprentice was protected from +the impress for a term of three years from the date of his indentures, +provided he had not used the sea before; [Footnote: 2 & 3 Anne, cap. 6, +re-affirmed 13 George II. cap. 17.] while the land apprentice enjoyed +immunity under the minimum age-limit of eighteen years. The proviso in +the first case, however, left open a loop-hole the impress officer was +never slow to take advantage of; and the minimum age-limit, as we have +just seen, had little if any existence in fact. Apprentices pressed +after the three years' exemption had expired were never given up, nor +could their masters successfully claim them in law. They dropped like +ripe fruit into the lap of Admiralty. On the other hand, apprentices +pressed within the three years' exemption period were generally +discharged, for if they were not, they could be freed by a writ of +Habeas Corpus, or else the masters could maintain an action for damages +against the Admiralty. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 300--Law +Officers' Opinions, 1778-83, No. 25.] 'Prentices who "eloped" or ran +away from their masters, and then entered voluntarily, could not be +reclaimed by any known process at law if they were over eighteen years +of age. On the whole, the position of the apprentice, whether by land or +sea, was highly anomalous and uncertain. Often taken by the gang in the +hurry of visiting a ship, or in the scurry of a hot press on shore, he +was in effect the shuttlecock of the service, to-day singing merrily +at his capstan or bench, to-morrow bewailing his hard fate on board a +man-o'-war. + +When it came to the exemption of seamen, Admiralty found itself on the +horns of a dilemma. Both the Navy and the merchant service depended in a +very large degree upon the seaman who knew the ropes--who could take his +turn at the wheel, scud aloft without going through the lubber-hole, and +act promptly and sailorly in emergency. To take wholesale such men +as these, while it would enormously enhance the effectiveness of His +Majesty's ships of war, must inevitably cripple sea-borne trade. It was +therefore necessary, for the well-being of both services, to discover +the golden mean. According to statute law [Footnote: 13 George II. cap. +17.] every person using the sea, of what age soever he might be, was +exempt from the impress for two years from the time of his first making +the venture. The concession did not greatly improve the situation from +a trade point of view. It merely touched the fringe of the problem, and +Trade was insistent. + +A further concession was accordingly made. All masters, mates, +boatswains and carpenters of vessels of fifty tons and upwards were +exempted from the impress on condition of their going before a Justice +of the Peace and making oath to their several qualifications. This +affidavit, coupled with a succinct description of the deponent, +constituted the holder's "protection" and shielded him, or was supposed +to shield him, from molestation by the gang. Masters and mates of +colliers, and of vessels laid up for the winter, came under this head; +but masters or mates of vessels detected in running dutiable goods, or +caught harbouring deserters from the fleet, could be summarily dealt +with notwithstanding their protections. The same fate befell the mate or +apprentice who was lent by one ship to another. + +In addition to the executive of the vessel, as defined in the foregoing +paragraph, it was of course necessary to extend protection to as many +of her "hands", as were essential to her safe and efficient working. How +many were really required for this purpose was, however, a moot point on +which ship-masters and naval officers rarely saw eye to eye; and since +the arbiter in all such disputes was the "quarter-deck gentlemen," the +decision seldom if ever went in favour of the master. + +The importance of the coal trade won for colliers an early concession, +which left no room for differences of opinion. Every vessel employed +in that trade was entitled to carry one exempt able-bodied man for each +hundred units of her registered tonnage, provided it did not exceed +three hundred. The penalty for pressing such men was 10 Pounds for each +man taken. [Footnote: 2 & 3 Anne, cap. 6.] + +On the coasts of Scotland commanders of warships whose carpenters had +run or broken their leave, and who perhaps were left, like Capt. Gage of +the _Otter_ sloop, "without so much as a Gimblett on board," [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1829-Capt. Gage, 29 Sept. 1742.] might press +shipwrights from the yards on shore to fill the vacancy, and suffer no +untoward consequences; but south of the Tweed this mode of collecting +"chips" was viewed with disfavour. There, although ship-carpenters, +sailmakers and men employed in rope-walks were by a stretch of the +official imagination reckoned as persons using the sea, and although +they were generally acknowledged to be no less indispensable to the +complete economy of a ship than the able-bodied seaman, legal questions +of an extremely embarrassing nature nevertheless cropped up when the +scene of their activities underwent too sudden and violent a change. +The pressing of such artificers consequently met with little official +encouragement. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 300--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1778-83, No. 2.] + +Where the Admiralty scored, in the matter of ship protections, and +scored heavily, was when the protected person went ashore. For when on +shore the protected master, mate, boatswain, carpenter, apprentice +or seaman no longer enjoyed protection unless he was there "on ship's +duty." The rule was most rigorously, not to say arbitrarily, enforced. +Thus at Plymouth, in the year 1746, a seaman who protested in broken +English that he had come ashore to "look after his master's _sheep_" was +pressed because the naval officer who met and questioned him "imagined +sheep to have no affinity with a ship!" [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 2381--Capt. John Roberts, 11 July 1746. Capt. Roberts was a very +downright individual, and years before the characteristic had got him +into hot water. The occasion was when, in 1712, an Admiralty letter, +addressed to him at Harwich and containing important instructions, by +some mischance went astray and Roberts accused the Clerk of the Check of +having appropriated it. The latter called him a liar, whereupon Roberts +"gave him a slap in the face and bid him learn more manners." For this +exhibition of temper he was superseded and kept on the half-pay list +for some six years. _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1471--Capt. Brand, 8 March +1711-12. _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2378, section 11, Admiralty note.] + +Any mate who failed to register his name at the rendezvous, as soon as +his ship arrived in port, did so at his peril. Without that formality he +was "not entitled to liberty." So strict was the rule that when William +Tassell, mate of the _Elizabeth_ ketch, was caught drinking in a Lynn +alehouse one night at ten o'clock, after having obtained "leave to run +about the town" until eight only, he was immediately pressed and +kept, the Admiralty refusing to declare the act irregular. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1546--Capt. Bowyer, 25 July 1809, and enclosure.] + +In many ports it was customary for sailors to sleep ashore while +their ships lay at the quay or at moorings. The proceeding was highly +dangerous. No sailor ever courted sleep in such circumstances, even +though armed with a "line from the master setting forth his business," +without grave risk of waking to find himself in the bilboes. The Mayor +of Poole once refused to "back" press-warrants for local use unless +protected men belonging to trading vessels of the port were granted the +privilege of lodging ashore. "Certainly not!" retorted the Admiralty. +"We cannot grant Poole an indulgence _that other towns do not enjoy_." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2485--Capt. Scott, 4 Jan. 1780, and +endorsement.] + +In spite of the risk involved, the sailor slept ashore and--if he +survived the night--tried to steal back to his ship in the grey of the +morning. Now and then, by a run of luck, he made his offing in safety; +but more frequently he met the fate of John White of Bristol, who was +taken by the gang when only "about ninety yards from his vessel." + +The only exceptions to this stringent rule were certain classes of +men engaged in the Greenland and South Seas whale fisheries. Skilled +harpooners, linesmen and boat-steerers, on their return from a whaling +cruise, could obtain from any Collector of Customs, for sufficient bond +put in, a protection from the impress which no Admiralty regulation, +however sweeping, could invalidate or override. Safeguarded by this +document, they were at liberty to live and work ashore, or to sail in +the coal trade, until such time as they should be required to proceed +on another whaling voyage. If, however, they took service on board any +vessel other than a collier, they forfeited their protections and could +be "legally detained." [Footnote: 13 George II. cap. 28. _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 2732--Capt. Young, 14 March 1756. _Admiralty Records_ 7. +300--Law Officers' Opinions, 1778-83, No. 42.] + +In one ironic respect the gang strongly resembled a boomerang. So +thoroughly and impartially did it do its work that it recoiled upon +those who used it. The evil was one of long standing. Pepys complained +of it bitterly in his day, asserting that owing to its prevalence +letters could neither be received nor sent, and that the departmental +machinery for victualling and arming the fleet was like to be undone. +With the growth of pressing the imposition was carried to absurd +lengths. The crews of the impress tenders, engaged in conveying pressed +men to the fleet, could not "proceed down" without falling victims to +the very service they were employed in. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1486--Capt. Baird, 27 Feb. 1755, and numerous instances.] To check +this egregious robbing of Peter to pay Paul, both the Navy Board and the +Government were obliged to "protect" their own sea-going hirelings, and +even then the protections were not always effective. + +Between the extremes represented by the landsman who enjoyed nominal +exemption and the seaman who enjoyed none, there existed a middle or +amphibious class of persons who lived exclusively on neither land +nor water, but habitually used both in the pursuit of their various +callings. These were the wherry or watermen, the lightermen, bargemen, +keelmen, trowmen and canal-boat dwellers frequenting mainly the inland +waterways of the country. + +In the reign of Richard II. the jurisdiction of Admirals was denned as +extending, in a certain particular, to the "main stream of great rivers +nigh the sea." [Footnote: 15 Richard II. cap. 2.] Had the same line of +demarcation been observed in the pressing of those whose occupations lay +upon rivers, there would have been little cause for outcry or complaint. +But the Admiralty, the successors of the ancient "Guardians of the Sea" +whose powers were so clearly limited by the Ricardian statute, gradually +extended the old-time jurisdiction until, for the purposes of the +impress, it included all waterways, whether "nigh the sea" or inland, +natural or artificial, whereon it was possible for craft to navigate. +All persons working upon or habitually using such waterways were +regarded as "using the sea," and later warrants expressly authorised the +gangs to take as many of them as they should be able, not excepting even +the ferryman. The extension was one of tremendous consequence, since +it swept into the Navy thousands of men who, like the Ely and Cambridge +bargemen, were "hardy, strong fellows, who never failed to make good +seamen." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1486--Capt. Baird, 29 April +1755.] + +Amongst these denizens of the country's waterways the position of the +Thames wherryman was peculiar in that from very early times he had been +exempt from the ordinary incidence of the press on condition of +his periodically supplying from his own numbers a certain quota of +able-bodied men for the use of the fleet. The rule applied to all +watermen using the river between Gravesend and Windsor, and members +of the fraternity who "withdrew and hid themselves" at the time of the +making of such levies, were liable to be imprisoned for two years and +"banished any more to row for a year and a day." [Footnote: 2 & 3 Philip +and Mary, cap. 16.] The exemption he otherwise enjoyed appears to have +conduced not a little to the waterman's proverbial joviality. As a +youth he spent his leisure in "dancing and carolling," thus earning the +familiar sobriquet of "the jolly young waterman." Even so, his tenure of +happiness was anything but secure. With the naval officer and the gang +he was no favourite, and few opportunities of dashing his happiness were +allowed to pass unimproved. In the person of John Golden, however, +they caught a Tartar. To the dismay of the Admiralty and the officer +responsible for pressing him, he proved to be one of my Lord Mayor's +bargemen. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2733-Capt. Young, 7 March +1756.] + +Apart from the watermen of the Thames, the purchase of immunity from the +press by periodic levies met with little favour, and though the levy was +in many cases reluctantly adopted, it was only because it entailed the +lesser of two evils. The basis of such levies varied from one man in ten +to one in five--a percentage which the Admiralty considered a "matter +of no distress"; and the penalty for refusing to entertain them was +wholesale pressing. + +The Tyne keelmen, while ostensibly consenting to buy immunity on this +basis, seldom levied the quota upon themselves. By offering bounties +they drew the price of their freedom to work in the keels from outside +sources. Lord Thurlow confessed that he did not know what "working in +the keels" meant. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 299--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1752-77, No. 70.] There were' few in the fleet who could have +enlightened him of their own experience. The keelmen kept their ranks as +far as possible intact. In this they were materially aided by the Mayor +and Corporation of Newcastle, who held a "Grand Protection" of the +Admiralty, and in return for this exceptional mark of their Lordships' +favour did all they could to further the pressing of persons less +essential to the trade of the town and river than were their own +keelmen. + +On the rivers Severn and Wye there was plying in 1806 a flotilla of +ninety-eight trows, ranging in capacity from sixty to one hundred and +thirty tons, and employing five hundred and eighty-eight men, of whom +practically all enjoyed exemption from the press. It being a time of +exceptional stress for men, the Admiralty considered this proportion +excessive, and Capt. Barker, at that time regulating the press at +Bristol, was ordered to negotiate terms. He proposed a contribution of +trowmen on the basis of one in every ten, coupling the suggestion with a +thinly veiled threat that if it were not complied with he would set +his gangs to work and take all he could get. The Association of Severn +Traders, finding themselves thus placed between the devil and the deep +sea, agreed to the proposal with a reluctance they in vain endeavoured +to hide under ardent protestations of loyalty. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1537--Capt. Barker, 24 April and 9 May 1806, and enclosure.] + +In the three hundred "flats" engaged in carrying salt, coals and other +commodities between Nantwich and Liverpool there were employed, in +1795, some nine hundred men who had up to that time largely escaped +the attentions of the gang. In that year, however, an arrangement was +entered into, under duress of the usual threat, to the effect that they +should contribute one man in six, or at the least one man in nine, +in return for exemption to be granted to the remainder. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 578--Admiral Pringle, Report on Rendezvous, 2 +April 1795.] + +Turf-boats plying on the Blackwater and the Shannon seem to have enjoyed +no special concessions. The men working them were pressed when-ever they +could be laid hold of, and if they were not always kept, their discharge +was due to reasons of physical unfitness rather than to any acknowledged +right to labour unmolested. Ireland's contribution to the fleet, apart +from the notoriously disaffected, was of too much consequence to be +played with; for the Irishman was essentially a good-natured soul, +and when his native indolence and slowness of movement had been duly +corrected by a judicious use of the rattan and the rope's-end, his +services were highly esteemed in His Majesty's ships of war. + +In the category of exemptions the fisheries occupied a place entirely +their own. They were carefully fostered, but indifferently protected. + +Previous to the year 1729 the most important concession granted to those +engaged in the taking of fish was the establishing of two extra "Fishe +Dayes" in the week. The provision was embodied in a statute of 1563, +whereby the people were required, under a penalty of, 3 Pounds for each +omission, "or els three monethes close Imprisonment without Baile or +Maineprise," to eat fish, to the total exclusion of meat, on Fridays and +Saturdays, and to content themselves with "one dish of flesh to three +dishes of fish" on Wednesdays. [Footnote: 5 Elizabeth, cap. 5.] The +enactment had no religious significance whatever; but in order to avoid +any suspicion of Popish tendencies it was deemed advisable, by those +responsible for the measure, to saddle it with a rider to the effect +that all persons teaching, preaching or proclaiming the eating of fish, +as enjoined by the Act, to be of "necessitee for the saving of the soule +of man," should be punished as "spreaders of fause newes." The true +significance of the measure lay in this. The abolition of Romish +fast-days had resulted, since the Reformation, in an enormous falling +off in the consumption of fish, and this decrease had in turn played +havoc with the fisheries. Now the fisheries were in reality the national +incubator for seamen, and Cecil, Elizabeth's astute Secretary of +State, perceiving in their decadence a grave menace to the manning of +prospective fleets, determined, for that reason if for no other, to +reanimate the dying industry. The Act in question was the practical +outcome of his deliberations. [Footnote: _State Papers Domestic_, +Elizabeth, vol. xxvii. Nos. 71 and 72, comprising Cecil's original +memoranda.] + +An enactment which combined so happily the interests of the fisher +classes with those of national defence could not but be productive +of far-reaching consequences. The fishing industry not only throve +exceedingly because of it, it in time became, as Cecil clearly foresaw +it would become, a nursery for seamen and a feeder of the fleet as +unrivalled for the excellence of its material as it was inexhaustible in +its resources. Its prosperity was in fact its curse. Few exemptions were +granted it. Adventurers after whale and cod had special concessions, +suited to the peculiar conditions of their calling; but with these +exceptions craft of every description employed in the taking or the +carrying of fish, for a very protracted period enjoyed only such +exemptions as were grudgingly extended to sea-going craft in general. +The source of supply represented by the leviathan industry was too +valuable to be lightly restricted. + +On the other hand, it was too important to be lightly depleted. +Therefore under Cecil's Act establishing extra "Fishe Dayes," no +fisherman "using or haunting the sea" could be pressed off-hand to serve +in the Queen's Navy. The "taker," as the press-master was at that time +called, was obliged to carry his warrant to the Justices inhabiting +the place or places where it was proposed that the fishermen should be +pressed, and of these Justices any two were empowered to "choose +out such nomber of hable men" as the warrant specified. In this way +originated the "backing" or endorsing of warrants by the civil power. At +first obligatory only as regards the pressing of fishermen, it came to +be regarded in time as an essential preliminary to all pressing done on +land. + +No further provision of a special nature would appear to have been made +for the protecting of fisher folk from the press until the year 1729, +when an exemption was granted which covered the master, one apprentice, +one seaman and one landsman for each vessel. [Footnote: 2 George n. cap. +15.] In 1801, however, a sweeping change was inaugurated. A statute +of that date provided that no person engaged in the taking, curing or +selling of fish should be impressed. [Footnote: 41 George in. cap. 21.] +The exemption came too late to prove substantially beneficial to an +industry which had suffered incalculable injury from the then recent +wars. The press-gang was already nearing its last days. + +Prior to the Act of 1801 persons whose sole occupation was "to +pick oysters and mussels at low water" were accounted fishermen and +habitually pressed as "using the sea." + +The position of the smaller fry of fishermen is thrown into vivid relief +by an official communique of 1709 as opposed to an incident of later +date. "These poor people," runs the note, which was addressed to a naval +commander who had pressed a fisherman out of a boat of less than three +tons, "have been always protected for the support of their indigent +families, and therefore they must not Be taken into the service +unless there is a pressing occasion, _and then they will be all forced +thereinto_." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1.2377--Capt. Robinson, 4 +Feb. 1708-9, and endorsement.] Captain Boscawen, writing from the Nore +in 1745, supplies the antithesis. He had been instructed to procure half +a dozen fishing smacks, each of not less than sixty tons burden, for +transport purposes. None were to be had. "The reason the fishermen give +for not employing vessels of that size," he states, in explanation of +the fact, "is that all the young men are pressed, and that the old men +and boys are not able to work them." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1481--Capt. Boscawen, 23 Dec. 1745.] + +Conditions such as these in time taught the fisherman wisdom, and he +awoke to the fact that exemption for a consideration, as in the case of +workers on rivers and canals, was preferable to paying through the +nose. The Admiralty was never averse from driving a bargain of this +description. It saved much distress, much bad blood, much good money. +In this way Worthing fishermen bought exemption in 1780. The fishery of +that town was then in its infancy, the people engaged in it "very poor +and needy." They employed only sixteen boats. Yet they found it cheaper +to contribute five men to the Navy, at a cost of 40 Pounds in +bounties, than to entertain the gang. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1446--Capt. Alms, 2 Jan. 1780.] + +The Orkney fisherman bought his freedom, both on his fishing-grounds and +when carrying his catch to market, on similar terms; but being a person +of frugal turn of mind, he gradually developed the habit of withholding +his stipulated quota. The unexpected arrival in his midst of an armed +smack, followed by a spell of vigorous pressing, taught him that to +be penny-wise is sometimes to be pound-foolish. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 2740--Lieut. Abbs, 11 May 1798, and Admiralty note.] + +On the Scottish coasts fishermen and ferrymen--the latter a numerous +class on that deeply indented seaboard--offered up one man in every five +or six on the altar of protection. The sacrifice distressed them less +than indiscriminate pressing. A prosperous people, they chose out those +of their number who could best be spared, supporting the families thus +left destitute by common subscription. Buss fishermen, who followed +the migratory herring; from fishing-ground to fishing-ground, were +in another category. Their contribution, when on the Scottish coast, +figured out at a man per buss, but as they were for some inscrutable +reason called upon to pay similar tribute on other parts of the coast, +they cannot be said to have escaped any too lightly. Neither did the +four hundred fishing-boats composing the Isle of Man fleet. Their crews +were obliged to surrender one man in every seven. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 579--Admiral Pringle, Report on Rendezvous, 2 April 1795; +Admiral Philip, Report on Rendezvous, 1 Aug. 1801.] + +Opinions as to the value of material drawn from these sources differed +widely. The buss fisherman was on all hands acknowledged to be a +seasoned sailor; but when it came to those employed in smaller craft, it +was held that heaving at the capstan for a matter of only six or seven +weeks in the year could never convert raw lads into useful seamen, even +though they continued that healthful form of exercise all their lives. +This was the view entertained by the masters of fishing-smacks smarting +from loss of "hands." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1497--Thomas +Hurry, master, 3 March 1777.] + +Admiralty saw things in quite another light. "What you admit," said +their Lordships, expressing the counter-view, "it is our business to +prevent. We will therefore take these lads, who are admittedly of no +service to you save for hauling in your nets or getting your anchors, +and will make of them what you, on your own showing, can never +make--able seamen.": The argument, backed as it was by the strong arm of +the press-gang, was unanswerable. + +The fact that the fisherman passed much of his time on shore did not +free him from the press any more than it freed the waterman, or the +worker in keel or trow. In his main vocation he "used the sea," and that +was enough. For the use of the sea was the rule and standard by which +every man's liability to the press was supposed to be measured and +determined. + +Except in the case of masters, mates and apprentices to the sea, whose +affidavits or indentures constituted their respective safeguards against +the press, every person exempt from that infliction, whether by statute +law or Admiralty indulgence, was required to have in his possession an +official voucher setting forth the fact and ground of his exemption. +This document was ironically termed his "protection." + +Admiralty protections were issued under the hand of the Lord High +Admiral; ordinary protections, by departments and persons who possessed +either delegated or vested powers of issue. Thus each Trinity House +protected its own pilots; the Customs protected whale fishermen and +apprentices to the sea; impress officers protected seamen temporarily +lent to ships in lieu of men taken out of them by the gangs. Some +protections were issued for a limited period and lapsed when that period +expired; others were of perpetual "force," unless invalidated by some +irregular acton the part of the holder. No protection was good unless +it bore a minute description of the person to whom it applied, and all +protections had to be carried on the person and produced upon demand. +Thomas Moverty was pressed out of a wherry in the Thames owing to his +having changed his clothes and left his protection at home; and +John Scott of Mistley, in Suffolk, was taken whilst working in his +shirtsleeves, though his protection lay in the pocket of his jacket, +only a few yards away. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1479--Capt. +Bridges, 11 August 1743. _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1531--Capt. Ballard, 15 +March 1804, and enclosure.] + +The most trifling irregularity in the protection itself, or the +slightest discrepancy between the personal appearance of the bearer and +the written description of him, was enough to convert the protection +into so much waste paper and the bearer into a naval seaman. +North-country apprentices, whose indentures bore a 14s. stamp in +accordance with Scottish law, were pressed because that document did not +bear a 15s. stamp according to English law. A seaman was in one instance +described in his protection as "smooth-faced," that is, beardless. The +impress officer scrutinised him closely. "Aha!" said he, "you are not +smooth-faced. You are pockmarked"; and he pressed the poor fellow for +that reason. + +To be over-protected was as bad as having no protection at all. +Thomas Letting, a collier's man, and John Anthony of the merchant ship +_Providence_, learnt this fact to their cost when they were taken out +of their respective ships for having each two protections. In short, +the slightest pretext served. If a protection had but a few more days to +run; if the name, date, place or other essential particular showed +signs of "coaxing," that is, of having been "on purpose rubbed out" or +altered; if a man's description did not figure in his protection, or +if it figured on the back instead of in the margin, or in the margin +instead of on the back; if his face wore a ruddy rather than a pale +look, if his hair were red when it ought to have been brown, if he +proved to be "tall and remarkable thin" when he should have been +middle-sized and thick-set--in any of these, as in a hundred and one +similar cases, the bearer of the protection paid the penalty for what +the impress officer regarded as a "hoodwinking attempt" to cheat the +King's service of an eligible man. + +Notwithstanding the fact that the impress officer regarded every +pressable man as a person who made it his chief business in life +to defraud the Navy of his services on the "miserable plea of a +protection," it by no means followed that his zeal in pressing him +on that account had in every case the countenance or met with the +unqualified approval of the Admiralty. Thousands of men and boys taken +in this irresponsible fashion obtained their discharge, though with +more or less difficulty and delay, when the facts of the case were +laid before the naval authorities; and in general it may be said, that +although the Lords Commissioners were only too ready to wink at any +colourable excuse whereby another physical unit might be added to the +fleet, they nevertheless laid it down as a rule, inviolable at least +on paper, "never to press any man from protections," since it brought +"great trouble and clamour upon them." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +3. 50--Admiralty Minutes, 26 Feb. 1744-5.] To assert that the rule was +generally obeyed would be to turn the truth into a lie. On the contrary, +it was almost universally disregarded. Both officers and gangs traversed +it on every possible occasion, leaving the justice or injustice of the +act to the arbitrament of the higher tribunal. Zeal for the service was +no crime, and to release a man was always so much easier than to catch +him. + +"Pressing from protections," as the phrase ran in the service, did +not therefore mean that the Admiralty over-rode its own protections +at pleasure. It merely signified that on occasion more than ordinarily +stringent measures were adopted for the holding-up and examining of +all protected persons, or of as many of them as could be got at by the +gangs, to the end that all false or fraudulent vouchers might be weeded +out and the dishonest bearers of them consigned to another place. And +yet there were times when "pressing from protections" had its plenary +significance too. + +Lovers of prints who are familiar with Hogarth's "Stage Coach; or, +a Country Inn Yard," date 1747, will readily recall the two +"outsides"--the one a down-in-the-mouth soldier, the other a jolly +Jack-tar on whose bundle may be read the word "Centurion." Now the +_Centurion_ was Anson's flag-ship, and in this print Hogarth has +incidentally recorded the fact that her crew, on their return from that +famous voyage round the world, were awarded life-protections from the +press. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1440--Capt. Anson, 24 July +1744.] + +The life-protection was an indulgence extended to few. Samuel Davidson +of Newcastle, sailor, aged fifty, who had "served for nine years during +the late wars," in 1777 made bold to plead that fact as a reason why he +should be freed from the attentions of the press-gang for the rest of +his life. But the Lords Commissioners refused to admit the plea "unless +he was in a position not inferior to that of chief mate." On the other +hand, Henry Love of Hastings, who had merely served in a single Dutch +expedition, but had the promise of Pitt and Dundas that both he and +those who volunteered with him should never be pressed, was immediately +discharged when that calamity befell him. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1449--Capt. Columbine, 21 July 1800.] + +The granting of extraordinary protections was thus something entirely +erratic and not to be counted upon. Captain Balchen in 1708 had special +protections for ten of his ship's company whom he desired to bring to +London as witnesses in a suit then pending against him; but the building +of the three earlier Eddystone lighthouses was allowed to be seriously +impeded by the pressing of the unprotected workmen when on shore at +Plymouth, and the keepers of the first erection of that name were once +carried off bag and baggage by the gang. + +Smeaton, who built the third Eddystone, protected his men by means of +silver badges, and his storeboat enjoyed similar immunity--presumably +with the consent of Admiralty--by reason of a picture of the lighthouse +painted on her sail. Other great constructors, as well as rich +mercantile firms, bought protection at a price. They supplied a +stipulated number of men for the fleet, and found the arrangement a +highly convenient one for ridding themselves of those who were useless +to them or had incurred their displeasure. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 583--Admiral Thornborough, 30 Nov. 1813.] + +Private protections, of which great numbers saw the light, were in no +case worth the paper they were written on. Joseph Bettesworth of Ryde, +Isle of Wight, Attorney-at-Law and Lord of the Manor of Ashey and Ryde, +by virtue of an ancient privilege pertaining to that Manor and confirmed +by royal Letters Patent, in 1790 protected some twenty seafaring men to +work his "Antient Ferry or Passage for the Wafting of Passengers to and +from Ride, Portsmouth and Gosport, in a smack of about 14 tons, and a +wherry." The regulating captain at the last-named place asked what he +should do about it. "Press every man as soon as possible," replied their +Lordships. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1506--Capt. John Bligh, +June 1790, and enclosure.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WHAT THE GANG DID AFLOAT. + + + +"A man we want, and a man we must have," was the naval cry of the +century. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1531--Deposition of John +Swinburn, 28 July 1804.] + +Nowhere was the cry so loud or so insistent as on the sea, where every +ship of war added to its volume. In times of peace, when the demand +for men was gauged by those every-day factors, sickness, death and +desertion, it dwindled, if it did not altogether die away; but given +a war-cloud on the near horizon and the cry for men swelled, as +many-voiced as there were keels in the fleet, to a sudden clamour of +formidable proportions--a clamour that only the most strenuous and +unremitting exertions could in any measure appease. + +Every navy is argus-eyed, and in crises such as these, when the +very existence of the nation was perhaps at stake, it was first and +principally towards the crews of the country's merchant ships that the +eyes of the Navy were directed; for, shipboard life and shipboard duty +being largely identical in both services, no elaborate training +was required to convert the merchant sailor into a first-rate +man-o'-war's-man. The ships of both services were sailing ships. Both, +as a rule, went armed. Hence, not only was the merchant sailor an able +seaman, he was also trained in the handling of great guns, and in the +use of the cutlass, the musket and the boarding-pike. In a word, he was +that most valuable of all assets to a people seeking to dominate the +sea--a man-o'-war's-man ready-made, needing only to be called in in +order to become immediately effective. + +The problem was how to catch him--how to take him fresh and vigorous +from his deep-sea voyaging--how to enroll him in the King's Navy ere he +got ashore with a pocketful of money and relaxed his hardened muscles in +the uncontrolled debauchery he was so partial to after long abstention. + +A device of the simplest yet of the most elaborate description met the +difficulty. It was based upon the fact that to take the sailor afloat +was a much easier piece of strategy than to ferret him out of his +hiding-places after he got ashore. The impress trap was therefore set in +such a way as to catch him before he reached the land. + +With infinite ingenuity and foresight sea-gangs were picketed from +harbour to harbour, from headland to headland, until they formed an +almost unbroken chain around the coasts and guarded the sailor's every +point of accustomed approach from overseas: This was the outer cordon +of the system, the beginning of the gauntlet the returning sailor had to +run, and he was a smart seaman indeed who could successfully negotiate +the uncharted rocks and shoals with which the coast was everywhere +strewn in his despite. + +The composition of this chain of sea-gangs was mixed to a degree, yet +singularly homogeneous. + +First of all, on its extreme outer confines, perhaps as far down Channel +as the Scillies, or as far north as the thirteen-mile stretch of sea +running between the Mull of Kintyre and the Irish coast, where the trade +for Liverpool, Whitehaven, Dublin and the Clyde commonly came in, the +homing sailor would suddenly descry, bearing down upon him under press +of sail, the trim figure of one of His Majesty's frigates, or the clean, +swift lines of an armed sloop. The meeting was no chance one. Both +the frigate and the sloop were there by design, the former cruising +to complete her own complement, the latter to complete that of some +ship-of-the-line at Plymouth, Spithead or the Nore, to which she stood +in the relation of tender. + +Tenders were vessels taken into the king's service "at the time of +Impressing Seamen." Hired at certain rates per month, they continued in +the service as long as they were required, often most unwillingly, and +were principally employed in obtaining men for the king's ships or in +matters relative thereto. In burden they varied from thirty or forty to +one hundred tons, [Footnote: This was the maximum tonnage for which the +Navy Board paid, but when trade was slack larger vessels could be had, +and were as a matter of fact frequently employed, at the nominal tonnage +rate.] the smaller craft hugging the coast and dropping in from port +to port, the larger cruising far beyond shore limits. For deep-sea or +trade-route cruising the smaller craft were of little use. No ship of +force would bring-to for them. + +While press-warrants were supplied regularly to every warship, no matter +what her rating, the supply of tenders was less general and much more +erratic. It was only when occasion demanded it, and then only to ships +of the first, second and third rate, that tenders were assigned for the +purpose of bringing their crews up to full strength. The urgency of +the occasion, the men to be "rose," the diplomacy of the commander +determined the number. A tender to each ship was the rule, but however +parsimonious the Navy Board might be on such occasions, a carefully +worded appeal to its prejudices seldom failed to produce a second, +or even a third attendant vessel. Boscawen once had recourse to this +ingenious ruse in order to obtain tender number two. The Navy Board +detested straggling seamen, so he suggested that, with several tenders +lying idle in the Thames, his men might be far more profitably employed +than in straggling about town. "Most reprehensible practice!" assented +the Board, and placed a second vessel at his disposal without more ado. +Lieut. Upton was immediately put in charge of her and ordered seawards. +He returned within a week with twenty-seven men, pressed out of +merchantmen in Margate Roads. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1478--Letters of Capt. Boscawen, July and August 1743.] + +The tender assigned to Boscawen on this occasion was the _Galloper_, an +American-built vessel, "rigged in the manner the West Indians do +their sloops." Her armament consisted of six 9-pounders and threescore +small-arms, but as a sea-boat she belied her name, for she was +hopelessly sluggish under sail, and the great depth of her waist, and +her consequent liability to ship seas in rough weather, rendered her +"very improper" for cruising in the Channel. + +For her company she had a master, a mate and six hands supplied by the +owners, in addition to thirty-four seamen temporarily drafted into her +from Boscawen's ship, the _Dreadnought_. It was the duty of the former +to work the vessel, of the latter to do the pressing; but these +duties were largely interchangeable. All were under the command of the +lieutenant, who with forty-two men at his beck and call could organise, +on a pinch, five gangs of formidable strength and yet leave sufficient +hands, given fair weather, to mind the tender in their temporary +absence. Tender's men were generally the flower of a ship's company, +old hands of tried fidelity, equal to any emergency and reputedly proof +against bribery, rum and petticoats. Yet the temptation to give duty the +slip and enjoy the pleasures of town for a season sometimes proved too +strong, even for them, and we read of one boat's-crew of eight, who, +overcome in this way, were discovered after many days in a French +prison. Instead of going pressing in the Downs, they had gone to +Boulogne. + +On the commanders of His Majesty's ships the onus of raising men fell +with intolerable insistence. Nelson's greatest pleasure in his promotion +to Admiral's rank is said to have been derived from the fact that with +it there came a blessed cessation to the scurvy business of pressing; +and there were in the service few captains, whether before or after +Nelson's day, who could not echo with hearty approval the sentiment of +Capt. Brett of the _Roebuck_, when he said: "I can solemnly declare +that the getting and taking care of my men has given me more trouble and +uneasiness than all the rest of my duty." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1478--Capt. Brett, 27 Oct. 1742.] + +Commanders of smaller and less effective ships found themselves on the +horns of a cruel dilemma did they dare to ask for tenders. Beg and +pray as they would, these were rarely allowed them save as a special +indulgence or a crying necessity. To most applications from this source +the Admiralty opposed a front well calculated "to encourage the others." +"If he has not men enough to proceed on service," ran its dictum, "their +Lordships will lay up the ship." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1471--Capt. Boyle, 1 March 1715-6, endorsement, and numerous instances.] +Faced with the summary loss of his command, their Lordships' high +displeasure, and consequent inactivity and half-pay for an indefinite +period, the captain whose complement was short, and who could obtain +neither men nor tender from the constituted authority, had no option but +to put to sea with such hands as he already bore and there beat up for +others. This, with their Lordships' gracious permission, he accordingly +did, thus adding another unit to the fleet of armed vessels already +prowling the Narrow Seas on a similar errand. It can be readily imagined +that such commanders were not out for pleasure. + +To the great and incessantly active flotilla got together in this way, +the regulating captains on shore contributed a further large contingent. +Every seaport of consequence had its rendezvous, every seaport +rendezvous its amphibious gang or gangs who ranged the adjacent coast +for many leagues in swift bottoms whose character and mission often +remained wholly unsuspected until some skilful manoeuvre laid them +aboard their intended victim and brought the gang swarming over her +decks, armed to the teeth and resolute to press her crew. + +We have now three classes of vessels, of varying build, rig, tonnage and +armament, engaged in a common endeavour to intercept and take the homing +sailor. Let us next see how they were disposed upon the coast. + +Tenders from Greenwich and Blackwall ransacked the Thames below bridge +as far as Blackstakes in the river Medway, the Nore and the Swin +channel. Tenders from Margate, Ramsgate, Deal and Dover watched the +lower Thames estuary, swept the Downs, and kept a sharp lookout along +the coasts of Kent and Sussex, of Essex and of Norfolk. To these tenders +from Lynn dipped their colours off Wells-on-Sea or Cromer, whence +they bore away for the mouth of Humber, where Hull tenders took up the +running till met by those belonging to Sunderland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne +and Shields, which in turn joined up the cordon with others hailing +from Leith and the Firth of Forth. Northward of the Forth, away to the +extreme Orkneys, and all down the west coast of Scotland through the two +Minches and amongst the Hebrides, specially armed sloops from Leith and +Greenock made periodic cruises. Greenock tenders, again, united with +tenders from Belfast and Whitehaven in a lurking watch for ships making +home ports by way of the North Channel; or circled the Isle of Man, ran +thence across to Morecambe Bay, and so down the Lancashire coast the +length of Formby Head, where the Mersey tenders, alert for the Jamaica +trade, relieved them of their vigil. Dublin tenders guarded St. George's +Channel, aided by others from Milford Haven and Haverfordwest. Bristol +tenders cruised the channel of that names keeping a sharp eye on Lundy +Island and the Holmes, where shipmasters were wont to play them tricks +if they were not watchful. Falmouth and Plymouth tenders guarded the +coast from Land's End to Portland Bill, Portsmouth tenders from Portland +Bill to Beachy Head, and Folkestone and Dover tenders from Beachy Head +to the North Foreland, thus completing the encircling chain. Nor was +Ireland forgotten in the general sea-rummage. As a converging point for +the great overseas trade-routes it was of prime importance, and tenders +hailing from Belfast, Dublin, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, or making +those places their chief ports of call, exercised unceasing vigilance +over all the coast. + +In this general scouring of the coastal waters of the kingdom certain +points were of necessity subjected to a much closer surveillance than +others. Particularly was this true of the sea routes followed by the +East and West India, and the Baltic, Virginia, Newfoundland, Dutch +and Greenland trades, where these converged upon such centres of +world-commerce as London, Poole, Bristol, Liverpool and the great +northern entrepots on the Forth and Clyde, the Humber and the Tyne. A +tender stationed off Poole, when a Newfoundland fish-convoy was expected +in, never failed to reap a rich harvest. At Highlake, near the mouth +of the Mersey, many a fine haul was made from the sugar and rum-laden +Jamaica ships, the privateers and slavers from which Liverpool drew her +wealth. Early in the century sloops of war had orders "to cruise between +Beechy and the Downs to Impress men out of homeward-bound Merchant +Ships," and in 1755 Rodney's lieutenants found the Channel "full of +tenders." Except in times of profound peace--few and brief in the +century under review--it was rarely or never in any other state. An +ocean highway so congested with the winged vehicles of commerce could +not escape the constant vigilance of those whose business it was to +waylay the inward-bound sailor. + +A favourite station in the Channel was "at ye west end of ye Isle of +Wight, near Hurst Castle," where the watchful tender, having under her +eye all ships coming from the westward, as well as all passing through +the Needles, could press at pleasure by the simple expedient of sending +gangs aboard of them. At certain times of the year such ports as +Grimsby, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Brixham came in for similar +attention. When the fleets were due back from the "Great Fishery" on the +Dogger Banks, tenders cruising off those ports netted more men than they +could find room for; and so heavy was the tribute paid in this way by +the fishermen of the last-named port in 1805, that "not a single man was +to be found in Brixham liable to the impress." Every unprotected man, +out of a total of ninety-six fishing-smacks then belonging to the place, +had been snapped up by the tenders and ships of war cruising off the bay +or further up-Channel. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral +Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 15 Sept.] + +The double cordon composed of ships and tenders on the cruise by no +means exhausted the resources called into play for the intercepting of +the sailor afloat. Still nearer the land was a third or innermost line +composed of boat-gangs operating, like so many of the tenders, from +rendezvous on shore, or from ships of war lying in dock or riding +at anchor. Less continuous than the outer cordon, it was not less +effective, and many a sailor who by strategy or good luck had all but +won through, struck his flag to the gang when perhaps only the cast of a +line separated him from shore and liberty. + +It was across the entrance to harbours and navigable estuaries that this +innermost line was most frequently and most successfully drawn. Pill, +the pilot station for the port of Bristol, threw out such a line to +the further bank of Avon and thereby caught many an able seaman who +had evaded the tenders below King Road. On Southampton Water it was +generally so impassable that few men who could in the slightest +degree be considered liable to the press escaped its toils. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 5 +Aug. 1805.] Dublin Bay knew it well. A press "on float" there, carried +out silently and swiftly in the grey of a September morning, 1801, +whilst the mists still hung thick over the water, resulted in the +seizure of seventy-four seamen who had eluded the press-smacks cruising +without the bay; but of this number two proving to be protected +apprentices, the Lord Mayor sent the Water Bailiff of the city, "with a +detachment of the army," and took them by force out of the hands of the +gang. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1526--Capt. Brabazon, 16 Sept. +1801.] On the Thames, notwithstanding the ceaseless activity of the +outer cordons, the innermost line of capture yielded enormously. The +night of October the 28th, 1776, saw three hundred and ninety-nine men, +the greater part of them good seamen, pressed by the boats of a single +ship--the _Princess Augusta_, Captain Sir Richard Bickerton commander, +then fitting out at Woolwich. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1497--Capt. Bickerton, 29 Oct. 1776.] Such a raid was very properly +termed a "hot press." + +The amazing feature of this exploit is, that it should have been +possible at all, in view of what was going on in the Thames estuary +below a line drawn across the river's mouth from Foulness to +Sheerness-reach. Seawards of this line lay the two most famous +anchorages in the world, where ships foregathered from every quarter +of the navigable globe. Than the Nore and the Downs no finer +recruiting-ground could anywhere be found, and here the shore-gangs +afloat, and the boat-gangs from ships of war, were for ever on the +alert. No ship, whether inward or outward bound, could pass the Nore +without being visited. Nothing went by unsearched. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 2733--Capt. Young, 7 March 1756.] The wonder is that any +unprotected sailor ever found his way to London. + +Between the Nore and the North Foreland the conditions were equally +rigorous. Through all the channels leading to the sea, channels +affording anchorage to innumerable ships of every conceivable rig and +tonnage, the gangs roamed at will, exacting toll of everything that +carried canvas. Even the smaller craft left high and dry upon the +flats, or awaiting the tide in some sand-girt pool, did not escape their +hawk-like vigilance. + + [Illustration: SEIZING A WATERMAN ON TOWER HILL ON THE MORNING OF HIS +WEDDING DAY.] + +In the Downs these conditions reached their climax, for thither, in +never-ending procession, came the larger ships which were so fruitful of +good hauls. With the wind at north, or between north and east, few ships +came in and little could be done. But when the wind veered and came +piping out of the west or sou'-west, in they came in such numbers that +the gangs, however numerous they might be, had all their work cut out +to board them. A special tender, swift and exceedingly well-found, was +accordingly stationed here, whose duty it was to be "very watchful that +no vessel passed without a visit from the impress boats." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 2733--Orders of Vice-Admiral Buckle to Capt. +Yates, 29 April 1778.] In such work as this man-o'-war boats were of +little use. Just as they could not negotiate Deal beach without danger +of being reduced to matchwood, so they could not live in the choppy sea +kicked up in the Downs by a westerly gale. Folkstone market boats and +Deal cutters had to be requisitioned for pressing in those waters. Their +seaworthiness and speed made the Downs the crux of inward-bound ships, +whose only means of escaping their attentions was to incur another +danger by "going back of the Goodwins." + +The procedure of boat-gangs pressing in harbour or on rivers seldom +varied, unless it were by accident. As a rule, night was the time +selected, for to catch the sailor asleep conduced greatly to the success +and safety of the venture. The hour chosen was consequently either close +upon midnight, some little time after he had turned in, or in the early +morning before he turned out. The darker the night and the dirtier the +weather the better. Surprise, swiftly and silently carried out, was half +the battle. + +A case in point is the attempt made by Lieut. Rudsdale, of H.M.S. +_Licorne_, "to impress all men (without exception) from the ships and +vessels lying at Cheek Point above Passage of Waterford," in the year +'79. Putting-off in the pinnace with a picked crew at eleven o'clock +on a dark and tempestuous October night, he had scarcely left the ship +astern ere he overtook a boatload of men, how many he could not well +discern in the darkness, pulling in the direction he himself was bound. +Fearful lest they should suspect the nature of his errand and alarm +the ships at Passage, he ran alongside of them and pressed the entire +number, sending the boat adrift. Putting back, he set his capture on +board the _Licorne_ and once more turned the nose of the pinnace towards +Passage. There, dropping noiselessly aboard the _Triton_ brig, he caught +the hands asleep, pressed as many of them as he had room for, and with +them returned to the ship. Meanwhile, the master of the _Triton_ armed +what hands he had left and met Rudsdale's second attempt to board +him with a formidable array of handspikes, hatchets and crowbars. +A fusillade of bottles and billets of wood further evinced his +determination to protect the brig against all comers, and lest there +should be any doubt on that point he swore roundly that he would be the +death of every man in the pinnace if they did not immediately sheer +off and leave him in peace. This the lieutenant wisely did. No further +surprises were possible that night, for by this time the alarm had +spread, the pinnace was half-full of missiles, and one of his men lay +in the bottom of her severely wounded. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +471--Deposition of Lieut. Rudsdale, 24 Oct. 1779.] As it was, he had a +very fair night's work to his credit. Between the occupants of the boat +and those of the brig he had obtained close upon a score of men. + +The expedients resorted to by commanders of ships of war temporarily +in port and short of their tale of men are vividly depicted in a report +made to the Admiralty in 1711. "Three days ago, very privately," +writes Capt. Billingsley, whose ship, the _Vanguard_, was then lying at +Blackstakes, "I Sent two fishing Smacks with a Lieutenant and some Men, +with orders to proceede along the Essex Coast, and downe as far as the +Wallet, to the Naze, with directions to take all the men out of Oyster +Vessels and others that were not Exempted. The project succeeded, and +they are return'd with fourteen men, all fit, and but one has ever been +in the Service. The coast was Alarm'd, and the country people came downe +and fir'd from the Shore upon the Smacks, and no doubt but they doe +still take 'em to be privateers." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1470--Capt. Billingsley, 5 May 1711.] + +Pressing at sea differed materially in many of its aspects from pressing +on the more sheltered waters of rivers and harbours. Carried out as a +rule in the broad light of day, it was for that very reason accompanied +with a more open and determined display of force than those quieter +ventures which depended so largely for their success upon the element +of surprise. Situated as we are in these latter days, when anyone who +chooses may drive his craft from Land's End to John o' Groats without +hindrance, it is difficult to conceive that there was ever a time when +the whole extent of the coastal waters of the kingdom, as ranged by +the impress tender, was under rigorous martial law. Yet such was +unquestionably the case. Throughout the eighteenth century the flag was +everywhere in armed evidence in those waters, and no sailing master of +the time could make even so much as a day's run with any certainty that +the peremptory summons: "Bring to! I'm coming aboard of you," would not +be bawled at him from the mouth of a gun. + +The retention of the command of a tender depended entirely upon her +success in procuring men. As a rule, she was out for no other purpose, +and this being so, it is not to be supposed that the officer in charge +of her would do otherwise than employ the means ordained for that end. +Accordingly, as soon as a sail was sighted by the tender's lookout man, +a gun was loaded, shotted with roundshot, and run out ready for the +moment when the vessel should come within range. + +The first intimation the intended victim had of the fate in store for +her was the shriek of the roundshot athwart her bows. This was the +signal, universally known as such, for her to back her topsails and +await the coming of the gang, already tumbling in ordered haste into the +armed boat prepared for them under the tender's quarter. And yet it was +not always easy for the sprat to catch the whale. A variety of factors +entered into the problem and made for failure as often as for success. +Sometimes the tender's powder was bad--so bad that in spite of an extra +pound or so added to the charge, the shot could not be got to carry +as far as a common musket ball. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +2485--Capt. Shirley, 5 Nov. 1780, and numerous instances.] When this was +the case her commander suffered a double mortification. His shot, +the symbol of authority and coercion, took the water far short of its +destined goal, whilst the vessel it was intended to check and intimidate +surged by amid the derisive cat-calls and laughter of her crew. + +Even with the powder beyond reproach, ships did not always obey the +summons, peremptory though it was. One pretended not to hear it, or to +misunderstand it, or to believe it was meant for some other craft, and +so held stolidly on her course, vouchsafing no sign till a second shot, +fired point-blank, but at a safe elevation, hurtled across her decks and +brought her to her senses. Another, perhaps some well-armed Levantine +trader or tall Indiaman whose crew had little mind to strike their +colours submissively at the behest of a midget press-smack, would pipe +to quarters and put up a stiff fight for liberty and the dear delights +of London town--a fight from which the tender, supposing her to have +accepted the gage of battle, rarely came off victor. Or the challenged +ship, believing herself to be the faster craft of the two, clapped on +all sail, caught an opportune "slatch of wind," and showed her pursuer +a clean pair of heels, the tender's guns meanwhile barking away at her +until she passed out of range. These were incidents in the chapter of +pressing afloat which every tender's commander was familiar with. Back +of them all lay a substantial fact, and on that he relied for his supply +of men. There was somehow a magic in the boom of a naval gun that +had its due effect upon most ship-masters. They brought-to, however +reluctantly, and awaited the pleasure of the gang. But the sailor had +still to be reckoned with. + +In order to invest the business of taking the sailor with some semblance +of legality, it was necessary that the commander of the tender, in whose +name the press-warrant was made out, or one of his two midshipmen, each +of whom usually held a similar warrant, should conduct the proceedings +in person; and the first duty of this officer, on setting foot upon the +deck of the vessel held up in the manner just described, was to order +her entire company to be mustered for his inspection. If the master +proved civil, this preliminary passed off quickly and with no more +confusion than was incidental to a general and hasty rummaging of +sea-chests and lockers in search of those magic protections on which +hung the immediate destiny of every man in the ship, excepting only the +skipper, his mate and that privileged person, the boatswain. The muster +effected, the officer next subjected each protection to the closest +possible scrutiny, for none who knew the innate trickery of seamen +would ever "take their words for it." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1482--Capt. Boscawen, 20 March 1745-6.] Men who had no protections, +men whose papers bore evident traces of "coaxing" or falsification, +men whose appearance and persons failed to tally exactly with the +description there written down--these were set apart from their more +fortunate messmates, to be dealt with presently. To their ranks were +added others whose protections had either expired or were on the point +of expiry, as well as skulkers who sought to evade His Majesty's press +by stowing themselves away between or below decks, and who had been +by this time more or less thoroughly routed out by members of the gang +armed with hangers. The two contingents now lined up, and their total +was checked by reference to the ship's articles, the officer never +omitting to make affectionate inquiries after men marked down as "run," +"drowned," or "discharged"; for none knew better than he, if an old hand +at the game, how often the "run" man ran no further afield than some +secure hiding-place overlooked by his gangers, or how miraculously the +"drowned" bobbed up once more to the surface of things when the gang had +ceased from troubling. If the ship happened to be an inward-bound, and +to possess a general protection exempting her from the press only +for the voyage then just ending, that fact greatly simplified and +abbreviated the proceedings, for then her whole company was looked upon +as the ganger's lawful prey. In the case of an outward-bound ship, the +gang-officer's duty was confined to seeing that she carried no more +hands than her protection and tonnage permitted her to carry. All others +were pressed. Cowed by armed authority, or wounded and bleeding in a +lost cause as hereafter to be related, the men were hustled into the +boat with "no more violence than was necessary for securing them." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1437--Capt. Aldred, 12 June 1708.] +Their chests and bedding followed, making a full boat; and so, having +cleared the ship of all her pressable hands, the gang prepared to return +to the tender. But first there was a last stroke of business to be done. +The gunner must have his bit. + +Up to this point, beyond producing the ship's papers for inspection and +gruffly answering such questions as were put to, him, the master of the +vessel had taken little part in what was going on. His turn now came. By +virtue of his position he could not be pressed, but there existed a very +ancient naval usage according to which he could be, and was, required to +pay for the powder and shot expended in inducing him to receive the +gang on board. In law the exaction was indefensible. Litigation often +followed it, and as the century grew old the practice for that reason +fell into gradual desuetude, a circumstance almost universally deplored +by naval commanders of the old school, [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1511--Capt. Bowen, 13 Oct. 1795, and Admiralty endorsement.] who were +ever sticklers for respect to the flag; but during the first five or six +decades of the century the shipmaster who had to be fired upon rarely +escaped paying the shot. The money accruing from his compliance with +the demand, 6s. 8d., went to the gunner, whose perquisite it was, and +as several shots were frequently necessary to reduce a crew to becoming +submissiveness, the gunners must have done very well out of it. Refusal +to "pay the shot" could be visited upon the skipper only indirectly. +Another man or two were taken out of him by way of reprisals, and the +press-boat shoved off--to return a second, or even a third time, if the +pressed men numbered more than she could stow. + +From this summary mode of depriving a ship of a part or the whole of her +crew two serious complications arose, the first of which had to do +with the wages of the men pressed, the second with what was technically +called "carrying the ship up," that is to say, sailing her to her +destination. + +According to the law of the land, the sailor who was pressed out of a +ship was entitled to his wages in full till the day he was pressed, and +not only was every shipmaster bound to provide such men with tickets +good for the sums severally due to them, tickets drawn upon the owners +and payable upon demand, but it was the duty of every impress officer +to see that such tickets were duly made out and delivered to the men. +Refusal to comply with the law in this respect led to legal proceedings, +in which, except in the case of foreign ships, the Admiralty invariably +won. Eminently fair to the sailor, the provision was desperately hard on +masters and owners, for they, after having shipped their crews for the +run or voyage, now found themselves left either with insufficient hands +to carry the ship up, or with no hands at all. As a concession to the +necessity of the moment a gang was sometimes put on board a ship for the +avowed purpose of pressing her hands when she arrived in port; but such +concessions were not always possible, [Footnote: Nor were they always +effective, as witness the following: "Tuesday the 15th, the _Shandois_ +sloop from Holland came by this place (the Nore). I put 15 men on board +her to secure her Company till their Protection was expired. Soon after +came from Sheerness the Master Attendant's boat to assist me on that +service. I immediately sent her away with more Men and Armes for the +better Securing of the Sloop's Company, but that night, in Longreach, +the Vessel being near the Shore, and almost Calme, they hoisted the boat +out to tow the Sloop about, and all the Sloop's men, being 18, got +into her and Run ashore, bidding defiance to my people's +fireing."--_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1473--Capt. Bouler, H.M.S. _Argyle_, +18 Feb. 1725-6.] and common equity demanded that in their absence ample +provision should be made for the safety of vessels suddenly disabled by +the gang. This the Admiralty undertook to do, and hence there grew up +that appendage to the impress afloat generally known as "men in lieu" or +"ticket men." + +The vocation of the better type "man in lieu" was a vicarious sort of +employment, entailing any but disagreeable consequences upon him who +followed it. At every point on the coast where a gang was stationed, and +at many where they were not, great numbers of these men were retained +for service afloat whenever required. The three ports of Dover, Deal and +Folkestone alone at one time boasted no less than four hundred and fifty +of them, and when a hot press was in full swing in the Downs even this +number was found insufficient to meet the demand. Mostly fishermen, +Sea-Fencibles and others of a quasi-seafaring type, they enjoyed +complete exemption from the impress as a consideration for "going +in pressed men's rooms," received a shilling, and in some cases +eighteen-pence a day while so employed, and had a penny a mile +road-money for their return to the place of their abode, where they +were free, in the intervals between carrying ships up, to follow any +longshore occupation they found agreeable, save only smuggling. The +enjoyment of these privileges, and particularly the privilege of +exemption from the press, made them, as a class, notorious for their +independence and insolence--characteristics which still survive in not a +few of their descendants. Tenders going a-pressing often bore a score +or two of these privileged individuals as supers, who were drafted into +ships, as the crews were taken out, to assist the master, mate and few +remaining hands, were any of the latter left, in carrying them up. Or, +if no supers of this class were borne by the tender, she "loaned" the +master a sufficient number of her own company, duly protected by tickets +from the commanding officer, and invariably the most unserviceable +people on board, to work the ship into the nearest port where regular +"men in lieu" could be obtained. + +Had all "men in lieu" conformed to the standard of the better class +substitute of that name, the system would have been laudable in the +extreme and trade would have suffered little inconvenience from the +depredations of the gangs; but there was in the system a flaw that +generally reduced the aid lent to ships to something little better than +a mere travesty of assistance. That flaw lay in the fact that Admiralty +never gave as good as it took. Clearly, it could not. True, it supplied +substitutes to go in "pressed men's rooms," but to call them "men in +lieu" was a gross abuse of language. In reality the substitutes supplied +were in the great majority of cases mere scum in lieu, the unpressable +residuum of the population, consisting of men too old or lads too +young to appeal to the cupidity of the gangs, poor creatures whom the +regulating captains had refused, useless on land and worse than useless +at sea. + +In the general character of the persons sent in pressed men's rooms +Admiralty thus had Trade on the hip, and Trade suffered much in +consequence. More than one rich merchantman, rusty from long voyaging, +strewed the coast with her cargo and timbers because all the able seamen +had been taken out of her, and none better than old men and boys could +be found to sail her. Few seaport towns were as wise as Sunderland, +where they had a Society of Shipowners for mutual insurance against +the risks arising from the pressing of their men. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1541--Capt. Bligh, 8 Jan. 1807, enclosure.] Elsewhere +masters, owners and underwriters groaned under the galling imposition; +but the wrecker rejoiced exceedingly, thanking the gangs whose ceaseless +activities rendered such an outrageous state of things possible. + +Whichever of these two classes the ticket man belonged to, he was an +incorrigible deserter. "Thirteen out of the fifteen men in lieu that I +sent up in the _Beaufort_ East-Indiaman," writes the disgusted commander +of the _Comet_ bombship, from the Downs, "have never returned. As +they are not worth inquiring for, I have made them run." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1478--Capt. Burvill, 4 Sept. 1742. A +man-o'-war's-man was "made run" when he failed to return to his ship +after a reasonable absence and an R was written over against his name on +the ship's books.] Such instances might be multiplied indefinitely. Once +the ticket man had drawn his money for the trip, there was no such thing +as holding him. The temptation to spend his earnings in town proved too +strong, and he went on the spree with great consistency and enjoyment +till his money was gone and his protection worthless, when the +inevitable overtook him. The ubiquitous gang deprived him of his only +remaining possession, his worthless liberty, and sent him to the fleet, +a ragged but shameless derelict, as a punishment for his breach of +privilege. + +The protecting ticket carried by the man in lieu dated from 1702, when +it appears to have been first instituted; [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1433--Capt. Anderson, 5 April 1702.] but even when the bearer was no +deserter in fact or intention, it had little power to protect him. No +ticket man could count upon remaining unmolested by the gangs except the +undoubted foreigner and the marine, both of whom were much used as men +in lieu. The former escaped because his alien tongue provided him with +a natural protection; the latter because he was reputedly useless on +shipboard. In the person of the marine, indeed, the man in lieu achieved +the climax of ineptitude. It was an ironical rule of the service that +persons refusing to act as men in lieu should suffer the very fate they +stood in so much danger of in the event of their consenting. Broadstairs +fishermen in 1803 objected to serving in that capacity, though tendered +the exceptional wage of 27s. for the run to London. "If not compelled +to go in that way," they alleged, "they could make their own terms +with shipmasters and have as many guineas as they were now offered +shillings." Orders to press them for their contumacy were immediately +sent down. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1450--Capt. Carter, 16 Aug. +1803.] + +By the year 1811 the halcyon days of the man in lieu were at an end. As +a class he was then practically extinct. Inveterate and long-continued +pressing had drained the merchant service of all able-bodied British +seamen except those who were absolutely essential to its existence. +These were fully protected, and when their number fell short of the +requirements of the service the deficiency was supplied by foreigners +and apprentices similarly exempt. So few pressable men were to be found +in any one ship that it was no longer considered necessary to send +ticket men in their stead when they were taken out, and as a matter +of fact less than a dozen such men were that year put on board ships +passing the Downs. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1453--Capt. +Anderson, 31 Aug. 1811.] Pressing itself was in its decline, and as for +the vocation of the man in lieu, it had gone never to return. + +Ships and tenders out for men met with varied fortunes. In the winter +season the length of the nights, the tempestuous weather and the cold +told heavily against success, as did at all times that factor in the +problem which one old sea-dog so picturesquely describes as "the room +there is for missing you." Capt. Barker, of the _Thetis_, in 1748 made +a haul of thirty men off the Old-Head of Kinsale, but lost his barge +in doing so, "it blowed so hard." Byng, of the _Sutherland_, grumbled +atrociously because in the course of his run up-Channel in '42 he was +able to press "no more than seventeen." Anson, looking quite casually +into Falmouth on his way down-Channel, found there in '46 the _Betsey_ +tender, then just recently condemned, and took out of her every man she +possessed at the cost of a mere hour's work, ignorant of the fact that +when pressing eight of those men the commander of the _Betsey_ had been +"eight hours about it." It was all a game of chance, and when you played +it the only thing you could count upon was the certainty of having both +the sailor and the elements dead against you. + + [Illustration: JACK IN THE BILBOES. From the painting by Morland.] + +But if the "room there is for missing you," conspiring with other +unfavourable conditions, rendered pressing afloat an uncertain and +vexatious business, the chances of making a haul were on the other hand +augmented by every ship that entered or left the Narrow Seas, not even +excepting the foreigner. The foreign sailor could not be pressed unless, +as we have seen, he had naturalised himself by marrying an English +wife, but the foreign ship was fair game for every hunter of British +seamen.--An ancient assumption of right made it so. + +From the British point of view the "Right of Search" was an eminently +reasonable thing. Here was an island people to whose keeping Heaven had +by special dispensation committed the dominion of the seas. To defend +that dominion they needed every seaman they possessed or could produce. +They could spare none to other nations; and when their sailors, who +enjoyed no rights under their own flag, had the temerity to seek refuge +under another, there was nothing for it but to fire on that flag +if necessary, and to take the refugee by armed force from under its +protection. This in effect constituted the time-honoured "Right of +Search," and none were so reluctant to forego the prerogative, or so +keen to enforce it, as those naval officers who saw in it a certain +prospect of adding to their ships' companies. The right of search was +always good for another man or two. + +It was often good for a great many more, for the foreign skipper was at +the best an arrant man-stealing rogue. If a Yankee, he hated the British +because he had beaten them; if a Frenchman or a Hollander, because +they had beaten him. His animus was all against the British Navy, his +sympathies all in favour of the British sailor, in whom he recognised +as good, if not a better seaman than himself. He accordingly enticed +him with the greatest pertinacity and hid him away with the greatest +cunning. + +Every impress officer worth his salt was fully alive to these facts, and +on all the coast no ship was so thoroughly ransacked as the ship whose +skipper affected a bland ignorance of the English tongue or called +Heaven to witness the blamelessness of his conduct with many +gesticulations and strange oaths. Lieut. Oakley, regulating officer at +Deal, once boarded an outward-bound Dutch East-Indiaman in the Downs. +The master strenuously denied having any English sailors on board, but +the lieutenant, being suspicious, sent his men below with instructions +to leave no part of the ship unsearched. They speedily routed out three, +"who discovered that there were in all thirteen on board, most of them +good and able seamen." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 3363--Lieut. +Oakley, 8 Dec. 1743.] The case is a typical one. + +Another source of joy and profit to the gangs afloat were the great +annual convoys from overseas. For safety's sake merchantmen in times +of hostilities sailed in fleets, protected by ships of war, and when a +fleet of this description was due back from Jamaica, Newfoundland or the +Baltic, that part of the coast where it might be expected to make its +land-fall literally swarmed with tenders, all on the _qui vive_ for +human plunder. They were seldom disappointed. The Admiralty protections +under which the ships had put to sea in the first instance expired with +the home voyage, leaving the crews at the mercy of the gangs. If, +that is to say, the commanders of the convoying men-o'-war had not +forestalled them, or the ships' companies were not composed, as in one +case we read of, of men who were all "either sick or Dutchmen." + +The privateer had to be approached more warily than the merchantman, +since the number of men and the weight of metal she carried made her an +ugly customer to deal with. She was in consequence notorious for being +the sauciest craft afloat, and though "sauce" was to the naval officer +what a red rag is to a bull, there were few in the service who did +not think twice before attempting to violate the armed sanctity of the +privateer. At the same time the hands who crowded her deck were the +flower of British seamen, and in this fact lay a tremendous incentive to +dare all risks and press her men. Her commission or letter of marque of +course protected her, but when she was inward-bound that circumstance +carried no weight. + +Against such an adversary the tender stood little chance. When she +hailed the privateer, the latter laughed at her, threatening to sink her +out of hand, or, if ordered to bring to, answered with all the insolent +contempt of the Spanish grandee: "Mariana!" Accident sometimes stood +the tender in better stead, where the pressing of privateer's-men was +concerned, than all the guns she carried. Capt. Adams, cruising for men +in the Bristol Channel, one day fell in with the Princess Augusta, a +letter of marque whose crew had risen upon their officers and tried +to take the ship. After hard fighting the mutiny was quelled and the +mutineers confined to quarters, in which condition Adams found them. +The whole batch, twenty-nine in number, was handed over to him, "though +'twas only with great threats" that he could induce them to submit, +"they all swearing to die to a man rather than surrender." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1440--Capt. Adams, 28 June 1745.] + +A year or two prior to this event this same ship, the Princess Augusta, +had a remarkable adventure whilst sailing under the merchant flag of +England. On the homeward run from Barbadoes, some fifty leagues to the +westward of the Scillies, she fell in with a Spanish privateer, who +at once engaged and would undoubtedly have taken her but for an +extraordinary occurrence. Just as the trader's assailants were on the +point of boarding her the Spaniard blew up, strewing the sea with his +wreckage, but leaving the merchantman providentially unharmed. Capt. +Dansays, of H.M.S. the _Fubbs_ yacht, who happened to be out for men +at the time in the chops of the Channel, brought the news to England. +Meeting with the trader a few days after her miraculous escape, he had +boarded her and pressed nine of her crew. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1439--Capt. Ambrose, 7 Feb. 1741-2.] + +From the smuggling vessels infesting the coasts the sea-going gangs drew +sure returns and rich booty. In the south and east of England people who +were "in the know" could always buy tobacco, wines and silks for a mere +song; and in Cumberland, in the coast towns there, and inland too, the +very beggars are said to have regaled themselves on tea at sixpence or +a shilling the pound. These commodities, as well as others dealt in by +runners of contrabrand, were worth far more on the water than on land, +and none was so keenly alive to the fact as the gangsman who prowled the +coast. Animated by the prospect of double booty, he was by all odds the +best "preventive man" the country ever had. + +There was a certainty, too, about the pressing of a smuggler that was +wanting in other cases. The sailor taken out of a merchant ship, or the +fisherman out of a smack, might at the eleventh hour spring upon you a +protection good for his discharge. Not so the smuggler. There was in his +case no room for the unexpected. No form of protection could save him +from the consequences of his trade. Once caught, his fate was a foregone +conclusion, for he carried with him evidence enough to make him a +pressed man twenty times over. Hence the gangsman and the naval officer +loved the smuggler and lost no opportunity of showing their affection. + +"Strong Breezes and Cloudy," records the officer in command of H.M.S. +_Stag_, a twenty-eight gun frigate, in his log. "Having made the Signal +for Two Strange Sail in the West, proceeded on under Courses & Double +Reeft Topsails. At 1 sett the Jibb and Driver, at 3 boarded a Smugling +Cutter, but having papers proving she was from Guernsey, and being out +limits, pressed one Man and let her go." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 2734--Log of H.M.S. _Stag_, Capt. Yorke commander, 5 Oct. 1794.] + +"Friday last," says the captain of the _Spy_ sloop of war, "I sail'd out +of Yarmouth Roads with a Fleet of Colliers in order to press Men, & in +my way fell in with Two Dutch Built Scoots sail'd by Englishmen, bound +for Holland, one belonging to Hull, call'd the _Mary_, the other to +Lyn, call'd the _Willing Traveller_. I search'd 'em and took out of the +former 64 Pounds 14. and out of the latter 300 Pounds 6, all English +Money, which I've deliver'd to the Collector of Custome at Yarmouth. +I likewise Imprest out of the Two Vessells seven men." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1438--Capt. Arnold, 29 May 1727. The exporting of +coin was illegal.] + +"In the execution of my orders for pressing," reports Capt. Young, from +on board the Bonetta sloop under his command, "I lately met with two +Smuglers, & landing my boats into a Rocky Bay where they were running of +Goods, the Weather came on so Violent I had my pinnace Stove so much as +to be rendered unservisable. They threw overboard all their Brandy, Tea +and Tobacco, of which last wee recover'd about 14 Baggs and put it +to the Custom house. In Endeavouring to bring one of them to Sail, my +Boatswain, who is a very Brisk and Deserving Man, had his arm broke, so +that tho' wee got no more of their Cargo, it has broke their Voyage and +Trade this bout." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2732--Capt. Young, 6 +April 1739.] + +On the 13th of December 1703, George Messenger, boatswain of the _Wolf_ +armed sloop, whilst pressing on the Humber descried a "keel" lying high +and dry apart from the other shipping in the river, where it was then +low water. Boarding her with the intention of pressing her men, he found +her deserted save for the master, and thinking that some of the hands +might be in hiding below--where the master assured him he would find +nothing but ballast--he "did order one of his Boat's crew to goe down in +the Hold and see what was therein"; who presently returned and reported +"a quantity of wool conceal'd under some Coales a foot thik." The +exportation of wool being at that time forbidden under heavy penalties, +the vessel was seized and the master pressed--a course frequently +adopted in such circumstances, and uniformly approved. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1465--Deposition of George Messenger, 20 Dec. +1703. Owling, ooling or wooling, as the exportation of wool contrary +to law was variously termed, was a felony punishable, according to +an enactment of Edward III., with "forfeiture of life and member." So +serious was the offence considered that in 1565 a further enactment was +formulated against it. Thereafter any person convicted of exporting a +live ram, lamb or sheep, was not only liable to forfeit all his goods, +but to suffer imprisonment for a year, and at the end of the year "in +some open market town, in the fulness of the market on the market day, +to have his right hand cut off and nailed up in the openest place of +such market." The first of these Acts remained in nominal force till +1863.] + +While the gangs afloat in this way lent their aid in the suppression +of smuggling, they themselves were sometimes subjected to disagreeable +espionage on the part of those whose duty it was to keep a special +lookout for runners of contraband goods. An amusing instance of this +once occurred in the Downs. The commanding officer of H.M.S. _Orford_, +discovering his complement to be short, sent one of his lieutenants, +Richardson by name, in quest of men to make up the deficiency. In the +course of his visits from ship to ship there somehow found their way +into the lieutenant's boat a fifteen-gallon keg of rum and ten bottles +of white wine. Between seven and eight o'clock in the evening he boarded +an Indiaman and went below with the master. Scarcely had he done so, +however, when an uproar alongside brought him hurriedly on deck--to find +his boat full of strange faces. A Customs cutter, in some unaccountable +way getting wind of what was in the boat, had unexpectedly "clapt them +aboard," collared the man-o'-war's-men for a set of rascally smugglers, +and confiscated the unexplainable rum and wine, becoming so fuddled on +the latter, which they lost no time in consigning to bond, that one of +their number fell into the sea and was with difficulty fished out by +Richardson's disgusted gangsmen. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1473--Capt. Brown, 30 July 1727, and enclosures.] + +The only inward-bound ship the gangsmen were forbidden to press from was +the "sick ship" or vessel undergoing quarantine because of the presence, +or the suspected presence, on board of her of some "catching" disease, +and more particularly of that terrible scourge the plague. Dread of the +plague in those days rode the country like a nightmare, and just as the +earliest quarantine precautions had their origin in that fact, so those +precautions were never more rigorously enforced than in the case of +ships trading to countries known to be subject to plague or reported +to be in the grip of it. The Levantine trader suffered most severely +in this respect. In 1721 two vessels from Cyprus, where plague was then +prevalent, were burned to the water's edge by order of the authorities, +and as late as 1800 two others from Morocco, suspected of carrying the +dread disease in the hides composing their cargo, were scuttled and sent +to the bottom at the Nore. This was quarantine _in excelsis_. Ordinary +preventive measures went no further than the withdrawal of "pratique," +as communication with the shore was called, for a period varying usually +from ten to sixty-five days, and during this period no gang was allowed +to board the ship. + +The seamen belonging to such ships always got ashore if they could; +for though the penalty for deserting a ship in quarantine was death, +[Footnote: 26 George II. cap. 6.] it might be death to remain, and the +sailor was ever an opportunist careless of consequences. So, for that +matter, was the gangsman. Knowing well that Jack would make a break +for it the first chance he got, he hovered about the ship both day and +night, alert for every movement on board, watchful of every ripple on +the water, taunting the woebegone sailors with the irksomeness of their +captivity or the certainty of their capture, and awaiting with what +patience he could the hour that should see pratique restored and the +crew at his mercy. Whether the ship had "catching" disease on board or +not might be an open question. There was no mistaking its symptoms in +the gangsman. + +Stangate Creek, on the river Medway, was the great quarantine station +for the port of London, and here, in the year 1744, was enacted one of +the most remarkable scenes ever witnessed in connection with pressing +afloat. The previous year had seen a recrudescence of plague in the +Levant and consequent panic in England, where extraordinary precautions +were adopted against possible infection. In December of that year there +lay in Stangate Creek a fleet of not less than a dozen Levantine ships, +in which were cooped up, under the most exacting conditions imaginable, +more than two hundred sailors. At Sheerness, only a few miles distant, +a number of ships of war, amongst them Rodney's, were at the same +time fitting out and wanting men. The situation was thus charged with +possibilities. + +It was estimated that in order to press the two hundred sailors from the +quarantine ships, when the period of detention should come to an end, +a force of not less than one hundred and fifty men would be required. +These were accordingly got together from the various ships of war +and sent into the Creek on board a tender belonging to the _Royal +Sovereign_. This was on the 15th of December, and quarantine expired on +the 22nd. + +The arrival of the tender threw the Creek into a state of consternation +bordering on panic, and that very day a number of sailors broke bounds +and fell a prey to the gangs in attempting to steal ashore. Seymour, +the lieutenant in command of the tender, did not improve matters by his +idiotic and unofficerlike behaviour. Every day be rowed up and down the +Creek, in and out amongst the ships, taunting the men with what he would +do unless they volunteered, when the 22nd arrived, and he was free to +work his will upon them. He would have them all, he assured them, if he +had to "shoot them like small birds." + +By the 22nd the sailors were in a state of "mutinous insolence." +When the tender's boats approached the ships they were welcomed "with +presented arms," and obliged to sheer off in order to obtain "more +force," so menacing did the situation appear. Seeing this, and either +mistaking or guessing the import of the move, the desperate seamen +rushed the cabins, secured all the arms and ammunition they could lay +hands on, hoisted out the ship's boats, and in these reached the shore +in safety ere the tender's men, by this time out in strength, could +prevent or come up with them. The fugitives, to the number of a hundred +or more, made off into the country to the accompaniment, we are told, +of "smart firing on both sides." With this exchange of shots the curtain +falls on the "Fray at Stangate Creek." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1480--Capt. Berkeley, 30 Dec. 1744, and enclosure.] In the engagement +two of the seamen were wounded, but all escaped the snare of the fowler, +and in that happy denouement our sympathies are with them. + +Returning transports paid immediate and heavy tribute to the gangs +afloat. Out of a fleet of such vessels arriving at the Nore in 1756 +two hundred and thirty men, "a parcel of as fine fellows as were ever +pressed," fell to the gangs. Not a man escaped from any of the ships, +and the boats were kept busy all next day shifting chests and bedding +and putting in ticket men to navigate the depleted vessels to London. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1487--Capt. Boys, 6, 7 and 8 July +1756.] A similar press at the Cove of Cork, on the return of the +transports from America in '79, proved equally productive. Hundreds of +sailors were secured, to the unspeakable grief of the local crimps, who +were then offering long prices in order to recruit Paul Jones, at that +time cruising off the Irish coast. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1499--Letters of Capt. Bennett, 1779.] + +The cartel ship was an object of peculiar solicitude to the sea-going +gangsman. In her, after weary months passed in French, Spanish or Dutch +prisons, hundreds of able-bodied British seamen returned to their native +land in more or less prime condition for His Majesty's Navy. The warmest +welcome they received was from the waiting gangsman. Often they got +no other. Few cartels had the extraordinary luck of the ship of that +description that crept into Rye harbour one night in March 1800, and in +bright moonlight landed three hundred lusty sailor-men fresh from French +prisons, under the very nose of the battery, the guard at the port +head and the _Clinker_ gun-brig. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1449--Capt. Aylmer, 9 March 1800.] + +Of all the seafaring men the gangsman took, there was perhaps none whom +he pressed with greater relish than the pilot. The every-day pilot of +the old school was a curious compound. When he knew his business, which +was only too seldom, he was frequently too many sheets in the wind to +embody his knowledge in intelligent orders; and when he happened to be +sober enough to issue intelligent orders, he not infrequently showed +his ignorance of what he was supposed to know by issuing wrong ones. +The upshot of these contradictions was, that instead of piloting His +Majesty's ships in a becoming seamanly manner, he was for ever running +them aground. Fortunately for the service, an error of this description +incapacitated him and made him fair game for the gangs, who lost no +time in transferring him to those foremast regions where ship's grog +was strictly limited and the captain's quite unknown. William Cook, +impressed upon an occasion at Lynn, with unconscious humour styled +himself a landsman. He was really a pilot who had qualified for that +distinction by running vessels ashore. + +In the aggregate this unremitting and practically unbroken surveillance +of the coast was tremendously effective. Like Van Tromp, the vessels +and gangs engaged in it rode the seas with a broom at their masthead, +sweeping into the service, not every man, it is true, but enormous +numbers of them. As for their quality, "One man out of a merchant ship +is better than three the lieutenants get in town." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 2379--Capt. Roberts, 27 June 1732.] This was the general +opinion early in the century; but as the century wore on the quality of +the man pressed in town steadily deteriorated, till at length the sailor +taken fresh from the sea was reckoned to be worth six of him. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +EVADING THE GANG. + + + +As we have just seen, it was when returning from overseas that +the British sailor ran the gravest risk of summary conversion into +Falstaff's famous commodity, "food for powder." + +Outward bound, the ship's protection--that "sweet little cherub" which, +contrary to all Dibdinic precedent, lay down below--had spread its +kindly aegis over him, and, generally speaking, saved him harmless from +the warrant and the hanger. But now the run for which he has signed +on is almost finished, and as the Channel opens before him the magic +Admiralty paper ceases to be of "force" for his protection. No sooner, +therefore, does he make his land-fall off the fair green hills or +shimmering cliffs than his troubles begin. He is now within the outer +zone of danger, and all about him hover those dreaded sharks of the +Narrow Seas, the rapacious press-smacks, seeking whom they may devour. +Conning the compass-card of his chances as they bear down upon him +and send their shot whizzing across his bows, the sailor, in his fixed +resolve to evade the gang at any cost, resorted first of all to the most +simple and sailorly expedient imaginable. He "let go all" and made a run +for it. That way lay the line of least resistance, and, with luck on his +side, of surest escape. + +Three modes of flight were his to choose between--three modes involving +as many nice distinctions, plus a possible difference with the master. +He could run away in his ship, run away with her, or as a last resort +he could sacrifice his slops, his bedding, his pet monkey and the gaudy +parrot that was just beginning to swear, and run from her. Which +should it be? It was all a toss-up. The chance of the moment, instantly +detected and as instantly acted upon, determined his choice. + +The sailor's flight in his ship depended mainly upon her sailing +qualities and the master's willingness to risk being dismasted or hulled +by the pursuer's shot. Granted a capful of wind on his beam, a fleet +keel under foot, and a complacent skipper aft, the flight direct was +perhaps the means of escape the sailor loved above all others. The spice +of danger it involved, the dash and frolic of the chase, the joy of +seeing his leaping "barky" draw slowly away from her pursuer in the +contest of speed, and of watching the stretch of water lying between him +and capture surely widen out, were sensations dear to his heart. + +Running away _with_ his ship was a more serious business, since the +adoption of such a course meant depriving the master of his command, +and this again meant mutiny. Happily, masters took a lenient view of +mutinies begotten of such conditions. Not infrequently, indeed, they +were consenting parties, winking at what they could not prevent, and +assuming the command again when the safety of ship and crew was assured +by successful flight, with never a hint of the irons, indictment or +death decreed by law as the mutineer's portion. + +These modes of flight did not in every instance follow the hard-and-fast +lines here laid down. Under stress of circumstance each was liable to +become merged in the other; or both, perhaps, had to be abandoned +in favour of fresh tactics rendered necessary by the accident or the +exigency of the moment. The _Triton_ and _Norfolk_ Indiamen, after +successfully running the gauntlet of the Channel tenders, in the +Downs fell in with the _Falmouth_ man-o'-war. The meeting was entirely +accidental. Both merchantmen were congratulating themselves on having +negotiated the Channel without the loss of a man. The _Triton_ had all +furled except her fore and mizen topsails, preparatory to coming to an +anchor; but as the wind was strong southerly, with a lee tide running, +the _Falmouth's_ boats could not forge ahead to board her before the set +of the tide carried her astern of the warship's guns, whereupon her crew +mutinied, threw shot into the man-o'-war's boats, which had by this time +drawn alongside, and so, making sail with all possible speed, got clear +away. Meantime a shot had brought the _Norfolk_ to on the _Falmouth's_ +starboard bow, where she was immediately boarded. On her decks an +ominous state of things prevailed. Her crew would not assist to clew up +the sails, the anchor had been seized to the chain-plates and could not +be let go, and when the gang from the _Falmouth_ attempted to cut the +buoy ropes with which it was secured, the "crew attacked them with +hatchets and treenails, made sail and obliged them to quit the ship." +Being by that, time astern of the _Falmouth's_ guns, they too made their +escape. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1485--Capt. Brett, 25 June +1755.] + +Never, perhaps, did the sailor adopt the expedient of running away, +ship and all, with so malicious a goodwill or so bright a prospect of +success, as when sailing under convoy. In those days he seldom ventured +to "risk the run," even to Dutch ports and back, without the protection +of one or more ships of war, and in this precaution there was danger as +well as safety; for although the king's ships safeguarded him against +the enemy if hostilities were in progress, as well as against the +"little rogues" of privateers infesting the coasts and the adjacent +seas, no sooner did the voyage near its end than the captains of the +convoying ships took out of him, by force if necessary, as many men as +they happened to require. This was a _quid pro quo_ of which the sailor +could see neither the force nor the fairness, and he therefore let slip +no opportunity of evading it. + +"Their Lordships," writes a commander who had been thus cheated, "need +not be surprised that I pressed so few men out of so large a Convoy, +for the Wind taking me Short before I got the length of Leostaff +(Lowestoft), the Pilot would not take Charge of the Shipp to turn her +out over the Stamford in the Night, which Oblig'd me to come to an +Anchor in Corton Road. This I did by Signal, but the Convoy took no +Notice of it, and all of them Run away and Left me, my Bottom being +like a Rock for Roughness, so that I could not Follow them." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 2732--Letters of Capt. Young, 1742.] + +Supposing, however, that all these manoeuvres failed him and the gang +after a hot chase appeared in force on deck, the game was not yet up +so far as the sailor was concerned. A ship, it is true, had neither the +length of the Great North Road nor yet the depth of the Forest of Dean, +but all the same there was within the narrow compass of her timbers many +a lurking place wherein the artful sailor, by a judicious exercise of +forethought and tools, might contrive to lie undetected until the gang +had gone over the side. + +About five o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th of June 1756, Capt. +William Boys, from the quarter-deck of his ship the _Royal Sovereign_, +then riding at anchor at the Nore, observed a snow on fire in the +five-fathom channel, a little below the Spoil Buoy. He immediately sent +his cutter to her assistance, but in spite of all efforts to save her +she ran aground and burnt to the water's edge. Her cargo consisted of +wine, and the loss of the vessel was occasioned by one of her crew, who +was fearful of being pressed, hiding himself in the hold with a lighted +candle. He was burnt with the ship. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1487--Capt. Boys, 26 June 1756. Oddly enough, a somewhat similar +accident was indirectly the cause of Capt. Boys' entering the Navy. In +1727, whilst the merchantman of which he was then mate was on the voyage +home from Jamaica, two mischievous imps of black boys, inquisitive +to know whether some liquor spilt on deck was rum or water, applied a +lighted candle to it. It proved to be rum, and when the officers +and crew, who were obliged to take to the boats in consequence, were +eventually picked up by a Newfoundland fishing vessel, unspeakable +sufferings had reduced their number from twenty-three to seven, +and these had only survived by feeding on the bodies of their dead +shipmates. In memory of that harrowing time Boys adopted as his seal the +device of a burning ship and the motto: "From Fire, Water and Famine by +Providence Preserved."] + +Barring the lighted candle and the lamentable accident which followed +its use, the means of evading the gang resorted to in this instance +was of a piece with many adopted by the sailor. He contrived cunning +hiding-places in the cargo, where the gangsmen systematically "pricked" +for him with their cutlasses when the nature of the vessel's lading +admitted of it, or he stowed himself away in seachests, lockers and +empty "harness" casks with an ingenuity and thoroughness that often +baffled the astutest gangsman and the most protracted search. The spare +sails forward, the readily accessible hiding-hole of the green-hand, +afforded less secure concealment. Pierre Flountinherre, routed out of +hiding there, endeavoured to save his face by declaring that he +had "left France on purpose to get on board an English man-of-war." +Frenchman though he was, the gang obliged him. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1510--Capt. Baskerville, 5 Aug. 1795.] + +In his endeavours to best the impress officers and gangsmen the sailor +found a willing backer in his skipper, who systematically falsified +the ship's articles by writing "run," "drowned," "discharged" or +"dead" against the names of such men as he particularly desired to save +harmless from the press. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1525--Capt. +Berry, 31 March 1801.] This done, the men were industriously coached +in the various parts they were to play at the critical moment. In the +skipper's stead, supposing him to be for some reason unfit for naval +service, some specially valuable hand was dubbed master. Failing this +substitution, which was of course intended to save the man and not the +skipper, the ablest seaman in the ship figured as mate, whilst others +became putative boatswain or carpenter and apprentices--privileged +persons whom no gang could lawfully take, but who, to render their +position doubly secure, were furnished with spurious papers, of which +every provident skipper kept a supply at hand for use in emergencies. +When all hands were finally mustered to quarters, so to speak, there +remained on deck only a "master" who could not navigate the ship, a +"mate" unable to figure out the day's run, a "carpenter" who did not +know how to handle an adze, and some make-believe apprentices "bound" +only to outwit the gang. And if in spite of all these precautions an +able seaman were pressed, the real master immediately came forward and +swore he was the mate. + +Such thoroughly organised preparedness as this, however, was the +exception rather than the rule, for though often attempted, it rarely +reached perfection or stood the actual test. The sailor was too +childlike by nature to play the fraud successfully, and as for the +impress officer and the gangsman, neither was easily gulled. Supposing +the sailor, then, to have nothing to hope for from deception or +concealment, and supposing, too, that it was he who had the rough bottom +beneath him and the fleet keel in pursuit, how was he to outwit the gang +and evade the pinch? Nothing remained for him but to heave duty by the +board and abandon his ship to the doubtful mercies of wind and wave. +He accordingly went over the side with all the haste he could, +appropriating the boats in defiance of authority, and leaving only the +master and his mate, the protected carpenter and the apprentices to work +the ship. Many a trader from overseas, summarily abandoned in this +way, crawled into some outlying port, far from her destination, in +quest--since a rigorous press often left no others available--of "old +men and boys to carry her up." There is even on record the case of +a ship that passed the Nore "without a man belonging to her but the +master, the passengers helping him to sail her." Her people had "all +got ashore by Harwich." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1473--Capt. +Bouler, 18 Feb. 1725-6.] + +Few shipowners were so foolhardy as to incur the risk of being thus hit +in the pocket by the sailor's well-known predilection for French leave +when in danger of the press. Nor were the masters, for they, even when +not part owners, had still an appreciable stake in the safety of the +ships they sailed. As between masters, owners and men there consequently +sprang up a sort of triangular sympathy, having for its base a common +dread of the gangs, and for its apex their circumvention. This apex +necessarily touched the coast at a point contiguous to the ocean tracks +of the respective trades in which the ships sailed; and here, in some +spot far removed from the regular haunts of the gangsman, an emergency +crew was mustered by those indefatigable purveyors, the crimps, and held +in readiness against the expected arrival. + +Composed of seafaring men too old, too feeble, or too diseased to excite +the cupidity of the most zealous lieutenant who eked out his pay on +impress perquisites; of lads but recently embarked on the adventurous +voyage of their teens; of pilots willing, for a consideration, to forego +the pleasure of running ships aground; of fishermen who evaded His +Majesty's press under colour of Sea-Fencible, Militia, or Admiralty +protections; and of unpressable foreigners whose wives bewailed them +more or less beyond the seas, this scratch crew--the Preventive Men of +the merchant service--here awaited the preconcerted signal which should +apprise them that their employer's ship was ready for a change of hands. + +For safety's sake the transfer was generally effected by night, when +that course was possible; but the untimely appearance of a press-smack +on the scene not infrequently necessitated the shifting of the crews in +the broad light of day and the hottest of haste. On shore all had been +in readiness perhaps for days. At the signal off dashed the deeply laden +boats to the frantic ship, the scratch crew scrambled aboard, and the +regular hands, thus released from duty, tumbled pell-mell into the empty +boats and pulled for shore with a will mightily heartened by a running +fire of round-shot from the smack and of musketry from her cutter, +already out to intercept the fugitives. Then it was:-- + + "Cheerily, lads, cheerily! there's a ganger hard to wind'ard; + Cheerily, lads, cheerily! there's a ganger hard a-lee; + Cheerily, lads, cheerily! else 'tis farewell home and kindred, + And the bosun's mate a-raisin' hell in the King's Navee. + Cheerily, lads, cheerily ho! the warrant's out, the hanger's drawn! + Cheerily, lads, so cheerily! we'll leave 'em an _R_ in pawn!" + +[Footnote: When Jack deserted his ship under other conditions than those +here described, an _R_ was written against his name to denote that he +had "run." So, when he shirked an obligation, monetary or moral, by +running away from it, he was said to "leave an _R_ in pawn."] + +The place of muster of the emergency men thus became in turn the +landing-place of the fugitive crew. Its whereabouts depended as a matter +of course upon the trade in which the ship sailed. The spot chosen for +the relief of the Holland, Baltic and Greenland traders of the East +Coast was generally some wild, inaccessible part abutting directly +on the German Ocean or the North Sea. London skippers in those trades +favoured the neighbourhood of Great Yarmouth, where the maze of inland +waterways constituting the Broads enabled the shifty sailor to lead the +gangs a merry game at hide and seek. King's Lynners affected Skegness +and the Norfolk lip of the Wash. Of the men who sailed out of Hull not +one in ten could be picked up, on their return, by the gangs haunting +the Humber. They went ashore at Dimlington on the coast of Holderness, +or at the Spurn. The homing sailors of Leith, as of the ports on the +upper reaches of the Firth of Forth, enjoyed an immunity from the +press scarcely less absolute than that of the Orkney Islanders, who for +upwards of forty years contributed not a single man to the Navy. Having +on either hand an easily accessible coast, inhabited by a people upon +whose hospitality the gangs were chary of intruding, and abounding in +lurking-places as secure as they were snug, the Mother Firth held on to +her sailor sons with a pertinacity and success that excited the envy of +the merchant seaman at large and drove impress officers to despair. The +towns and villages to the north of the Firth were "full of men." On +no part of the north coast, indeed, from St. Abb's Head clear round to +Annan Water, was it an easy matter to circumvent the canny Scot who went +a-sailoring. He had a trick of stopping short of his destination, +when homeward bound, that proved as baffling to the gangs as it was +in seeming contradiction to all the traditions of a race who pride +themselves on "getting there." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +579--Admiral Pringle, Report on Rendezvous, 2 April 1795, and Captains' +Letters, _passim_.] + +In the case of outward-bound ships, the disposition of the two crews +was of course reversed. The scratch crew carried the ship down to the +stipulated point of exchange, where they vacated her in favour of the +actual crew, who had been secretly conveyed to that point by land. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 580--Admiral Lord Nelson, Memorandum +on the State of the Fleet, 1803.] Whichever way the trick was worked, it +proved highly effective, for, except from the sea, no gang durst venture +near such points of debarkation and departure without strong military +support. + +There still remained the emergency crew itself. The most decrepit, +crippled or youthful were of course out of the question. But the +foreigner and our shifty friend the man in lieu were fair game. Entering +largely as they did into the make-up of almost every scratch crew, they +were pressed without compunction whenever and wherever caught abusing +their privileges by playing the emergency man. To keep such persons +always and in all circumstances was a point of honour with the Navy +Board. It had no other means of squaring accounts with the scratch crew. + +The emergency man who plied "on his own" was more difficult to deal +with. Keepers of the Eddystone made a "great deal of money" by putting +inward-bound ships' crews ashore; but when one of their number, Matthew +Dolon by name, was pressed as a punishment for that offence, the +Admiralty, having the fear of outraged Trade before its eyes, ordered +his immediate discharge. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2732--Capt. +Yeo, 25 July 1727.] + +The pilot, the fisherman and the longshoreman were notorious offenders +in this respect. Whenever they saw a vessel bound in, they were in the +habit of putting off to her and of first inciting the crew to escape and +then hiring themselves at exorbitant rates to work the vessel into port. +On such mischievous interlopers the gangsman had no mercy. He took +them whenever he could, confident that when their respective cases were +stated to the Board, that body would "tumble" to the occasion. + +Any attempt at estimating the number of seafaring men who evaded the +gangs and the call of the State by means of the devices and subterfuges +here roughly sketched into the broad canvas of our picture would prove a +task as profitless as it is impossible of accomplishment. One thing only +is certain. The number fluctuated greatly from time to time with the +activity or inactivity of the gangs. When the press was lax, there arose +no question as there existed no need of escape; when it was hot, it was +evaded systematically and with a degree of success extremely gratifying +to the sailor. Taking the sea-borne coal trade of the port of London +alone, it is estimated that in the single month of September 1770, at +a time when an exceptionally severe press from protections was in full +swing, not less than three thousand collier seamen got ashore between +Yarmouth Roads and Foulness Point. As the coal trade was only one of +many, and as the stretch of coast concerned comprised but a few miles +out of hundreds equally well if not better adapted to the sailor's +furtive habits, the total of escapes must have been little short of +enormous. It could not have been otherwise. In this grand battue of the +sea it was clearly impossible to round-up and capture every skittish son +of Neptune. + +On shore, as at sea, the sailor's course, when the gang was on his +track, followed the lines of least resistance, only here he became a +skulk as well as a fugitive. It was not that he was a less stout-hearted +fellow than when at sea. He was merely the victim of a type of land +neurosis. Drink and his recent escape from the gang got on his nerves +and rendered him singularly liable to panic. The faintest hint of a +press was enough to make his hair rise. At the first alarm he scuttled +into hiding in the towns, or broke cover like a frightened hare. + +The great press of 1755 affords many instances of such panic flights. +Abounding in "lurking holes" where a man might lie perdue in comparative +safety, King's Lynn nevertheless emptied itself of seamen in a few +hours' time, and when the gang hurried to Wells by water, intending to +intercept the fugitives there, the "idle fishermen on shore" sounded a +fresh alarm and again they stampeded, going off to the eastward in great +numbers and burying themselves in the thickly wooded dells and hills of +that bit of Devon in Norfolk which lies between Clay-next-the-Sea and +Sheringham. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1486--Capt. Baird, 29 +March and 21 April 1755.] + +A similar exodus occurred at Ipswich. The day the warrants came down, as +for many days previous, the ancient borough was full of seamen; but no +sooner did it become known that the press was out than they vanished +like the dew of the morning. For weeks the face of but one sailor was +seen in the town, and he was only ferreted out, with the assistance of a +dozen constables, after prolonged and none too legal search. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1486--Capt. Brand, 26 Feb. 1755.] + +How effectually the sailor could hide when dread of the press had him in +its grip is strikingly illustrated by the hot London press of 1740. On +that occasion the docks, the riverside slums and dens, the river itself +both above and below bridge, were scoured by gangs who left no stratagem +untried for unearthing and taking the hidden sailor. When the rigour of +the press was past not a seaman, it is said, was to be found at large in +London; yet within four-and-twenty hours sixteen thousand emerged from +their retreats. [Footnote: Griffiths, _Impressment Fully Considered_.] + +The secret of such effectual concealment lay in the fact that the nature +of his hiding-place mattered little to the sailor so long as it was +secure. Accustomed to quarters of the most cramped description on +shipboard, he required little room for his stowing. The roughest +bed, the worst ventilated hole, the most insanitary surroundings and +conditions were all one to him. He could thus hide himself away in +places and receptacles from which the average landsman would have turned +in fear or disgust. In quarry, clay-pit, cellar or well; in holt, hill +or cave; in chimney, hayloft or secret cell behind some old-time oven; +in shady alehouse or malodorous slum where a man's life was worth +nothing unless he had the smell of tar upon him, and not much then; on +isolated farmsteads and eyots, or in towns too remote or too hostile +for the gangsman to penetrate--somewhere, somehow and of some sort the +sailor found his lurking-place, and in it, by good providence, lay safe +and snug throughout the hottest press. + +Many of the seamen employed in the Newfoundland trade of Poole, gaining +the shore at Chapman's Pool or Lulworth, whiled away their stolen +leisure either in the clay-pits of the Isle of Purbeck, where they +defied intrusion by posting armed sentries at every point of access to +their stronghold, or--their favourite haunt--on Portland Island, +which the number and ill-repute of the labourers employed in its stone +quarries rendered well-nigh impregnable. To search for, let alone +to take the seamen frequenting that natural fortress--who of course +"squared" the hard-bitten quarrymen--was more than any gang durst +undertake unless, as was seldom the case, it consisted of some "very +superior force." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral +Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 5 Aug. 1805.] + +With the solitary exception of Falmouth town, the Cornish coast was +merely another Portland Neck enormously extended. From Rame Head to the +Lizard and Land's End, and in a minor sense from Land's End away to Bude +Haven in the far nor'-east, the entire littoral of this remote part of +the kingdom was forbidden ground whereon no gangsman's life was worth +a moment's purchase. The two hundred seins and twice two hundred +drift-boats belonging to that coast employed at least six thousand +fishermen, and of these the greater part, as soon as the fishing season +was at an end, either turned "tinners" and went into the mines, where +they were unassailable, + + [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral Berkeley, Report +on Rendezvous, 28 Sept. 1805.] or betook themselves to their strongholds +at Newquay, St. Ives, Newland, Mousehole, Coversack, Polpero, Cawsand +and other places where, in common with smugglers, deserters from the +king's ships at Hamoaze, and an endless succession of fugitive merchant +seamen, they were as safe from intrusion or capture as they would have +been on the coast of Labrador. It was impossible either to hunt them +down or to take them on a coast so "completely perforated." A thousand +"stout, able young fellows" could have been drawn from this source +without being missed; but the gangs fought shy of the task, and only +when they carried vessels in distress into Falmouth were the redoubtable +sons of the coves ever molested. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +579--Admiral M'Bride, 9 March 1795. _Admiralty Records_ 1. 578--Petition +of the Inhabitants of the Village of Coversack, 31 Jan. 1778.] + +On the Bristol Channel side Lundy Island offered unrivalled facilities +for evasion, and many were the crews marooned there by far-sighted +skippers who calculated on thus securing them against their return from +Bristol, outward bound. The gangs as a rule gave this little Heligoland +a wide berth, and when carried thither against their will they had a +disconcerting habit of running away with the press-boat, and of thus +marooning their commanding officer, that contributed not a little to +the immunity the island enjoyed. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1439--Capt. Aylmer, 22 Dec. 1743.] + +The sailor's objection to Lundy was as strong as the gangsman's. From +his point of view it was no ideal place to hide in, and the effect upon +him of enforced sojourn there was to make him sulky and mutinous. Rather +the shore with all its dangers than an island that produced neither +tobacco, rum, nor women! He therefore preferred sticking to his ship, +even though he thereby ran the risk of impressment, until she arrived +the length of the Holmes. + +These islands are two in number, Steep Holme and Flat Holme, and so +closely can vessels approach the latter, given favourable weather +conditions, that a stone may be cast on shore from the deck. The +business of landing and embarking was consequently easy, and though the +islands themselves were as barren as Lundy of the three commodities the +sailor loved, he was nevertheless content to terminate his voyage there +for the following reasons. Under the lee of one or other of the islands +there was generally to be found a boat-load of men who were willing, for +a suitable return in coin of the realm, to work the ship into King Road, +the anchorage of the port of Bristol. The sailor was thus left free to +gain the shore in the neighbourhood of Uphill, Weston, or Clevedon Bay, +whence it was an easy tramp, not to Bristol, of which he steered clear +because of its gangs, but to Bath, or, did he prefer a place nearer at +hand, to the little town of Pill, near Avon-mouth. + +A favourite haunt of seafaring men, fishermen, pilots and pilots' +assistants, with a liberal sprinkling of that class of female known +in sailor lingo as "brutes," this lively little town was a place after +Jack's own heart. The gangsmen gave it a wide berth. It offered an +abundance of material for him to work upon, but that material was a +trifle too rough even for his infastidious taste. The majority of the +permanent indwellers of Pill, as well as the casual ones, not only +protected themselves from the press, when such a course was necessary, +by a ready use of the fist and the club, but, when this means of +exemption failed them, pleaded the special nature of their calling with +great plausibility and success. They were "pilots' assistants," and as +such they enjoyed for many years the unqualified indulgence of the +naval authorities. The appellation they bore was nevertheless purely +euphemistic. As a matter of fact they were sailors' assistants who, +under cover of an ostensible vocation, made it their real business, +at the instigation and expense of Bristol shipowners, to save crews +harmless from the gangs by boarding ships at the Holmes and working them +from thence into the roadstead or to the quays. They are said to have +been "very fine young men," and many a longing look did the impress +officers at Bristol cast their way whilst struggling to swell their +monthly returns. So essentially necessary to the trade of the place were +they considered to be, however, that they were allowed to checkmate +the gangs, practically without molestation or hindrance, till about the +beginning of the last century, when the Admiralty, suddenly awaking to +the unpatriotic nature of a practice that so effectually deprived the +Navy of its due, caused them to be served with a notice to the effect +that "for the future all who navigated ships from the Holmes should +be pressed as belonging to those ships." At this threat the Pill men +jeered. Relying on the length of pilotage water between King Road and +Bristol, they took a leaf from the sailor's log and ran before the +press-boats could reach the ships in which they were temporarily +employed. For four years this state of things continued. Then there was +struck at the practice a blow which not even the Admiralty had foreseen. +Tow-paths were constructed along the river-bank, and the pilots' +assistants, ousted by horses, fell an easy prey to the gangs. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 14 +April 1805.] + +Bath had no gang, and was in consequence much frequented by sailors +of the better class. In 1803--taking that as a normal year--the number +within its limits was estimated at three hundred--enough to man a +ship-of-the-line. The fact being duly reported to the Admiralty, a +lieutenant and gang were ordered over from Bristol to do some +pressing. The civic authorities--mayor, magistrates, constables and +watchmen--fired with sudden zeal for the service, all came forward "in +the most handsome manner" with offers of countenance and support. In the +purlieus of the town, however, the advent of the gang created panic. The +seamen went into prompt hiding, the mob turned out in force, angry and +threatening, resolved that no gang should violate the sanctuary of a +cathedral city. Seeing how the wind set, the mayor and magistrates, +having begun by backing the warrant, continued backing until they backed +out of the affair altogether. The zealous watchmen could not be found, +the eager constables ran away. Dismayed by these untimely defections, +the lieutenant hurriedly resolved "to drop the business." So the gang +marched back to Bristol empty-handed, followed by the hearty execrations +of the rabble and the heartier good wishes of the mayor, who assured +them that as soon as he should be able to clap the skulking seamen in +jail "on suspicion of various misdemeanours," he would send for them +again. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1528--Capt. Barker, 3 and 11 +July 1803.] We do not learn that he ever did. + +To Bristol no unprotected sailor ever repaired of his own free will, +for early in the century of pressing the chickens of the most notorious +kidnapping city in England began to come home to roost. The mantle of +the Bristol mayor whom Jeffreys tried for a "kidnapping knave" fell +upon a succession of regulating captains whose doings put their civic +prototype to open shame, and more petitions and protests against the +lawlessness of the gangs emanated from Bristol than from any other city +in the kingdom. + +The trowmen who navigated the Severn and the Wye, belonging as they did +mainly to extra-parochial spots in the Forest of Dean, were exempt from +the Militia ballot and the Army of Reserve. On the ground that they +came under the protection of inland navigation, they likewise considered +themselves exempt from the sea service, but this contention the Court +of Exchequer in 1798 completely overset by deciding that the "passage +of the River Severn between Gloucester and Bristol is open sea." A +press-gang was immediately let loose upon the numerous tribe frequenting +it, whereupon the whole body of newly created sailors deserted their +trows and fled to the Forest, where they remained in hiding till the +disappointed gang sought other and more fruitful fields. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 14 +April 1805.] + +Within Chester gates the sailor for many years slept as securely as upon +the high seas. No householder would admit the gangsmen beneath his roof; +and when at length they succeeded in gaining a foothold within the city, +all who were liable to the press immediately deserted it--"as they do +every town where there is a gang"--and went "to reside at Parkgate." +Parkgate in this way became a resort of sea-faring men without parallel +in the kingdom--a "nest" whose hornet bands were long, and with good +reason, notorious for their ferocity and aggressiveness. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1446--Capt. Ayscough, 17 Nov. 1780.] An attempt +to establish a rendezvous here in 1804 proved a failure. The seamen +fled, no "business" could be done, and officer and gang were soon +withdrawn. + +In comparison with the seething Deeside hamlet, Liverpool was tameness +itself. Now and then, as in 1745, the sailor element rose in arms, +demanding who was master; but as a rule it suffered the gang, if not +gladly, at least with exemplary patience. Homing seamen who desired to +evade the press in that city--and they were many--fled ashore from +their ships at Highlake, a spot so well adapted to their purpose that it +required "strict care to catch them." From Highlake they made their +way to Parkgate, swelling still further the sailor population of that +far-famed nest of skulkers. + +Cork was a minor Parkgate. A graphic account of the conditions obtaining +in that city has been left to us by Capt. Bennett, of H.M.S. _Lennox_, +who did port duty there from May 1779 till March 1783. "Many hundreds +of the best Seamen in this Province," he tells us, "resort in Bodys +in Country Villages round about here, where they are maintained by the +Crimps, who dispose of them to Bristol, Liverpool and other Privateers, +who appoint what part of the Coast to take them on Board. They go in +Bodys, even in the Town of Cork, and bid defiance to the Press-gangs, +and resort in houses armed, and laugh at both civil and military Power. +This they did at Kinsale, where they threatened to pull the Jail down +in a garrison'd Town." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1502--Capt. +Bennett, 12 and 26 April 1782.] These tactics rendered the costly +press-gangs all but useless. A hot press at Cork, in 1796, yielded only +sixteen men fit for the service. + +Space fails us to tell of how, owing to a three days' delay in the +London post that brought the warrants to Newhaven in the spring of '78, +the "alarm of soon pressing" spread like wildfire along that coast and +drove every vessel to sea; of how "three or four hundred young fellows" +belonging to Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, who had no families and could +well have been spared without hindrance to the seafaring business of +those towns, thought otherwise and took a little trip of "thirty or +forty miles in the country to hide from the service"; or of how Capt. +Routh, of the rendezvous at Leeds, happened upon a great concourse of +skulkers at Castleford, whither they had been drawn by reasons of safety +and the alleged fact that + + "Castleford woman must needs be fair, + Because they wash both in Calder and Aire," + +and after two unsuccessful attempts at surprise, at length took them +with the aid of the military. These were everyday incidents which were +accepted as matters of course and surprised nobody. Nevertheless the +vagaries of the wayward children of the State, who chose to run away and +hide instead of remaining to play the game, cost the naval authorities +many an anxious moment. _They_ had to face both evasion and invasion, +and the prevalence of the one did not help to repel the other. + +His country's fear of invasion by the French afforded the seafaring +man the chance of the century. Pitt's Quota Bill put good money in his +pocket at the expense of his liberty, but in Admiral Sir Home Popham's +great scheme for the defence of the coasts against Boney and his +flat-bottomed boats he scented something far more to his advantage and +taste. + +From the day in 1796 when Capt. Moriarty, press-gang-officer at Cork, +reported the arrival of the long-expected Brest fleet off the Irish +coast, [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1621--Capt. Crosby, 30 Dec. +1796.] the question how best to defend from sudden attack so enormously +extended and highly vulnerable a seaboard as that of the United Kingdom, +became one of feverish moment. At least a hundred different projects +for compassing that desirable end at one time or another claimed +the attention of the Navy Board. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 581--Admiral Knowles, 25 Jan. 1805.] One of these was decidedly +ingenious. It aimed at destroying the French flotilla by means of logs +of wood bored hollow and charged with gunpowder and ball. These were to +be launched against the invaders somewhat after the manner of the modern +torpedo, of which they were, in fact, the primitive type and original. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 580--Rear-Admiral Young, 14 Aug. 1803, +and secret enclosure, as in the Appendix. The Admiral's "machine," as he +termed it, though embodying the true torpedo idea of an explosive device +to be propelled against an enemy's ship, was not designed to be so +propelled on its own buoyancy, but by means of a fishing-boat, in which +it lay concealed. Had his inventive genius taken a bolder flight and +given us a more finished product in place of this crudity, the Whitehead +torpedo would have been anticipated, in something more than mere +principle, by upwards of half a century.] + +Meantime, however, the Admiralty had adopted another plan--Admiral +Popham, already famous for his improved code of signals, its originator. +On paper it possessed the merits of all Haldanic substitutes for the +real thing. It was patriotic, cheap, simple as kissing your hand. All +you had to do was to take the fisherman, the longshoreman and other +stalwarts who lived "one foot in sea and one on shore," enroll them in +corps under the command (as distinguished from the control) of naval +officers, and practise them (on Sundays, since it was a work of strict +necessity) in the use of the pike and the cannon, and, hey presto! the +country was as safe from invasion as if the meddlesome French had never +been. The expense would be trivial. Granting that the French did not +take alarm and incontinently drop their hostile designs upon the tight +little island, there would be a small outlay for pay, a trifle of a +shilling a day on exercise days, but nothing more--except for martello +towers. The boats it was proposed to enroll and arm would cost nothing. +Their patriotic owners were to provide them free of charge. + +Such was the Popham scheme on paper. On a working basis it proved +quite another thing. The pikes provided were old ship-pikes, rotten and +worthless. The only occasion on which they appear to have served any +good purpose was when, at Gerrans and St. Mawes, the Fencibles joined +the mob and terrified the farmers, who were ignorant of the actual +condition of the pikes, into selling their corn at something less than +famine prices. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 579--Capt. Spry, 14 +April 1801.] Guns hoary with age, requisitioned from country churchyards +and village greens where they had rusted, some of them, ever since the +days of Drake and Raleigh, were dragged forth and proudly grouped as +"parks of artillery." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1513--Capt. +Bradley, 21 Aug. 1796.] Signal stations could not be seen one from the +other, or, if visible, perpetrated signals no one could read. The armed +smacks were equally unreliable. In Ireland they could not be "trusted +out of sight with a gun." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1529--Capt. +Bowen, 12 Oct. 1803.] In England they left the guns behind them. The +weight, the patriotic owners discovered, seriously hampered the carrying +capacity and seaworthiness of their boats; so to abate the nuisance they +hove the guns overboard on to the beach, where they were speedily buried +in sand or shingle, while the appliances were carried off by those who +had other uses for them than their country's defence. The vessels thus +armed, moreover, were always at sea, the men never at home. When it was +desired to practise them in the raising of the sluice-gates which, in +the event of invasion, were to convert Romney Marsh into an inland +sea, no efforts availed to get together sufficient men for the purpose. +Immune from the press by reason of their newly created status of +Sea-Fencibles, they were all elsewhere, following their time-honoured +vocations of fishing and smuggling with industry and gladness of heart. +As a means of repelling invasion the Popham scheme was farcical and +worthless; as a means of evading the press it was the finest thing +ever invented. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral Berkeley, +Reports on Sea-Fencibles, 1805; Admiral Lord Keith, Sentiments upon the +Sea-Fencible System, 7 Jan. 1805.] The only benefits the country ever +drew from it, apart from this, were two. It provided the Admiralty with +an incomparable register of seafaring men, and some modern artists with +secluded summer retreats. + +It goes without saying that a document of such vital consequence to the +seafaring man as an Admiralty protection did not escape the attention +of those who, from various motives, sought to aid and abet the sailor +in his evasion of the press. Protections were freely lent and exchanged, +bought and sold, "coaxed," concocted and stolen. Skilful predecessors +of Jim the Penman imitated to the life the signatures of Pembroke and +Sandwich, Lord High Admirals, and of the lesser fry who put the official +hand to those magic papers. "Great abuses" were "committed that +way." Bogus protections could be obtained at Sunderland for 8s. 6d., +Stephenson and Collins, the disreputable schoolmasters who made a +business of faking them, coining money by the "infamous practice." In +London "one Broucher, living in St. Michael's Lane," supplied them +to all comers at 3 Pounds apiece. Even the Navy Office was not above +suspicion in this respect, for in '98 a clerk there, whose name does +not transpire, was accused of adding to his income by the sale of +bogus protections at a guinea a head. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +2740--Lieut. Abbs, 5 Oct. 1798.] + +American protections were the Admiralty's pet bugbear. For many years +after the successful issue of the War of Independence a bitter animosity +characterised the attitude of the British naval officer towards the +American sailor. Whenever he could be laid hold of he was pressed, and +no matter what documents he produced in evidence of his American birth +and citizenship, those documents were almost invariably pronounced false +and fraudulent. There were weighty reasons, however, for refusing to +accept the claim of the alleged American sailor at its face value. No +class of protection was so generally forged, so extensively bought and +sold, as the American. Practically every British seaman who made the run +to an American port took the precaution, during his sojourn in that land +of liberty, to provide himself with spurious papers against his return +to England, where he hoped, by means of them, to checkmate the gang. The +process of obtaining such papers was simplicity itself. All the sailor +had to do, at, say, New York, was to apply himself to one Riley, whose +other name was Paddy. The sum of three dollars having changed hands, +Riley and his client betook themselves to the retreat of some shady +Notary Public, where the Irishman made ready oath that the British +seaman was as much American born as himself. The business was now as +good as done, for on the strength of this lying affidavit any Collector +of Customs on the Atlantic coast would for a trifling fee grant the +sailor a certificate of citizenship. Riley created American citizens +in this way at the rate, it is said, of a dozen a day, [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1523-Deposition of Zacharias Pasco, 20 Jan. +1800.] and as he was only one of many plying the same lucrative trade, +the effect of such wholesale creations upon the impress service in +England, had they been allowed to pass unchallenged, may be readily +conceived. + +The fraud, worse luck for the service, was by no means confined to +America. Almost every home seaport had its recognised perveyor of +"false American passes." At Liverpool a former clerk to the Collector +of Customs for Pembroke, Pilsbury by name, grew rich on them, whilst at +Greenock, Shields and other north-country shipping centres they were for +many years readily procurable of one Walter Gilly and his confederates, +whose transactions in this kind of paper drove the Navy Board to +desperation. They accordingly instructed Capt. Brown, gang-officer at +Greenock, to take Gilly at all hazards, but the fabricator of passes +fled the town ere the gang could be put on his track. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1549--Capt. Brown, 22 Aug. 1809.] + +Considering that every naval officer, from the Lord High Admiral +downwards, had these facts and circumstances at his fingers' end, it +is hardly suprising that protections having, or purporting to have, +an American origin, should have been viewed with profound +distrust--distrust too often justified, and more than justified, by the +very nature of the documents themselves. Thus a gentleman of colour, +Cato Martin by name, when taken out of the _Dolly_ West-Indiaman at +Bristol, had the assurance to produce a white man's pass certifying his +eyes, which were undeniably yellow, to be a soft sky-blue, and his hair, +which was hopelessly black and woolly, to be of that well-known hue most +commonly associated with hair grown north of the Tweed. It was reserved, +however, for an able seaman bearing the distinguished name of Oliver +Cromwell to break all known records in this respect. When pressed, he +unblushingly produced a pass dated in America the 29th of May and +vised by the American Consul in London on the 6th of June immediately +following, thus conferring on its bearer the unique distinction of +having crossed the Atlantic in eight days at a time when the voyage +occupied honester men nearly as many weeks. To press such frauds was a +public benefit. On the other hand, one confesses to a certain sympathy +with the American sailor who was pressed because he "spoke English very +well." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2734--Capt. Yorke, 8 March +1798.] + +Believing in the simplicity of his heart that others were as gullible +as himself, the fugitive sailor sought habitually to hide his identity +beneath some temporary disguise of greater or less transparency. That of +farm labourer was perhaps his favourite choice. The number of seamen so +disguised, and employed on farms within ten miles of the coast between +Hull and Whitby prior to the sailing of the Greenland and Baltic +ships in 1803, was estimated at more than a thousand able-bodied men. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 580--Admiral Phillip, Report on +Rendezvous, 25 April 1804.] Seamen using the Newfoundland trade of +Dartmouth were "half-farmer, half-sailor." When the call of the sea no +longer lured them, they returned to the land in an agricultural sense, +resorting in hundreds to the farmsteads in the Southams, where they +were far out of reach of the gangs. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +579--Admiral M'Bride, Report on Rendezvous, 28 Feb. 1795] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WHAT THE GANG DID ASHORE. + + + +In his endeavours to escape the gang the sailor resembled nothing so +much as that hopelessly impotent fugitive the flying-fish. For both the +sea swarmed with enemies bent on catching them. Both sought to evade +those enemies by flight, and both, their ineffectual flight ended, +returned to the sea again whether they would or not. It was their fate, +a deep-sea kismet as unavoidable as death. + +The ultimate destination of the sailor who by strategy or accident +succeeded in eluding the triple line of sea-gangs so placed as to head +him off from the coast, was thus never in doubt. His longest flights +were those he made on land, for here the broad horizon that stood +the gangs in such good stead at sea was measurably narrower, while +hiding-places abounded and were never far to seek. All the same, in +spite of these adventitious aids to self-effacement, the predestined end +of the seafaring man sooner or later overtook him. The gang met him at +the turning of the ways and wiped him off the face of the land. In the +expressive words of a naval officer who knew the conditions thoroughly +well, the sailor's chances of obtaining a good run for his money "were +not worth a chaw of tobacco." + +For this inevitable finish to all the sailor's attempts at flight on +shore there existed in the main two reasons. The first of these lay in +the sailor himself, making of him an unconscious aider and abettor in +his own capture. Just as love and a cough cannot be hid, so there was +no disguising the fact that the sailor was a sailor. He was marked by +characteristics that infallibly betrayed him. His bandy legs and rolling +gait suggested irresistibly the way of a ship at sea, and no "soaking" +in alehouse or tavern could eliminate the salt from the peculiar oaths +that were as natural to him as the breath of life. Assume what disguise +he would, he fell under suspicion at sight, and he had only to open +his mouth to turn that suspicion into certainty. It needed no Sherlock +Holmes of a gangsman to divine what he was or whence he came. + +The second reason why the sailor could never long escape the gangs was +because the gangs were numerically too many for him. It was no question +of a chance gang here and there. The country swarmed with them. + +Take the coast. Here every seaport of any pretensions in the way of +trade, together with every spot between such ports known to be favoured +or habitually used by the homing sailor as a landing-place, with certain +exceptions already noted, either had its own particular gang or was +closely watched by some gang stationed within easy access of the spot. +In this way the whole island was ringed in by gangs on shore, just as it +was similarly ringed in by other gangs afloat. + +"If their Lordships would give me authority to press here," says Lieut. +Oakley, writing to the Sea Lords from Deal in 1743, "I could frequently +pick up good seamen ashoar. I mean seamen _who by some means escape +being prest by the men of war and tenders_." + +In this modest request the lieutenant states the whole case for the +land-gang, at once demonstrating its utility and defining its functions. +Unconsciously he does more. He echoes a cry that incessantly assailed +the ears of Admiralty: "The sailor has escaped! Send us warrants and +give us gangs, and we will catch him yet." + +It was this call, the call of the fleet, that dominated the situation +and forced order out of chaos. The men must be "rose," and only +method could do it. The demand was a heavy one to make upon the most +unsystematic system ever known, yet it survived the ordeal. The coast +was mapped out, warrants were dispatched to this point and that, +rendezvous were opened, gangs formed. No effort or outlay was spared to +take the sailor the moment he got ashore, or very soon after. + +In this systematic setting of land-traps that vast head-centre of the +nation's overseas trade, the metropolis, naturally had first place. The +streets, and especially the waterside streets, were infested with gangs. +At times it was unsafe for any able-bodied man to venture abroad +unless he had on him an undeniable protection or wore a dress that +unmistakeably proclaimed the gentleman. The general rendezvous was on +Tower Hill; but as ships completing their complement nearly always sent +a gang or two to London, minor rendezvous abounded. St. Katherine's by +the Tower was specially favoured by them. The "Rotterdam Arms" and the +"Two Dutch Skippers," well-known taverns within that precinct, were +seldom without the bit of bunting that proclaimed the headquarters of +the gang. At Westminster the "White Swan" in King's Street usually bore +a similar decoration, as did also the "Ship" in Holborn. + +A characteristic case of pressing by a gang using the last-named house +occurred in 1706. Ransacking the town in quest of pressable subjects of +Her Majesty, they came one day to the "Cock and Rummer" in Bow Street, +where a big dinner was in progress. Here nothing would suit their tooth +but mine host's apprentice, and as ill-luck would have it the apprentice +was cook to the establishment and responsible for the dinner. Him they +nevertheless seized and would have hurried away in spite of his master's +supplications, protests and offers of free drinks, had it not been for +the fact that a mob collected and forcibly prevented them. Other gangs +hurrying to the assistance of their hard-pressed comrades--to the +number, it is said, of sixty men--a free fight ensued, in the course of +which a burly constable, armed with a formidable longstaff, was singled +out by the original gang, doubtless on account of the prominent part he +took in the fray, as a fitting substitute for the apprentice. By dint of +beating the poor fellow till he was past resistance they at length got +him to the "Ship," where they were in the very act of bundling him +into a coach, with the intention of carrying him to the waterside below +bridge, and of their putting him on board the press-smack, when in the +general confusion he somehow effected his escape. [Footnote: "A Horrible +Relation," _Review_, 17 March 1705-6.] Such incidents were common enough +not only at that time but long after. + +At Gravesend sailors came ashore in such numbers from East India and +other ships as to keep a brace of gangs busy. Another found enough to do +at Broadstairs, whence a large number of vessels sailed in the Iceland +cod fishery and similar industries. Faversham was a port and had its +gang, and from Margate right away to Portsmouth, and from Portsmouth to +Plymouth, nearly every town of any size that offered ready hiding to the +fugitive sailor from the Channel was similarly favoured. Brighton formed +a notable exception, and this circumstance gave rise to an episode about +which we shall have more to say presently. + +To record in these pages the local of all the gangs that were stationed +in this manner upon the seaboard of the kingdom would be as undesirable +as it is foreign to the scope of this chapter. Enough to repeat that +the land, always the sailor's objective in eluding the triple cordon of +sea-borne gangs, was ringed in and surrounded by a circle of land-gangs +in every respect identical with that described as hedging the southern +coast, and in its continuity almost as unbroken as the shore itself. +Both sea-gangs and coast-gangs were amphibious, using either land or sea +at pleasure. + +Inland the conditions were the same, yet materially different. What was +on the coast an encircling line assumed here the form of a vast net, +to which the principal towns, the great cross-roads and the arterial +bridges of the country stood in the relation of reticular knots, while +the constant "ranging" of the gangs, now in this direction, now in that, +supplied the connecting filaments or threads. The gangs composing this +great inland net were not amphibious. Their most desperate aquatic +ventures were confined to rivers and canals. Ability to do their twenty +miles a day on foot counted for more with them than a knowledge of how +to handle an oar or distinguish the "cheeks" of a gaff from its "jaw." + +Just as the sea-gangs in their raids upon the land were the Danes and +"creekmen" of their time, so the land-gangsman was the true highwayman +of the century that begot him. He kept every strategic point of every +main thoroughfare, held all the bridges, watched all the ferries, +haunted all the fairs. No place where likely men were to be found +escaped his calculating eye. + +He was an inveterate early riser, and sailors sauntering to the fair for +want of better employment ran grave risks. In this way a large number +were taken on the road to Croydon fair one morning in September 1743. +For actual pressing the fair itself was unsafe because of the +great concourse of people; but it formed one of the best possible +hunting-grounds and was kept under close observation for that reason. +Here the gangsman marked his victim, whose steps he dogged into the +country when his business was done or his pleasure ended, never for a +moment losing sight of him until he walked into the trap all ready set +in some wayside spinny or beneath some sheltering bridge. + +Bridges were the inland gangsman's favourite haunt. They not only +afforded ready concealment, they had to be crossed. Thus Lodden Bridge, +near Reading, accounted one of the "likeliest places in the country +for straggling seamen," was seldom without its gang. Nor was the great +bridge at Gloucester, since, as the first bridge over the Severn, it +drew to itself all the highroads and their users from Wales and the +north. To sailors making for the south coast from those parts it was a +point of approach as dangerous as it was unavoidable. Great numbers +were taken here in consequence. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +58l--Admiral Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 14 April 1805.] + +So of ferries. The passage boats at Queensferry on the Firth of Forth, +watched by gangs from Inverkeithing, yielded almost as many men in the +course of a year as the costly rendezvous at Leith. Greenock ferries +proved scarcely less productive. But there was here an exception. The +ferry between Glenfinart and Greenock plied only twice a week, and +as both occasions coincided with market-days the boat was invariably +crowded with women. Only once did it yield a man. Peter Weir, the hand +in charge, one day overset the boat, drowning every soul on board except +himself. Thereupon the gang pressed him, arguing that one who used the +sea so effectively could not fail to make a valuable addition to the +fleet. + +Inland towns traversed by the great highroads leading from north to +south, or from east to west, were much frequented by the gangs. Amongst +these Stourbridge perhaps ranked first. Situated midway between +the great ports of Liverpool and Bristol, it easily and effectually +commanded Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Bridgnorth, Bewdley, Kidderminster +and other populous towns, while it was too small to afford secure +hiding within itself. The gangs operating from Stourbridge brought in +an endless procession of ragged and travel-stained seamen. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1500--Letters of Capt. Beecher, 1780.] + +From ports on the Bristol Channel to ports on the English Channel, and +the reverse, many seamen crossed the country by stage-coach or wagon, +and to intercept them gangs were stationed at Okehampton, Liskeard and +Exeter. Taunton and Salisbury also, as "great thoroughfares to and from +the west," had each its gang, and a sufficient number of sailors escaped +the press at the latter place to justify the presence of another at +Romsey. Andover had a gang as early as 1756, on the recommendation of no +less a man than Rodney. + +Shore gangs were of necessity ambulatory. To sit down before the +rendezvous pipe in hand, and expect the evasive sailor to come of his +own accord and beg the favour of being pressed, would have been a futile +waste of time and tobacco. The very essence of the gangman's duty lay in +the leg-work he did. To that end he ate the king's victuals and wore the +king's shoe-leather. Consequently he was early afoot and late to bed. +Ten miles out and ten home made up his daily constitutional, and if +he saw fit to exceed that distance he did not incur his captain's +displeasure. The gang at Reading, a strategic point of great importance +on the Bath and Bristol road, traversed all the country round about +within a radius of twenty miles--double the regulation distance. That at +King's Lynn, another centre of unmeasured possibilities, trudged as far +afield as Boston, Ely, Peterborough and Wells-on-Sea. And the Isle of +Wight gang, stationed at Cowes or Ryde, now and then co-operated with a +gang from Portsmouth or Gosport and ranged the whole length and breadth +of the island, which was a noted nest of deserters and skulkers. +"Range," by the way, was a word much favoured by the officers who led +such expeditions. Its use is happy. It suggests the object well in view, +the nicely calculated distance, the steady aim that seldom missed its +mark. The gang that "ranged" rarely returned empty-handed. + +On these excursions the favourite resting-place was some secluded +nook overlooking the point of crossing of two or more highroads; the +favourite place of refreshment, some busy wayside alehouse. Both were +good to rest or refresh in, for at both the chances of effecting a +capture were far more numerous than on the open road. + +The object of the gang in taking the road was not, however, so much +what could be picked up by chance in the course of a day's march, as the +execution of some preconcerted design upon a particular person or place. +This brings us to the methods of pressing commonly adopted, which may be +roughly summarised under the three heads of surprise, violence and the +hunt. Frequently all three were combined; but as in the case of gangs +operating on the waters of rivers or harbours, the essential element +in all pre-arranged raids, attacks and predatory expeditions was the +first-named element, surprise. In this respect the gangsmen were genuine +"Peep-o'-Day Boys." The siege of Brighton is a notable case in point. + +The inhabitants of Brighton, better known in the days of the press-gang +as Brighthelmstone, consisted largely of fisher-folk in respect to +whom the Admiralty had been guilty of one of its rare oversights. For +generations no call was made upon them to serve the king at sea. +This accidental immunity in course of time came to be regarded by +the Brighton fisherman as his birthright, and the misconception bred +consequences. For one thing, it made him intolerably saucy. He boasted +that no impress officer had power to take him, and he backed up the +boast by openly insulting, and on more than one occasion violently +assaulting the king's uniform. With all this he was a hardy, long-lived, +lusty fellow, and as his numbers were never thinned by that active +corrector of an excessive birth-rate, the press-gang, he speedily +overstocked the town. An energetic worker while his two great harvests +of herring and mackerel held out, he was at other times indolent, lazy +and careless of the fact that his numerous progeny burdened the rates. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 580--Admiral Berkeley, Report on +Rendezvous, 31 Dec. 1804.] These unpleasing circumstances having been +duly reported to the Admiralty, their Lordships decided that what the +Brighton fisherman required to correct his lax principles and stiffen +his backbone was a good hot press. They accordingly issued orders for an +early raid to be made upon that promising nursery of man-o'-war's-men. + +The orders, which were of course secret, bore date the 3rd of July 1779, +and were directed to Capt. Alms, who, as regulating officer at Shoreham, +was likewise in charge of the gang at Newhaven under Lieut. Bradley, and +of the gang at Littlehampton under Lieut. Breedon. At Shoreham there was +also a tender, manned by an able crew. With these three gangs and the +tender's crew at his back, Alms determined to lay siege to Brighton +and teach the fishermen there a lesson they should not soon forget. But +first, in order to render the success of the project doubly sure, he +enlisted the aid of Major-General Sloper, Commandant at Lewes, who +readily consented to lend a company of soldiers to assist in the +execution of the design. + +These preparations were some little time in the making, and it was not +until the Thursday immediately preceding the 24th of July that all was +in readiness. On the night of that day, by preconcerted arrangement, +the allied forces took the road--for the Littlehampton gang, a matter +of some twenty miles--and at the first flush of dawn united on the +outskirts of the sleeping town, where the soldiers were without loss of +time so disposed as to cut off every avenue of escape. This done, +the gangs split up and by devious ways, but with all expedition, +concentrated their strength upon the quay, expecting to find there a +large number of men making ready for the day's fishing. To their intense +chagrin the quay was deserted. The night had been a tempestuous one, +with heavy rain, and though the unfortunate gangsmen were soaked to the +skin, the fishermen all lay dry in bed. Hearing the wind and rain, not a +man turned out. + +By this time the few people who were abroad on necessary occasions +had raised the alarm, and on every hand were heard loud cries of +"Press-gang!" and the hurried barricading of doors. For ten hours "every +man kept himself locked up and bolted." For ten hours Alms waited in +vain upon the local Justice of the Peace for power to break and enter +the fishermen's cottages. His repeated requests being refused, he was at +length "under the necessity of quitting the town with only one man." So +ended the siege of Brighton; but Bradley, on his way back to Newhaven, +fell in with a gang of smugglers, of whom he pressed five. Brighton did +not soon forget the terrors of that rain-swept morning. For many a long +day her people were "very shy, and cautious of appearing in public." The +salutary effects of the raid, however, did not extend to the fishermen +it was intended to benefit. They became more insolent than ever, and a +few years later marked their resentment of the attempt to press them by +administering a sound thrashing to Mr. Midshipman Sealy, of the Shoreham +rendezvous, whom they one day caught unawares. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1445-46--Letters of Capt. Alms.] + +The surprise tactics of the gang of course varied according to +circumstances, and the form they took was sometimes highly ingenious. +A not uncommon stratagem was the impersonation of a recruiting party +beating up for volunteers. With cockades in their hats, drums rolling +and fifes shrilling, the gangsmen, who of course had their arms +concealed, marched ostentatiously through the high-street of some +sizable country town and so into the market-place. Since nobody had +anything to fear from a harmless recruiting party, people turned out in +strength to see the sight and listen to the music. When they had in this +way drawn as many as they could into the open, the gangsmen suddenly +threw off their disguise and seized every pressable person they could +lay hands on. Market-day was ill-adapted to these tactics. It brought +too big a crowd together. + +A similar ruse was once practised with great success upon the +inhabitants of Portsmouth by Capt. Bowen of the _Dreadnought_, in +connection with a general press which the Admiralty had secretly ordered +to be made in and about that town. Dockyard towns were not as a rule +considered good pressing-grounds because of the drain of men set up by +the ships of war fitting out there; but Bowen had certainly no reason to +subscribe to that opinion. Late on the night of the 8th of March 1803, +he landed a company of marines at Gosport for the purpose, as it was +given out, of suppressing a mutiny at Fort Monckton. The news spread +rapidly, drawing crowds of people from their homes in anticipation of +an exciting scrimmage. This gave Bowen the opportunity he counted upon. +When the throngs had crossed Haslar Bridge he posted marines at the +bridge-end, and as the disappointed people came pouring back the +"jollies" pressed every man in the crowd. Five hundred are said to have +been taken on this occasion, but as the nature of the service forbade +discrimination at the moment of pressing, nearly one-half were next +day discharged as unfit or exempt. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1057--Admiral Milbanke, 9 March 1803.] + +Sometimes, though not often, it was the gang that was surprised. All +hands would perhaps be snug in bed after a long and trying day, when +suddenly a thunderous knocking at the rendezvous door, and stentorian +cries of: "Turn out! turn out there!" coupled with epithets here +unproducible, would bring every man of them into the street in the turn +of a handspike, half-dressed but fully armed and awake to the fact that +a party of belated seamen was coming down the road. The sailors were +perhaps more road-weary than the gangsmen, and provided none of them +succeeded in slipping away in the darkness, or made a successful +resistance, in half-an-hour's time or less the whole party would be safe +under lock and key, cursing luck for a scurvy trickster in delivering +them over to the gang. + +The sailor's well-known partiality for drink was constantly turned to +account by the astute gangsman. If a sailor himself, he laid aside his +hanger or cudgel and played the game of "What ho! shipmate" at the +cost of a can or two of flip, gently guiding his boon companion to +the rendezvous when he had got him sufficiently corned. Failing these +tactics, he adopted others equally effective. At Liverpool, where the +seafaring element was always a large one, it was a common practice for +the gangs to lie low for a time, thus inducing the sailor to believe +himself safe from molestation. He immediately indulged in a desperate +drinking bout and so put himself entirely in their power. Whether +rolling about the town "very much in liquor," or "snugly moored in Sot's +Bay," he was an easy victim. + +Another ineradicable weakness that often landed the sailor in the +press-room was his propensity to indulge in "swank." Two jolly tars, who +were fully protected and consequently believed themselves immune from +the press, once bought a four-wheeled post-chaise and hired a painter +in Long Acre to ornament it with anchors, masts, cannon and a variety +of other objects emblematic of the sea. In this ornate vehicle they set +out, behind six horses, with the intention of posting down to Alnwick, +where their sweethearts lived. So impatient were they to get over the +road that they could not be prevailed upon, at any of the numerous inns +where they pulled up for refreshment, to stop long enough to have the +wheels properly greased, crying out at the delay: "Avast there! she's +had tar enough," and so on again. Just as they were making a triumphal +entry into Newcastle-upon-Tyne the wheels took fire, and the chaise, +saturated with the liquor they had spilt in the course of their mad +drive, burst into flames fore and aft. The sailors bellowed lustily for +help, whereupon the spectators ran to their assistance and by swamping +the ship with buckets of water succeeded in putting out the fire. Now it +happened that in the crowd drawn together by such an unusual occurrence +there was an impress officer who was greatly shocked by the exhibition. +He considered that the sailors had been guilty of unseemly behaviour, +and on that ground had them pressed. Notwithstanding their protections +they were kept. + +In his efforts to swell the returns of pressed men the gangsman was +supposed--we may even go so far as to say enjoined--to use no more +violence than was absolutely necessary to attain his end. The question +of force thus resolved itself into one of the degree of resistance he +encountered. Needless to say, he did not always knock a man down before +bidding him stand in the king's name. Recourse to measures so extreme +was not always necessary. Every sailor had not the pluck to fight, and +even when he had both the pluck and the good-will, hard drinking, weary +days of tramping, or long abstinence from food had perhaps sapped his +strength, leaving him in no fit condition to hold his own in a scrap +with the well-fed gangsman. The latter consequently had it pretty much +his own way. A firm hand on the shoulder, or at the most a short, sharp +tussle, and the man was his. But there were exceptions to this easy +rule, as we shall see in our next chapter. + +Hunting the sailor was largely a matter of information, and +unfortunately for his chances of escape informers were seldom wanting. +Everywhere it was a game at hide-and-seek. Constables had orders to +report him. Chapmen, drovers and soldiers, persons who were much on +the road, kept a bright lookout for him. The crimp, habitually given to +underhand practices, turned informer when prices for seamen ruled low +in the service he usually catered for. His mistress loved him as long +as his money lasted; when he had no more to throw away upon her she +perfidiously betrayed him. And for all this there was a reason as +simple as casting up the number of shillings in the pound. No matter how +penniless the sailor himself might be, he was always worth that sum at +the rendezvous. Twenty shillings was the reward paid for information +leading to his apprehension as a straggler or a skulker, and it was +largely on the strength of such informations, and often under the +personal guidance of such detestable informers, that the gang went +a-hunting. + +Apart from greed of gain, the motive most commonly underlying +informations was either jealousy or spite. Women were the greatest +sinners in the first respect. Let the sailorman concealed by a woman +only so much as look with favour upon another, and his fate was sealed. +She gave him away, or, what was more profitable, sold him without +regret. There were as good fish in the sea as ever came out. Perhaps +better. + +On the wings of spite and malice the escapades of youth often came home +to roost after many years. Men who had run away to sea as lads, but had +afterwards married and settled down, were informed on by evil-disposed +persons who bore them some grudge, and torn from their families as +having used the sea. Stephen Kemp, of Warbelton in Sussex, one of the +many who suffered this fate, had indeed used the sea, but only for a +single night on board a fishing-boat. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1445--Capt. Alms, 9 June 1777.] + +In face of these infamies it is good to read of how they dealt with +informers at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There the role was one fraught with +peculiar danger. Rewards were paid by the Collector of Customs, and when +a Newcastle man went to the Customs-House to claim the price of some +sailor's betrayal, the people set upon him and incontinently broke his +head. One notorious receiver of such rewards was "nearly murther'd." +Thereafter informers had to be paid in private places for fear of the +mob, and so many persons fell under suspicion of playing the dastardly +game that the regulating captain was besieged by applicants for +"certificates of innocency." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1497--Letters of Capt. Bover, 1777.] + + + [Illustration: ONE OF THE RAREST OF PRESS-GANG RECORDS. +A play-bill announcing the suspension of the Gang's operations on +"Play Nights"; in the collection of Mr. A. M. Broadley, by whose kind +permission it is reproduced.] + + +Informations not infrequently took the form of anonymous communications +addressed by the same hand to two different gangs at one and the same +time, and when this was the case, and both gangs sallied forth in quest +of the skulker, a collision was pretty sure to follow. Sometimes the +encounter resolved itself into a running fight, in the course of which +the poor sailor, who formed the bone of contention, was pressed and +re-pressed several times over between his hiding-place and one or other +of the rendezvous. + +Rivalry between gangs engaged in ordinary pressing led to many a +stirring encounter and bloody fracas. A gang sent out by H.M.S. _Thetis_ +was once attacked, while prowling about the waterside slums of Deptford, +by "three or four different gangs, to the number of thirty men." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1502--Capt. Butcher, 29 Oct. 1782.] +There was a greater demand for bandages than for sailors in Deptford +during the rest of the night. + +The most extraordinary affair of this description to be met with in the +annals of pressing is perhaps one that occurred early in the reign +of Queen Anne. Amongst the men-of-war then lying at Spithead were the +_Dorsetshire_, Capt. Butler commander, and the _Medway_. Hearing that +some sailors were in hiding at a place a little distance beyond Gosport, +Capt. Butler dispatched his 1st and 2nd lieutenants, in charge of thirty +of his best men, with instructions to take them and bring them on board. +It so happened that a strong gang was at the same time on shore from +the _Medway_, presumably on the same errand, and this party the +Dorsetshires, returning to their ship with the seamen they had taken, +found posted in the Gosport road for the avowed purpose of re-pressing +the pressed men. By a timely detour, however, they reached the waterside +"without any mischief done." + +Meanwhile, a rumour had somehow reached the ears of Capt. Butler to the +effect that a fight was in progress and his 1st lieutenant killed. He +immediately took boat and hurried over to Gosport, where, to his relief, +he found his people all safe in their boats, but on the Point, to use +his own graphic words, "severall hundred People, some with drawn Swords, +some with Spitts, others with Clubbs, Staves & Stretchers. Some cry'd +'One & All!' others cry'd 'Medways!' and some again swearing, cursing & +banning that they would knock my People's Brains out. Off I went with my +Barge to the Longboat," continues the gallant captain, "commanding them +to weigh their grappling & goe with me aboard. In the meantime off +came about twelve Boats full with the _Medway's_ men to lay my +Longboat aboard, who surrounded us with Swords, Clubbs, Staves & divers +Instruments, & nothing would do but all our Brains must be Knock't +out. Finding how I defended the Longboat, they then undertook to attack +myselfe and people, One of their Boats came upon the stern and made +severall Blows at my Coxwain, and if it had not been for the Resolution +I had taken to endure all these Abuses, I had Kill'd all those men with +my own Hand; but this Boat in particular stuck close to me with only six +men, and I kept a very good Eye upon her. All this time we were rowing +out of the Harbour with these Boats about us as far as Portsmouth Point, +my Coxwain wounded, myselfe and People dangerously assaulted with Stones +which they brought from the Beech & threw at us, and as their Boats +drop'd off I took my opportunity & seized ye Boat with the Six Men +that had so attack'd me, and have secured them in Irons." With this +the incident practically ended; for although the Medways retaliated +by seizing and carrying off the _Dorsetshire's_ coxwain and a crew +who ventured ashore next day with letters, the latter were speedily +released; but for a week Capt. Butler--fiery old Trojan! who could have +slain a whole boat's-crew with his own hand--remained a close prisoner +on board his ship. "Should I but put my foot ashoar," we hear him +growl, "I am murther'd that minute." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1467--Capt. Butler, 1 June 1705.] + +With certain exceptions presently to be noted, every man's hand was +against the fugitive sailor, and this being so it followed as a matter +of course that in his inveterate pursuit of him the gangsman found more +honourable allies than that nefarious person, the man-selling informer. +The class whom the sailor himself, in his contempt of the good feeding +he never shared, nicknamed "big-bellied placemen"--the pompous mayors, +the portly aldermen and the county magistrate who knew a good horse +or hound but precious little law, were almost to a man the gangsman's +coadjutors. Lavishly wined and dined at Admiralty expense, they urbanely +"backed" the regulating captain's warrants, consistently winked at his +glaring infractions of law and order, and with the most commendable +loyalty imaginable did all in their power to forward His Majesty's +service. Even the military, if rightly approached on their pinnacle +of lofty superiority, now and then condescended to lend the gangsman +a hand. Did not Sloper, Major-General and Commandant at Lewes, throw a +whole company into the siege of Brighton? + +These post-prandial concessions on the part of bigwigs desirous of +currying favour in high places on the whole told heavily against the +sorely harassed object of the gangsman's quest, rendering it, +amongst other things, extremely unsafe for him to indulge in those +unconventional outbursts which, under happier conditions, so uniformly +marked his jovial moods. At the playhouse, for example, he could not +heave empty bottles or similar tokens of appreciation upon the stage +without grave risk of incurring the fate that overtook Steven David, +Samuel Jenkins and Thomas Williams, three sailors of Falmouth town who, +merely because they adopted so unusual a mode of applauding a favourite, +were by magisterial order handed over to Lieut. Box of H.M.S. _Blonde_, +with a peremptory request that they should be transferred forthwith to +that floating stage where the only recognised "turns" were those of +the cat and the capstan. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1537--Capt. +Ballard, 13 Dec. 1806.] + +Luckily for the sailor and those of other callings who shared his +liability to the press, the civil authorities did not range themselves +on the gangsman's side with complete unanimity. Local considerations of +trade, coupled with some faint conception of the hideous injustice the +seafaring classes groaned under, and groaned in vain, here and there +outweighed patriotism and dinners. Little by little a cantankerous +spirit of opposition got abroad, and every now and then, at this point +or at that, some mayor or alderman, obsessed by this spirit beyond his +fellows and his time, seized such opportunities as office threw in his +way to mark his disapproval of the wrongs the sailor suffered. Had this +attitude been more general, or more consistent in itself, the press-gang +would not have endured for a day. + +The role of Richard Yea and Nay was, however, the favourite one with +urban authorities. Towns at first not "inclinable to allow a pressing," +afterwards relented and took the gang to their bosom, or entertained it +gladly for a time, only to cast it out with contumely. A lieutenant who +was sent to Newcastle to press in 1702 found "no manner of encouragement +there"; yet seventy-five years later the Tyneside city, thanks to the +loyal co-operation of a long succession of mayors, and of such men as +George Stephenson, sometime Deputy-Master of the Trinity House, had +become one of the riskiest in the kingdom for the seafaring man who +was a stranger within her gates. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1498--Capt. Bover, 11 Aug. 1778.] + +The attitude of Poole differed in some respects from that of other +towns. Her mayors and magistrates, while they did not actually oppose +the pressing of seamen within the borough, would neither back the +warrants nor lend the gangs their countenance. The reason advanced for +this disloyal attitude was of the absurdest nature. Poole held that +in order to press twenty men you were not at liberty to kill the +twenty-first. That, in fact, was what had happened on board the _Maria_ +brig as she came into port there, deeply laden with fish from the Banks, +and the corporation very foolishly never forgot the trivial incident. + +It did not, of course, follow that the Poole sailor enjoyed freedom from +the press. Far from it. What he did enjoy was a reputation that, if not +all his own, was yet sufficiently so to be shared by few. Bred in +that roughest of all schools, the Newfoundland cod fishery, he was an +exceptionally tough nut to crack. + + "If Poole were a fish pool + And the men of Poole fish, + There'd be a pool for the devil + And fish for his dish," + +was how the old jibe ran, and in this estimate of the Poole man's +character the gangs fully concurred. They knew him well and liked him +little, so when bent on pressing him they adopted no squeamish measures, +but very wisely "trusted to the strength of their right arms for it." +Some of their attempts to take him make strange reading. + +About eight o'clock on a certain winter's evening, Regulating Captain +Walbeoff, accompanied by Lieut. Osmer, a midshipman and eight gangsmen, +broke into the house of William Trim, a seafaring native of the place +whom they knew to be at home and had resolved to press. Alarmed by the +forcing of the door, and only too well aware of what it portended, +Trim made for the stairs, where, turning upon his pursuers, he struck +repeatedly and savagely at the midshipman, who headed them, with a +red-hot poker which he had snatched out of the fire at the moment of his +flight. He was, however, quickly overpowered, disarmed and dragged back +into the lower room, where his captors threw him violently to the floor +and with their hangers took effective measures to prevent his escape or +further opposition. His sister happened to be in the house, and whilst +this was going on the lieutenant brutally assaulted her, presumably +because she wished to go to her brother's assistance. Meanwhile Trim's +father, a man near seventy years of age, who lived only a stone's-throw +away, hearing the uproar, and being told the gang had come for his +son, ran to the house with the intention, as he afterwards declared, of +persuading him to go quietly. Seeing him stretched upon the floor, he +stooped to lift him to his feet, when one of the gang attacked him and +stabbed him in the back. He fell bleeding beside the younger man, +and was there beaten by a number of the gangsmen whilst the remainder +dragged his son off to the press-room, whence he was in due course +dispatched to the fleet at Spithead. The date of this brutal episode is +1804; the manner of it, "nothing more than what usually happened on +such occasions" in the town of Poole. [Footnote _Admiralty Records_ 1. +580--Admiral Phillip, Inquiry into the Conduct of the Impress Officers +at Poole, 13 Aug. 1804.] + +For this deplorable state of things Poole had none but herself to +thank. Had she, instead of merely refusing to back the warrants, taken +effective measures to rid herself of the gang, that mischievous +body would have soon left her in peace. Rochester wore the jewel of +consistency in this respect. When Lieut. Brenton pressed a youth there +who "appeared to be a seafaring man," but turned out to be an exempt +city apprentice, he was promptly arrested and deprived of his sword, the +mayor making no bones of telling him that his warrant was "useless +in Rochester." With this broad hint he was discharged; but the people +proved less lenient than the mayor, for they set about him and beat +him unmercifully. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 301--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1784-92, No. 42: Deposition of Lieut. Brenton.] + +Save on a single occasion, already incidentally referred to, civic +Liverpool treated the gang with uniform kindness. In 1745, at a time +when the rebels were reported to be within only four miles of the +city, the mayor refused to back warrants for the pressing of sailors +to protect the shipping in the river. His reason was a cogent one. The +captains of the _Southsea Castle_, the _Mercury_ and the _Loo_, three +ships of war then in the Mersey, had just recently "manned their boats +with marines and impressed from the shore near fifty men," and the +seafaring element of the town, always a formidable one, was up in arms +because of it. This so intimidated the mayor that he dared not sanction +further raids "for fear of being murder'd." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1440--Letters of Capt. Amherst, Dec. 1745.] His dread of +the armed sailor was not shared by Henry Alcock, sometime mayor of +Waterford. That gentleman "often headed the press-gangs" in person. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1500--Capt. Bennett, 13 Nov. 1780.] + +Deal objected to the press for reasons extending back to the reign of +King John. As a member of the Cinque Ports that town had constantly +supplied the kings and queens of the realm, from the time of Magna +Charta downwards, with great numbers of able and sufficient seamen who, +according to the ancient custom of the Five Ports, had been impressed +and raised by the mayor and magistrates of the town, acting under orders +from the Lord Warden, and not by irresponsible gangs from without. It +was to these, and not to the press as such, that Deal objected. The +introduction of gangs in her opinion bred disorder. Great disturbances, +breaches of the peace, riots, tumults and even bloodshed attended their +steps and made their presence in any peaceably disposed community highly +undesirable. Within the memory of living man even, Deal had obliged no +less than four hundred seamen to go on board the ships of the fleet, and +she desired no more of those strangers who recently, incited by Admiral +the Marquis of Carmarthen, had gone a-pressing in her streets and +grievously wounded divers persons. [Footnote: _State Papers Domestic_, +Anne, xxxvi: No. 24: Petition of the Mayor, Jurats and Commonalty of the +Free Town and Borough of Deal.] + +In this commonsense view of the case Deal was ably supported by Dover, +the premier Cinque Port. Dover, it is true, so far as we know never +embodied her objections to the press in any humble petition to the +Queen's Majesty. She chose instead a directer method, for when the +lieutenant of the _Devonshire_ impressed six men belonging to a +brigantine from Carolina in her streets, and attempted to carry them +beyond the limits of the borough, "many people of Dover, in company with +the Mayor thereof, assembled themselves together and would not permit +the lieutenant to bring them away." The action angered the Lords +Commissioners, who resolved to teach Dover a lesson. Orders were +accordingly sent down to Capt. Dent, whose ship the _Shrewsbury_ +man-o'-war was then in the Downs, directing him to send a gang ashore +and press the first six good seamen they should meet with, taking care, +however, since their Lordships did not wish to be too hard upon the +town, that the men so pressed were bachelors and not householders. +Lieut. O'Brien was entrusted with this delicate punitive mission. +He returned on board after a campaign of only a few hours' duration, +triumphantly bearing with him the stipulated hostages for Dover's future +good behaviour--"six very good seamen, natives and inhabitants, and five +of them bachelors." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1696--Capt. Dent, +24 Aug. 1743.] The sixth was of course a householder, a circumstance +that made the town's punishment all the severer. + +Its effects were less salutary than the Admiralty had anticipated. True, +both Dover and Deal thereafter withdrew their opposition to the press so +far as to admit the gang within their borders; but they kept a watchful +eye upon its doings, and every now and then the old spirit flamed out +again at white heat, consuming the bonds of some poor devil who, like +Alexander Hart, freeman of Dover, had been irregularly taken. On this +occasion the mayor, backed by a posse of constables, himself broke open +the press-room door. A similar incident, occurring a little later in the +same year, so incensed Capt. Ball, who aptly enough was at the time +in command of the _Nemesis_, that he roundly swore "to impress every +seafaring man in Dover and make them repent of their impudence." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 301--Law Officers' Opinions, 1784-92, +No. 44; _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1507--Capt. Ball, 15 April 1791.] + +Where the magistrate had it most in his power to make or mar the +fugitive sailor's chances was in connection with the familiar fiction +that the Englishman's house is his castle. To hide a sailor was to steal +the king's chattel--penalty, 5 Pounds forfeited to the parish; and if +you were guilty of such a theft, or were with good reason suspected of +being guilty, you found yourself in much the same case as the ordinary +thief or the receiver of stolen goods. A search warrant could be sworn +out before a magistrate, and your house ransacked from cellar to garret. +Without such warrant, however, it could not be lawfully entered. In the +heat of pressing forcible entry was nevertheless not unusual, and many +an impress officer found himself involved in actions for trespass or +damages in consequence of his own indiscretion or the excessive zeal of +his gang. The defence set up by Lieut. Doyle, of Dublin, that the "Panel +of the Door was Broke by Accident," would not go down in a court of law, +however avidly it might be swallowed by the Board of Admiralty. + +More than this. The magistrate was by law empowered to seize all +straggling seamen and landsmen and hand them over to the gangs for +consignment to the fleet. The vagabond, as the unfortunate tramp of +those days was commonly called, had thus a bad time of it. For him all +roads led to Spithead. The same was true of persons who made themselves +a public nuisance in other ways. By express magisterial order many +answering to that description followed Francis Juniper of Cuckfield, "a +very drunken, troublesome fellow, without a coat to his back," who +was sent away lest he should become "chargeable to the parish." The +magistrate in this way conferred a double benefit upon his country. He +defended it against itself whilst helping it to defend itself against +the French. Still, the latter benefit was not always above suspicion. +The "ignorant zeal of simple justices," we are told, often impelled them +to hand over to the gangs men whom "any old woman could see with half +an eye to be properer objects of pity and charity than fit to serve His +Majesty." + +"Send your myrmidons," was a form of summons familiar to every gang +officer. As its tone implies, its source was magisterial, and when the +officer received it he hastened with his gang to the Petty Sessions, the +Assizes or the prison, and there took over, as an unearned increment of +His Majesty's fleet, the person of some misdemeanant willing to exchange +bridewell for the briny, or the manacled body of some convicted felon +who preferred to swing in a hammock at sea rather than on the gallows +ashore. + +A strangely assorted crew it was, this overflow of the jails that +clanked slowly seawards, marshalled by the gang. Reprieves and +commutations, if by no means universal in a confirmed hanging age, +were yet common enough to invest it with an appalling sameness that +was nevertheless an appalling variety. Able seamen sentenced for +horse-stealing or rioting, town dwellers raided out of night-houses, +impostors who simulated fits or played the maimed soldier, fishermen in +the illicit brandy and tobacco line, gentlemen of the road, makers of +"flash" notes and false coin, stealers of sheep, assaulters of women, +pickpockets and murderers in one unmitigated throng went the way of the +fleet and there sank their vices, their roguery, their crimes and their +identity in the number of a mess. + +Boys were in that flock of jail-birds too--youths barely in their teens, +guilty of such heinous offences as throwing stones at people who passed +in boats upon the river, or of "playing during divine service on Sunday" +and remaining impenitent and obdurate when confronted with all the +"terrific apparatus of fetters, chains and dark cells" pertaining to +a well-equipped city jail. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1534, +1545--Capt. Barker, 1 March 1805, 20 Aug. 1809, and numerous instances.] +The turning over of such young reprobates to the gang was one of the +pleasing duties of the magistrate. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +AT GRIPS WITH THE GANG. + + + +When all avenues of escape were cut off and the sailor found himself +face to face with the gang and imminent capture, he either surrendered +his liberty at the word of command or staked it on the issue of a fight. + +His choice of the latter alternative was the proverbial turning of +the worm, but of a worm that was no mean adversary. Fear of the gang, +supposing him to entertain any, was thrown to the winds. Fear of +the consequences--the clink, or maybe the gallows for a last +land-fall--which had restrained him in less critical moments when he had +both room to run and opportunity, sat lightly on him now. In red realism +there flashed through his brain the example of some doughty sailor, the +hero of many an anchor-watch and forecastle yarn, who had fought the +gang to its last man and yet come off victor. The swift vision fired +his blood and nerved his arm, and under its obsession he stood up to his +would-be captors with all the dogged pluck for which he was famous when +facing the enemy at sea. + +In contests of this description the weapon perhaps counted for as much +as the man who wielded it, and as its nature depended largely upon +circumstances and surroundings, the range of choice was generally +wide enough to please the most elective taste. Pressing consequently +introduced the gangsman to some strange weapons. + +Trim, the Poole sailor whose capture is narrated in the foregoing +chapter, defended himself with a red-hot poker. In what may be termed +domestic as opposed to public pressing, the use of this homely utensil +as an impromptu liberty-preserver was not at all uncommon. Hot or cold, +it proved a formidable weapon in the hands of a determined man, more +especially when, as was at that time very commonly the case, it belonged +to the ponderous cobiron or knobbed variety. + +Another weapon of recognised utility, particularly in the vicinity +of docks, careening-stations and ship-yards, was the humble tar-mop. +Consisting of a wooden handle some five or six feet in length, though of +no great diameter, terminating in a ball of spun-yarn forming the actual +mop, this implement, when new, was comparatively harmless. No serious +blow could then be dealt with it; but once it had been used for "paying" +a vessel's bottom and sides it underwent a change that rendered it +truly formidable. The ball of ravellings forming the mop became then +thoroughly, charged with tar or pitch and dried in a rough mass scarcely +less heavy than lead. In this condition it was capable of inflicting +a terrible blow, and many were the tussels decided by it. A remarkable +instance of its effective use occurred at Ipswich in 1703, when a gang +from the _Solebay_, rowing up the Orwell from Harwich, attempted to +press the men engaged in re-paying a collier. They were immediately +"struck down with Pitch-Mopps, to the great Peril of their Lives." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1436--Capt. Aldred, 6 Jan. 1702-3.] + +The weapon to which the sailor was most partial, however, was the +familiar capstan-bar. In it, as in its fellow the handspike, he found +a whole armament. Its availability, whether on shipboard or at the +waterside, its rough-and-ready nature, and above all its heft and +general capacity for dealing a knock-down blow without inflicting +necessarily fatal injuries, adapted it exactly to the sailor's +requirements, defensive or the reverse. It was with a capstan-bar that +Paul Jones, when hard pressed by a gang on board his ship at Liverpool, +was reputed to have stretched three of his assailants dead on deck. +Every sailor had heard of that glorious achievement and applauded it, +the killing perhaps grudgingly excepted. + +So, too, did he applaud the hardihood of William Bingham, that far-famed +north-country sailor who, adopting pistols as his weapon, negligently +stuck a brace of them in his belt and walked the streets of Newcastle in +open defiance of the gangs, none of which durst lay a hand on him till +the unlucky day when, in a moment of criminal carelessness that could +never be forgiven, he left his weapons at home and was haled to the +press-room fighting, all too late, like a fiend incarnate. + +Not to enlarge on the endless variety of chance weapons, there remained +those good old-standers the musket, the cutlass and the knife, each of +which, in the sailor's grasp, played its part in the rough-and-tumble of +pressing, and played it well. A case in point, familiar to every seaman, +was the last fight put up by that famous Plymouth sailor, Emanuel +Herbert, another fatalist who, like Bingham, believed in having two +strings to his bow. He accordingly provided himself with both fuzee +and hanger, and with these comforting bed-fellows retired to rest in an +upper chamber of the public-house where he lodged, easy in the knowledge +that whatever happened the door of his crib commanded the stairs. From +this stronghold the gang invited him to come down. He returned the +compliment by inviting them up, assuring them that he had a warm welcome +in store for the first who should favour him with a visit. The ambiguity +of the invitation appears to have been thrown away upon the gang, for +"three of my people," says the officer who led them, "rushed up, and the +gun missing fire, he immediately run one of them through the body +with the hanger"--a mode of welcoming his visitors which resulted in +Herbert's shifting his lodgings to Exeter jail, and in the wounded man's +speedy death. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1473--Capt. Brown, 4 +July 1727.] + +Here was a serious contingency indeed; but whatever deterrent effect the +fatal issue of this affair, as of many similar ones, may have had upon +the sailor's use of lethal weapons when attacked by the gang, that +effect was largely, if not altogether, neutralised by the upshot of the +famous Broadfoot case, which, occurring some sixteen years later, gave +the scales of justice a decided turn in the sailor's favour and robbed +the killing of a gangsman of its only terror, the shadow of the gallows. +The incident in question opened in Bristol river, with the boarding of +a merchant-man by a tender's gang. As they came over the side Broadfoot +met them, blunderbuss in hand. Being there to guard the ship, he bade +them begone, and upon their disregarding the order, and closing in upon +him with evident intent to take him, he clapped the blunderbuss, which +was heavily charged with swanshot, to his shoulder and let fly into +the midst of them. One of their number, Calahan by name, fell mortally +wounded, and Broadfoot was in due course indicted for wilful murder. +[Footnote: _Westminster Journal_, 30 April 1743.] How he was found not +guilty on the ground that a warrant directed to the lieutenant gave +the gang no power to take him, and that he was therefore justified in +defending himself, was well known to every sailor in the kingdom. No +jury thereafter ever found him guilty of a capital felony if by chance +he killed a gangsman in self-defence. The worst he had to fear was a +verdict of manslaughter--a circumstance that proved highly inspiriting +to him in his frequent scraps with the gang. + +There was another aspect of the case, however, that came home to the +sailor rather more intimately than the risk of being called upon to "do +time" under conditions scarcely worse than those he habitually endured +at sea. Suppose, instead of his killing the gangsman, the gangsman +killed him? He recalled a case he had heard much palaver about. An able +seaman, a perfect Tom Bowling of a fellow, brought to at an alehouse in +the Borough--the old "Bull's Head" it was--having a mind to lie snug +for a while, 'tween voyages. However, one day, being three sheets in +the wind or thereabouts, he risked a run and was made a prize of, worse +luck, by a press-gang that engaged him. Their boat lay at Battle Bridge +in the Narrow Passage, and while they were bearing down upon her, with +the sailor-chap in tow, what should Jack do but out with his knife and +slip it into one of the gangers. 'Twas nothing much, a waistcoat wound +at most, but the ganger resented the liberty, and swearing that no man +should tap his claret for nix, he ups with his cudgel and fetches Jack +a clip beside the head that lost him the number of his mess, for soon +after he was discharged dead along of having his head broke. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1486--Lieut. Slyford, 24 Nov. 1755. "Discharged +dead," abbreviated to "DD," the regulation entry in the muster books +against the names of persons deceased.] + +Risks of this sort raised grave issues for the sailor--issues to be well +considered of in those serious moments that came to the most reckless on +the wings of the wind or the lift of the waves at sea, what time drink +and the gang were remote factors in the problem of life. But ashore! Ah! +that was another matter. Life ashore was far too crowded, far too sweet +for serious reflections. The absorbing business of pleasure left little +room for thought, and the thoughts that came to the sailor later, when +he had had his fling and was again afoot in search of a ship, decidedly +favoured the killing of a gangsman, if need be, rather than the loss of +his own life or of a berth. The prevalence of these sentiments rendered +the taking of the sailor a dangerous business, particularly when he +consorted in bands. + +In that part of the west country traversed by the great roads from +Bristol to Liverpool, and having Stourbridge as its approximate centre, +ambulatory bands proved very formidable. The presence of the rendezvous +at Stourbridge accounted for this. Seamen travelled in strength because +they feared it. Two gangs were stationed there under Capt. Beecher, and +news of the approach of a large party of seamen from the south having +one day been brought in, he at once made preparations for intercepting +them. Lieut. Barnsley and his gang marched direct to Hoobrook, a couple +of miles south of Kidderminster, a point the seamen had perforce to +pass. His instructions were to wait there, picking up in the meantime +such of the sailor party as lagged behind from footsoreness or fatigue, +till joined by Lieut. Birchall and the other gang, when the two were to +unite forces and press the main body. Through unforeseen circumstances, +however, the plan miscarried. Birchall, who had taken a circuitous +route, arrived late, whilst the band of sailors arrived early. They +numbered, moreover, forty-six as against eleven gangsmen and two +officers. Four to one was a temptation the sailors could not resist. +They attacked the gangs with such ferocity that out of the thirteen only +one man returned to the rendezvous with a whole skin. Luckily, there +were no casualties on this occasion; but a few days later, while two of +Barnsley's gangsmen were out on duty some little distance from the town, +they were suddenly attacked by a couple of sailors, presumably members +of the same band, who left one of them dead in the road. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1501--Capt. Beecher, 12 July and 4 Aug. 1781.] + +Owing to its close proximity to the Thames, that remote suburb of +eighteenth century London known as Stepney Fields was much frequented +by armed bands of the above description, who successfully resisted all +attempts to take them. The master-at-arms of the _Chatham_ man-o'-war, +chancing once to pass that way, came in for exceedingly rough usage at +their hands, and when next day a lieutenant from the same ship +appeared upon the scene with a gang at his back and tried to press the +ringleaders in that affair, they "swore by God he should not, and if he +offered to lay hands on them, they would cut him down." With this threat +they drew their cutlasses, slashed savagely at the lieutenant, and +"made off through the Mobb which had gathered round them." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 2579--Capt. Townshend, 21 April 1743.] + +A spot not many miles distant from Stepney Fields was the scene of a +singular fray many years later. His Majesty's ship _Squirrel_ happened +at the time to be lying in Longreach, and her commander, Capt. Brawn, +one day received intelligence that a number of sailors were to be met +with in the town of Barking. He at once dispatched his 1st and 2nd +lieutenants with a contingent of twenty-five men and several petty +officers, to rout them out and take them. They reached Barking about +nine o'clock in the evening, the month being July, and were not long in +securing several of the skulkers, who with many of the male inhabitants +of the place were at that hour congregated in public-houses, +unsuspicious of danger. The sudden appearance in their midst of so +large an armed force, however, coupled with the outcry and confusion +inseparable from the pressing of a number of men, alarmed the townsfolk, +who poured into the streets, rescued the pressed men, and would have +inflicted summary punishment upon the intruders had not the senior +officer, seeing his party hopelessly outnumbered, tactfully drawn off +his force. This he did in good order and without serious hurt; but just +as he and his men were congratulating themselves upon their escape, they +were suddenly ambushed, at a point where their road ran between high +banks, by a "large concourse of Irish haymakers, to the number of at +least five hundred men, all armed with sabres [Footnote: So in +the original, but "sabres" is perhaps an error for "scythes."] and +pitchforks," who with wild cries and all the Irishman's native love of +a shindy fell upon the unfortunate gangsmen and gave them a "most severe +beating." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1529--Capt. Brawn, 3 July +1803.] + +Attacks on the gang, made with deliberate intent to rescue pressed men +from its custody, were by no means confined to Barking. The informer +throve in the land, but notwithstanding his hostile activity the sailor +everywhere had friends who possessed at least one cardinal virtue. They +seldom hung back when he was in danger, or hesitated to strike a blow in +his defence. + +There came into Limehouse Hole, on a certain day in the summer of 1709, +a vessel called the _Martin_ galley. How many men were in her we do not +learn; but whatever their number, there was amongst them one man who +had either a special dread of the press or some more than usually urgent +occasion for wishing to avoid it. Watching his opportunity, he slipped +into one of the galley's boats, sculled her rapidly to land, and there +leapt out--just as a press-gang hove in sight ahead! It was a dramatic +moment. The sailor, tacking at sight of the enemy, ran swiftly along +the river-bank, but was almost immediately overtaken, knocked down, and +thrown into the press-boat, which lay near by. "This gather'd a Mob," +says the narrator of the incident, "who Pelted the Boat and Gang by +throwing Stones and Dirt from the Shoar, and being Pursued also by the +Galley's men, who brought Cutlasses in the Boat with them to rescue +their Prest Man, the Gang was at last forc'd to betake themselves to a +Corn-lighter, where they might stand upon their Defence. The Galley's +men could not get aboard, but lay with their Boat along the side of the +Lighter, where they endeavouring to force in, and the Gang to keep them +out, the Boat of a sudden oversett and some of the Men therein were +Drown'd. Three of the Press-Gang were forc'd likewise into the Water, +whereof 'tis said one is Drown'd and the other two in Irons in the New +Prison. The remaining part of the Gang leapt into a Wherry, the Galley's +men pursuing them, but, not gaining upon them, they gave over the +Pursuit." The pressed man all this while was laughing in his sleeve. "He +lay on the other side of the Lighter, in the Tender's boat, whence he +made his escape." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1437--Capt. Aston, +10 Aug. 1709.] + +In their efforts to restore the freedom of the pressed man, the sailor's +friends did not confine their attention exclusively to the gang. When +they turned out in vindication of those rights which the sailor did not +possess, they not infrequently found their diversion in wrecking the +gang's headquarters or in making a determined, though generally futile, +onslaught upon the tender. Respectable people, who had no particular +reason to favour the sailor's cause, viewed these ebullitions of mingled +rage and mischief with dismay, stigmatising those who so lightheartedly +participated in them as the "lower classes" and the "mob." + +Few towns in the kingdom boasted--or reprobated, as the case might be--a +more erratically festive mob than Leith. As far back as 1709 Bailie +Cockburn had advised the inhabitants of that burgh to "oppose any +impressor," and seizing the occasion of the "Impressure of an Apprentice +Boy," had set them an example by arresting the pinnace of Her Majesty's +ship _Rye_, together with her whole crew, thirteen in number, and +keeping them in close confinement till the lad was given up. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 2448--Capt. Shale, 4 Jan. 1708-9.] The worthy +Bailie was in due time gathered unto his fathers, and with the growth of +the century gangs came and went in endless succession, but neither the +precept nor the example was ever forgotten in Leith. Much pressing was +done there, but it was done almost entirely upon the water. To transfer +the scene of action to the strand meant certain tumult, for there the +whim of the mob was law. Now it pulled the gang-officer's house about +his ears because he dared to press a shipwright; again, it stoned the +gang viciously because they rescued some seamen from a wreck--and kept +them. Between whiles it amused itself by cutting down the rendezvous +flag-staff; and if nothing better offered, it split up into component +parts, each of which became a greater terror than the whole. One +night, when the watch had been set and all was quiet, a party of +this description, only three in number, approached the rendezvous +and respectfully requested leave to drink a last dram with some +newly pressed men who were then in the cage, their quondam shipmates. +Suspecting no ulterior design, the guard incautiously admitted them, +whereupon they dashed a quantity of spirits on the fire, set the place +in a blaze, and carried off the pressed men amid the hullabaloo that +followed. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1516-9--Letters of Capt. +Brenton, 1797-8; Lieut. Pierie, 2 Feb. 1798.] + +If Leith did this sort of thing well, Greenock, her commercial rival on +the Clyde, did it very much better; for where the Leith mob was but a +sporadic thing, erupting from its slummy fastnesses only in response to +rumour of chance amusement to be had or mischief to be done, Greenock +held her mob always in hand, a perpetual menace to the gangsman did he +dare to disregard the Clydeside ordinance in respect to pressing. That +ordinance restricted pressing exclusively to the water; but it went +further, for it laid it down as an inviolable rule that members of +certain trades should not be pressed at all. + +It was with the Trades that the ordinance originated. There was little +or no Greenock apart from the Trades. The will of the Trades was +supreme. The coopers, carpenters, riggers, caulkers and seamen of +the town ruled the burgh. Assembled in public meeting, they resolved +unanimously "to stand by and support each other" in the event of a +press; and having come to this decision they indited a trite letter +to the magistrates, intimating in unequivocal terms that "if they +countenanced the press, they must abide by the consequences," for once +the Trades took the matter in hand "they could not say where they would +stop." With the worthy burgesses laying down the law in this fashion, it +is little wonder that the gangs "seldom dared to press ashore," or that +they should have been able to take "only two coopers in ten months." + +For the Trades were as good as their word. The moment a case of +prohibited pressing became known they took action. Alexander Weir, +member of the Shipwrights' Society, was taken whilst returning from his +"lawful employ," and immediately his mates, to the number of between +three and four hundred, downed tools and marched to the rendezvous, +where they peremptorily demanded his release. Have him they would, and +if the gang-officer did not see fit to comply with their demand, not +only should he never press another man in Greenock, but they would seize +one of the armed vessels in the river, lay her alongside the tender, +where Weir was confined, and take him out of her by force. Brenton was +regulating captain there at the time, and to pacify the mob he promised +to release the man--and broke his word. Thereupon the people "became +very riotous and proceeded to burn everything that came in their way. +About twelve o'clock they hauled one of the boats belonging to the +rendezvous upon the Square and put her into the fire, but by the timely +assistance of the officers and gangs, supported by the magistrates and a +body of the Fencibles, the boat was recovered, though much damaged, and +several of the ringleaders taken up and sent to prison." The affair did +not end without bloodshed. "Lieut. Harrison, in defending himself, was +under the necessity of running one of the rioters through the ribs." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1508--Letters of Capt. Brenton, 1793.] + +Though Bailie Cockburn once "arrested" the pinnace of a man-o'-war at +Leith, the attempted burning of the Greenock press-boat is worthy of +more than passing note as the only instance of that form of retaliation +to be met with in the history of home pressing. In the American +colonies, on the other hand, it was a common feature of demonstrations +against the gang. Boston was specially notorious for that form of +reprisal, and Governor Shirley, in one of his masterly dispatches, +narrates at length, and with no little humour, how the mob on one +occasion burnt with great eclat what they believed to be the press-boat, +only to discover, when it was reduced to ashes, that it belonged to +one of their own ringleaders. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +38l8--Shirley to the Admiralty, 1 Dec. 1747.] + +The threat of the Greenock artificers to lay alongside the tender and +take out their man by force of arms was one for which there existed +abundant, if by no means encouraging precedent. Long before, as early, +indeed, as 1742, the keelmen frequenting Sunderland had set them an +example in that respect by endeavouring, some hundreds strong, to haul +the tender ashore--an attempt coupled with threats so dire that the +officer in command trembled in his shoes lest he and his men should all +"be made sacrifices of." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1439--Capt. +Allen, 13 March 1741-2.] Nothing so dreadful happened, however, for +the attempt, like that made at Shoreham a few years later, when there +"appear'd in Sight, from towards Brighthelmstone, about two or three +Hundred Men arm'd with different Weapons, who came with an Intent to +Attack the _Dispatch_ sloop," failed ignominiously, the attackers being +routed on both occasions by a timely use of swivel guns and musketry. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1482--Lieut. Barnsley, 25 March 1746.] + +Similar disaster overtook the organisers of the Tooley Street affair, +of which one Taylor, lieutenant to Capt. William Boys of the _Royal +Sovereign_, was the active cause. At the "Spread-Eagle" in Tooley Street +he and his gang one evening pressed a privateersman--an insult keenly +resented by the master of the ship. He accordingly sent off to the +tender, whither the pressed man had been conveyed for security's sake, +two wherries filled with armed seamen of the most piratical type. The +fierce fight that ensued had a dramatic finish. "Two Pistols we took +from them," says the narrator of the incident, in his quaint old style, +"and three Cutlasses, and Six Men; but one of the Men took the Red Hott +Poker out of the Fire, and our Men, having the Cutlasses, Cutt him and +Kill'd him in Defence of themselves." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1488--Lieut. Taylor, 1 April 1757.] + +In attacks of this nature the fact that the tender was afloat told +heavily in her favour, for unless temporarily hung up upon a mud-bank by +the fall of the tide, she could only be got at by means of boats. With +the rendezvous ashore the case was altogether different. Here you had a +building in a public street, flaunting its purpose provocatively in +your very face, and having a rear to guard as well as a front. For these +reasons attacks on the rendezvous were generally attended with a greater +measure of success than similar attempts directed against the tenders. +The face of a pressed man had only to show itself at one of the stoutly +barred windows, and immediately a crowd gathered. To the prisoner behind +the bars this crowd was friendly, commiserating or chaffing him by +turns; but to the gangsmen responsible for his being there it was +invariably and uncompromisingly hostile, so much so that it needed only +a carelessly uttered threat, or a thoughtlessly lifted hand, to fan +the smouldering fires of hatred into a blaze. When this occurred, as +it often did, things happened. Paving-stones hurtled through the +curse-laden air, the windows flew in fragments, the door, assailed by +overwhelming numbers, crashed in, and despite the stoutest resistance +the gang could offer the pressed man was hustled out and carried off in +triumph. + +The year 1755 witnessed a remarkable attack of this description upon the +rendezvous at Deal, where a band of twenty-seven armed men made a sudden +descent upon that obnoxious centre of activity and cut up the gang +most grievously. As all wore masks and had their faces blackened, +identification was out of the question. A reward of 200 Pounds, offered +for proof of complicity in the outrage, elicited no information, and as +a matter of fact its perpetrators were never discovered. + +In Capt. McCleverty's time the gang at Waterford was once very roughly +handled whilst taking in a pressed man, and Mr. Mayor Alcock came +hurrying down to learn what was amiss. He found the rendezvous beset by +an angry and dangerous gathering. "Sir," said he to the captain, "have +you no powder or shot in the house?" McCleverty assured him that he had. +"Then, sir," cried the mayor, raising his voice so that all might hear, +"do you make use of it, and I will support you." The crowd understood +that argument and immediately dispersed. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1500--Deposition of Lieut. M Kellop, 1780.] + +Had the Admiralty reasoned in similar terms with those who beat its +gangsmen, converted its rendezvous into match-wood and carried off its +pressed men, it would have quickly made itself as heartily feared as it +was already hated; but in seeking to shore up an odious cause by +pacific methods it laid its motives open to the gravest misconstruction. +Prudence was construed into timidity, and with every abstention from +lead the sailor's mobbish friends grew more daring and outrageous. + +One night in the winter of 1780, whilst Capt. Worth of the Liverpool +rendezvous sat lamenting the temporary dearth of seamen, Lieut. Haygarth +came rushing in with a rare piece of news. On the road from Lancaster, +it was reported, there was a whole coach-load of sailors. The chance +was too good to be lost, and instant steps were taken to intercept +the travellers. The gangs turned out, fully armed, and took up their +position at a strategic point, just outside the town, commanding the +road by which the sailors had to pass. By and by along came the coach, +the horses weary, the occupants nodding or asleep. In a trice they were +surrounded. Some of the gangsmen sprang at the horses' heads, others +threw themselves upon the drowsy passengers. Shouts, curses and the +thud of blows broke the silence of the night. Then the coach rumbled on +again, empty. Its late occupants, fifteen in number, sulkily followed on +foot, surrounded by their captors, who, as soon as the town was reached, +locked them into the press-room for the rest of the night, it being the +captain's intention to put them on board the tender in the Mersey at +break of day. + +In this, however, he was frustrated by a remarkable development in the +situation. Unknown to him, the coach-load of seamen had been designed +for the _Stag_ privateer, a vessel just on the point of sailing. News +of their capture reaching the ship soon after their arrival in the town, +Spence, her 1st lieutenant, at once roused out all his available men, +armed them, to the number of eighty, with cutlass and pistol, and led +them ashore. There all was quiet, favouring their design. The hour was +still early, and the silent, swift march through the deserted streets +attracted no attention and excited no alarm. At the rendezvous the +opposition of the weary sentinels counted for little. It was quickly +brushed aside, the strong-room door gave way beneath a few well-directed +blows, and by the time Liverpool went to breakfast the _Stag_ +privateer was standing out to sea, her crew not only complete, but ably +supplemented by eight additional occupants of the press-room who had +never, so far as is known, travelled in that commodious vehicle, the +Lancaster coach. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7, 300--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1778-83, No. 19.] + +The neighbouring city of Chester in 1803 matched this exploit by another +of great audacity. Chester had long been noted for its hostility to the +gang, and the fact that the local volunteer corps--the Royal Chester +Artillery--was composed mainly of ropemakers, riggers, shipwrights and +sailmakers who had enlisted for the sole purpose of evading the press, +did not tend to allay existing friction. Hence, when Capt. Birchall +brought over a gang from Liverpool because he could not form one in +Chester itself, and when he further signalised his arrival by pressing +Daniel Jackson, a well-known volunteer, matters at once came to an ugly +head. The day happened to be a field-day, and as Birchall crossed the +market square to wait upon the magistrates at the City Hall, he was +"given to understand what might be expected in the evening," for one of +the artillerymen, striking his piece, called out to his fellows: +"Now for a running ball! There he goes!" with hissing, booing and +execrations. At seven o'clock one of the gang rushed into the captain's +lodgings with disquieting news. The volunteers were attacking the +rendezvous. He hurried out, but by the time he arrived on the scene the +mischief was already done. The enraged volunteers, after first driving +the gang into the City Hall, had torn down the rendezvous colours and +staff, and broken open the city jail and rescued their comrade, whom +they were then in the act of carrying shoulder-high through the streets, +the centre of a howling mob that even the magistrates feared to face. By +request Birchall and his gang returned to Liverpool, counting themselves +lucky to have escaped the "running ball" they had been threatened +with earlier in the day. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1529--Capt. +Birchall, 29 Dec. 1803.] + +Another town that gave the gang a hot reception was Whitby. As in the +case of Chester the gang there was an importation, having been brought +in from Tyneside by Lieuts. Atkinson and Oakes. As at Chester, too, a +place of rendezvous had been procured with difficulty, for at first +no landlord could be found courageous enough to let a house for so +dangerous a purpose. At length, however, one Cooper was prevailed upon +to take the risk, and the flag was hung out. This would seem to have +been the only provocative act of which the gang was guilty. It sufficed. +Anticipation did the rest; for just as in some individuals gratitude +consists in a lively sense of favours to come, so the resentment of mobs +sometimes avenges a wrong before it has been inflicted. + +On Saturday the 23rd of February 1793, at the hour of half-past seven +in the evening, a mob of a thousand persons, of whom many were women, +suddenly appeared before the rendezvous. The first intimation of what +was about to happen came in the shape of a furious volley of brickbats +and stones, which instantly demolished every window in the house, to +the utter consternation of its inmates. Worse, however, was in store +for them. An attempt to rush the place was temporarily frustrated by the +determined opposition of the gang, who, fearing that all in the house +would be murdered, succeeded in holding the mob at bay for an hour and +a half; but at nine o'clock, several of the gangsmen having been in the +meantime struck down and incapacitated by stones, which were rained +upon the devoted building without cessation, the door at length gave way +before an onslaught with capstan-bars, and the mob swarmed in unchecked. +A scene of indescribable confusion and fury ensued. Savagely assaulted +and mercilessly beaten, the gangsmen and the unfortunate landlord were +thrown into the street more dead than alive, every article of furniture +on the premises was reduced to fragments, and when the mob at length +drew off, hoarsely jubilant over the destruction it had wrought, nothing +remained of His Majesty's rendezvous save bare walls and gaping windows. +Even these were more than the townsfolk could endure the sight of. Next +evening they reappeared upon the scene, intending to finish what they +had begun by pulling the house down or burning it to ashes; but the +timely arrival of troops frustrating their design, they regretfully +dispersed. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2739--Lieut. Atkinson, 26 +Feb. and 27 June 1793.] + +Out at sea the sailor, if he could not set the tune by running away from +the gang, played up to it with great heartiness. To sink the press-boat +was his first aim. With this end in view he held stolidly on his course, +if under weigh, betraying his intention by no sign till the boat, +manoeuvring to get alongside of him, was in the right position for him +to strike. Then, all of a sudden, he showed his hand. Clapping his helm +hard over, he dexterously ran the boat down, leaving the struggling +gangsmen to make what shift they could for their lives. Many a knight +of the hanger was sent to Davy Jones in this summary fashion, unloved in +life and cursed in the article of death. + +The attempt to best the gang by a master-stroke of this description was +not, it need hardly be said, attended with uniform success. A miss of an +inch or two, and the boat was safe astern, pulling like mad to recover +lost ground. In these circumstances the sailor recalled how he had once +seen a block fall from aloft and smash a shipmate's head, and from this +he argued that if a suitable object such as a heavy round-shot, or, +better still, the ship's grindstone, were deftly dropped over the side +at the psychological moment, it must either have a somewhat similar +effect upon the gangsmen below or sink the boat by knocking a hole in +her bottom. The case of the _John and Elizabeth_ of Sunderland, that +redoubtable Holland pink whose people were "resolved sooner to dye +than to be impressed," affords an admirable example of the successful +application of this theory. + +As the _John and Elizabeth_ was running into Sunderland harbour one +afternoon in February 1742, three press-boats, hidden under cover of +the pier-head, suddenly darted out as she surged past that point and +attempted to board her. They met with a remarkable repulse. For ten +minutes, according to the official account of the affair, the air +was filled with grindstones, four-pound shot, iron crows, handspikes, +capstan-bars, boat-hooks, billets of wood and imprecations, and when it +cleared there was not in any of the boats a man who did not bear upon +his person some bloody trace of that terrible fusillade. They sheered +off, but in the excitement of the moment and the mortification of +defeat Midshipmen Clapp and Danton drew their pistols and fired into the +jeering crew ranged along the vessel's gunwhale, "not knowing," as they +afterwards pleaded, "that there was any balls in the pistols." Evidence +to the contrary was quickly forthcoming. A man fell dead on the pink's +deck, and before morning the two middies were safe under lock and key in +that "dismal hole," Durham jail. It was a notable victory for the sailor +and applied mechanics. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1439--Capt. +Allen, 13 March 1741-2, and enclosure.] + +The affair of the _King William_ Indiaman, a ship whose people kept +the united boats'-crews of two men-of-war at bay for nearly twenty-four +hours, carried the sailor's resistance to the press an appreciable step +further and developed some surprising tactics. Between three and four +o'clock in the afternoon of a day in September 1742, two ships came into +the Downs in close order. They had been expected earlier in the day, and +both the _Shrewsbury_ frigate and the _Shark_ sloop were on the lookout +for them. A shot from the former brought the headmost to an anchor, but +the second, the _King William_, hauled her wind and stood away close to +the Goodwins, out of range of the frigate's guns. Here, the tide being +spent and the wind veering ahead, she was obliged to anchor, and the +warships' boats were at once manned and dispatched to press her men. +Against this eventuality the latter appear to have been primed "with +Dutch courage," as the saying went, the manner of which was to broach +a cask of rum and drink your fill. On the approach of the press-boats +pandemonium broke loose. The maddened crew, brandishing their cutlasses +and shouting defiance, assailed the on-coming boats with every +description of missile they could lay hands on, not excepting that most +dangerous of all casual ammunition, broken bottles. The _Shrewsbury's_ +mate fell, seriously wounded, and finding themselves unable to face +the terrible hail of missiles, the boats drew off. Night now came on, +rendering further attempts temporarily impossible--a respite of which +the Indiaman's crew availed themselves to confine the master and break +open the arms-chest, which he had taken the precaution to nail down. +With morning the boats returned to the attack. Three times they +attempted to board, and as often were they repulsed by pistol and +musketry fire. Upon this the _Shark_, acting under peremptory orders +from the _Shrewsbury_, ran down to within half-gunshot of the Indiaman +and fired a broadside into her, immediately afterwards repeating the +dose on finding her still defiant. The ship then submitted and all +her men were pressed save two. They had been killed by the _Shark's_ +gun-fire. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1829--Capt. Goddard, 22 +Sept. and 16 Oct., and his Deposition, 19 Oct. 1742.] + +With the appearance of the gang on the deck of his ship there was +ushered in the last stage but one of the sailor's resistance to the +press afloat. How, when this happened, all hands were mustered and the +protected sheep separated from the unprotected goats, has been fully +described in a previous chapter. These preliminaries at an end, "Now, my +lads," said the gang officer, addressing the pressable contingent in the +terms of his instructions, "I must tell you that you are at liberty, if +you so choose, to enter His Majesty's service as volunteers. If you +come in in that way, you will each receive the bounty now being paid, +together with two months' advance wages before you go to sea. But if +you don't choose to enter volunteerly, then I must take you against your +wills" + +It was a hard saying, and many an old shellback--ay! and young one +too--spat viciously when he heard it. Conceive the situation! Here were +these poor fellows returning from a voyage which perhaps had cut them +off from home and kindred, from all the ordinary comforts and pleasures +of life, for months or maybe years; here were they, with the familiar +cliffs and downs under their hungry eyes, suddenly confronted with an +alternative of the cruellest description, a Hobson's choice that +left them no option but to submit or fight. It was a heartbreaking +predicament for men, and more especially for sailor-men, to be placed +in, and if they sometimes rose to the occasion like men and did their +best to heave the gang bodily into the sea, or to drive them out of +the ship with such weapons as their hard situation and the sailor's +Providence threw in their way--if they did these things in the gang's +despite, they must surely be judged as outraged husbands, fathers and +lovers rather than as disloyal subjects of an exacting king. They would +have made but sorry man-o'-war's-men had they entertained the gang in +any other way. + +Opposed to the service cutlass, the sailor's emergency weapon was but a +poor tool to stake his liberty upon, and even though the numerical +odds chanced to be in his favour he often learnt, in the course of his +pitched battles with the gang, that the edge of a hanger is sharper +than the corresponding part of a handspike. Lucky for him if, with his +shipmates, he could then retreat to close quarters below or between +decks, there to make a final stand for his brief spell of liberty +ashore. This was his last ditch. Beyond it lay only surrender or death. + +The death of the sailor at the hands of the gang introduces us to a +phase of pressing technically known as the accidental, wherein the +accidents were of three kinds--casual, unavoidable, and "disagreeable." + +The casual accident was one that could be neither foreseen nor averted, +as when Capt. Argles, returning to England on the breaking up of the +Limerick rendezvous in 1814, was captured by an American privateer "well +up the Bristol Channel," a place where no one ever dreamed of falling +in with such an enemy. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1455--Capt. +Argles, 17 Aug. 1814.] + +To the unavoidable accident every impress officer and agent was liable +in the execution of his duty. It could thus be foreseen in the abstract, +though not in the instance. Hence it could not be avoided. Wounds given +and received in the heat and turmoil of pressing came under this head, +provided they did not prove fatal. + +The accident "disagreeable" was peculiar to pressing. It consisted in +the killing of a man, by whatever means and in whatever manner, whilst +endeavouring to press him, and the immediate effect of the act, which +was common enough, was to set up a remarkable contradiction in terms. +The man killed was not the victim of the accident. The victim was the +officer or gangsman who was responsible for striking him off the roll +of His Majesty's pressable subjects, and who thus let himself in for the +consequences, more or less disagreeable, which inevitably followed. + +While it was naturally the ambition of every officer engaged in pressing +"to do the business without any disagreeable accident ensuing," he +preferred, did fate ordain it otherwise, that the accident should +happen at sea rather than on land, since it was on land that the most +disagreeable consequences accrued to the unfortunate victim. These +embraced flight and prolonged expatriation, or, in the alternative, +arrest, preliminary detention in one of His Majesty's prisons, and +subsequent trial at the Assizes. What the ultimate punishment might be +was a minor, though still ponderable consideration, since, where naval +officers or agents were concerned, the law was singularly capricious. +[Footnote: As in Lacie's case, 25 Elizabeth, where a mortal wound having +been inflicted at sea, whereof the party died on land, the prisoner was +acquitted because neither the Admiralty nor a jury could inquire of +it.] At sea, on the other hand, the conditions which on land rendered +accidents of this nature so uniformly disagreeable, were almost entirely +reversed. How and why this was so can be best explained by stating a +case. + +The accident in point occurred in the year 1755, and is associated with +the illustrious name of Rodney. The Seven Years War was at the time +looming in the near future, and England's secret complicity in the +causes of that tremendous struggle rendered necessary the placing of her +Navy upon a footing adequate to the demands which it was foreseen would +be very shortly made upon it. In common with a hundred other naval +officers, Rodney, who was then in command of the _Prince George_ +guardship at Portsmouth, had orders to proceed without loss of time +to the raising of men. One of his lieutenants was accordingly sent to +London, that happy hunting-ground of the impress officer, while two +others, with picked crews at their backs, were put in charge of tenders +to intercept homeward-bounds. This was near the end of May. + + [Illustration: ANNE MILLS. Who served on board the _Maidstone_ +in 1740.] + +On the 1st of June, in the early morning, one of these tenders--the +_Princess Augusta_, Lieut. Sax commander--fell in, off Portland Bill, +with the _Britannia_, a Leghorn trader of considerable force. In +response to a shot fired as an intimation that she was expected to +lay-to and receive a gang on board, the master, hailing, desired +permission to retain his crew intact till he should have passed that +dangerous piece of navigation known as the Race. To this reasonable +request Sax acceded and the ship held on her course, closely followed by +the tender. By the time the Race was passed, however, the merchant-man's +crew had come to a resolution. They should not be pressed by "such +a pimping vessel" as the _Princess Augusta_. Accordingly, they first +deprived the master of the command, and then, when again hailed by the +tender, "swore they would lose their lives sooner than bring too." The +Channel at this time swarmed with tenders, and to Sax's hint that they +might just as well give in then and there as be pressed later on, they +replied with defiant huzzas and the discharge of one of their maindeck +guns. The tender was immediately laid alongside, but on the gang's +attempting to board they encountered a resistance so fierce that Sax, +thinking to bring the infuriated crew to their senses, ordered his +people to fire upon them. Ralph Sturdy and John Debusk, armed with +harpoons, and John Wilson, who had requisitioned the cook's spit as +a weapon, fell dead before that volley. The rest, submitting without +further ado, were at once confined below. + +Now, three questions of moment are raised by this accident: What became +of the ship? what was done with the dead men? and what punishment was +meted out to the lieutenant and his gang? The crew once secured +under hatches, the safety of the ship became of course the first +consideration. It was assured by a simple expedient. The gang remained +on board and worked the vessel into Portsmouth harbour, where, after her +hands had been taken out--Rodney the receiver--"men in lieu" were put +on board, as explained in our chapter on pressing afloat, and with this +make-shift crew she was navigated to her destination, in this instance +the port of London. + +As persons killed at sea, the three sailors who lay dead on the +ship's deck did not come within the jurisdiction of the coroner. That +official's cognisance of such matters extended only to high-water mark +when the tide was at flood, or to low-water mark when it was at ebb. +Beyond those limits, seawards, all acts of violence done in great ships, +and resulting in mayhem or the death of a man, fell within the sole +purview and jurisdiction of the Station Admiral, who on this occasion +happened to be Sir Edward Hawke, commander of the White Squadron at +Portsmouth. Now Sir Edward was not less keenly alive to the importance +of keeping such cases hidden from the public eye than were the Lords +Commissioners. Hence he immediately gave orders that the bodies of the +dead men should be taken "without St. Helens" and there committed to the +deep. Instead of going to feed the Navy, the three sailors thus went to +feed the fishes, and another stain on the service was washed out with a +commendable absence of publicity and fuss. + +There still remained the lieutenant and his gang to be dealt with and +brought to what, by another singular perversion of terms, was called +justice. On shore, notwithstanding the lenient view taken of such +accidents, an indictment of manslaughter, if not of murder, would have +assuredly followed the offence; and though in the circumstances it is +doubtful whether any jury would have found the culprits guilty of +the capital crime, yet the alternative verdict, with its consequent +imprisonment and disgrace, held out anything but a rosy prospect to the +young officer who had still his second "swab" to win. That was where the +advantage of accidents at sea came in. On shore the judiciary, however +kindly disposed to the naval service, were painfully disinterested. At +sea the scales of justice were held, none too meticulously, by brother +officers who had the service at heart. Under the judicious direction of +Admiral Osborn, who in the meantime had succeeded Sir Edward Hawke in +the Portsmouth command, Lieut. Sax and his gang were consequently +called upon to face no ordeal more terrible than an "inquiry into their +proceedings and behaviour." Needless to say, they were unanimously +exonerated, the court holding that the discharge of their duty fully +justified them in the discharge of their muskets. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 5925--Minutes at a Court-Martial held on board H.M.S. +_Prince George_ at Portsmouth, 14 Nov. 1755. Precedent for the procedure +in this case is found in _Admiralty Records_ 7. 298--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1733-56, No. 27.] When such disagreeable accidents had to +be investigated, the disagreeable business was done--to purloin an apt +phrase of Coke's--"without prying into them with eagles' eyes." + +But it is time to leave the trail of blood and turn to a more agreeable +phase of pressing. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE GANG AT PLAY. + + + +The reasons assigned for the pressing of men who ought never to have +made the acquaintance of the warrant or the hanger were often as +far-fetched as they are amusing. "You have no right to press a person +of my distinction!" warmly protested an individual of the superior type +when pounced upon by the gang. "Lor love yer! that's the wery reason +we're a-pressin' of your worship," replied the grinning minions of the +service. "We've such a set of black-guards aboard the tender yonder, we +wants a toff like you to learn 'em manners." + +The quixotic idea of inculcating manners by means of the press infected +others besides the gangsman. In a Navy whose officers not only plumed +themselves on representing the _ne plus ultra_ of etiquette, but +demanded that all who approached them should do so without sin either +of omission or commission, the idea was universal. Pride of service and +pride of self entered into its composition in about equal proportions; +hence the sailing-master who neglected to salute the flag, or who +through ignorance, crass stupidity, or malice aforethought flew +prohibited colours, was no more liable to be taught an exemplary lesson +than the bum-boatman who sauced the officer of the watch when detected +in the act of smuggling spirits or women into one of His Majesty's +ships. + +For all such offenders the autocracy of the quarter-deck, from the rigid +commander down to the very young gentleman newly joined, kept a jealous +lookout, and many are the instances of punishment, swift and implacable, +following the offence. Insulted dignity could of course take it out of +the disrespectful fore-mastman with the rattan, the cat or the irons; +but for the ill-mannered outsider, whether pertaining to sea or land, +the recognised corrective was His Majesty's press. A solitary exception +is found in the case of Henry Crabb of Chatham, a boatman who rejoiced +in incurable lameness; rejoiced because, although there were many +cripples on board the Queen's ships in his day, his infirmity was such +as to leave him at liberty to ply for hire "when other men durst not for +feare of being Imprest." He was an impudent, over-reaching knave, and +Capt. Balchen, of the _Adventure_ man-o'-war, whose wife had suffered +much from the fellow's abusive tongue and extortionate propensities, +finding himself unable to press him, brought him to the capstan and +there gave him "eleven lashes with a Catt of Nine Tailes." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1466--Capt. Balchen, 10 March 1703-4.] + +A letter written in the early forties-a letter as breezy as the sea from +which it was penned--gives us a striking picture of the old-time naval +officer as a teacher of deportment. Cruising far down-Channel, Capt. +Brett, of the _Anglesea_ man-o'-war, there fell in with a ship whose +character puzzled him sorely. He consequently gave chase, but the wind +falling light and night coming on, he lost her. Early next morning, as +luck would have it, he picked her up again, and having now a "pretty +breeze," he succeeded in drawing within range of her about two o'clock +in the afternoon, when he fired a shot to bring her to. The strange sail +doubtless feared that she was about to lose her hands, for instead of +obeying the summons she trained her stern-chasers on the _Anglesea_ and +for an hour and a half blazed away at her as fast as she could load. +"They put a large marlinespike into one of their guns," the indignant +captain tells us, "which struck the carriage of the chase gun upon our +forecastle, dented it near two inches, then broke asunder and wounded +one of the men in the leg, and had it come a yard higher, must +infallibly have killed two or three. By all this behaviour I concluded +she must be an English vessel taken by the Spaniards. However, when we +came within a cable's length of him he brought to, so we run close under +his stern in order to shoot a little berth to leeward of him, and at the +same time bid them hoist their boats out. Our people, as is customary +upon such occasions, were then all up upon the gunhill and in the +shrouds, looking at him. Just as we came under his quarter he pointed a +gun that was sticking out a little abaft his main-shrouds right at us, +and put the match to it, but it happened very luckily that the gun +blew. A fellow that was standing on the quarter-deck then took up a +blunderbuss and presented it, which by its not going off must have +missed fire. As it was almost impossible, they being stripp'd and +bareheaded, besides having their faces besmeared with powder, for us +to judge them by their looks, I concluded they must be a Parcell of +Light-headed Frenchmen run mad, and thinking it by no means prudent to +let them kill my men in such a ridiculous manner, I ordered the marines, +who were standing upon the quarter-deck with their musquets shoulder'd, +to fire upon them. As soon as they saw the musquets presented they +fell flat upon the decks and by that means saved themselves from being +kill'd. Some of our people at the same time fired a 9-pounder right into +his quarter, upon which they immediately submitted. I own I never was +more surprised in all my life to find that she was an English vessel, +tho' my surprise was lessened a good deal when I came to see the master +and all his fighting men so drunk as to be scarce capable of giving a +rational answer to any question that was asked them. I was very glad to +find that none of them were hurt; _but I found out the man who presented +the blunderbuss, and upon his behaving saucily when I taxed him with +it, I took him out of the vessel._" [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1479--Capt. Brett, 17 April 1743. The captain's use of gender is +philologically instructive. Not till later times, it seems, did ships +lose the character of a "strong man armed" and take on, uniformly, the +attributes of the skittish female.] + + [Illustration: SAILORS CAROUSING. From the mezzotint after J. Ibbetson.] + +So abhorrent a condiment was "sauce" to the naval palate, whether +of officer or impress agent, that its use invariably brought its own +punishment with it. "You are no gentleman!" said Gangsman Dibell to one +Hartnell, a currier who accidentally jostled him whilst he was drinking +in a Poole taproom. "No, nor you neither!" replied Hartnell. The +retort cost him a most disagreeable experience. Dibell and his comrades +collared him and dragged him off to the rendezvous, where he was locked +up in the black-hole till the next day. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 580--Inquiry into the Conduct of the Impress Officers at Poole, 13 +Aug. 1804.] + +At Waterford Capt. Price went one better than this, for a man who was +totally unfit for the service having one day shown him some trifling +disrespect, the choleric old martinet promptly set the gang upon him and +had him conveyed on board the tender, "where," says Lieut. Collingwood, +writing a month later, "he has been eating the king's victuals ever +since." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1501--Lieut. Collingwood, 18 +March 1781.] Punishment enough, surely! + +One night at Londonderry, as Lieut. Watson was making his way down to +the quay for the purpose of boarding the _Hope_ tender, of which he was +commander, he accidentally ran against a couple of strangers. + +"Hallo! my lads," cried he, "who and what are you?" + +"I am what I am," replied one of them, insolently. + +The lieutenant, who had been dining, fired up at this and demanded to +know if language such as that was proper to be addressed to a king's +officer. + +"As you please," said he of the insolent tongue. "If you like it better, +I'll say I'm a piece of a man." + +"So I see by your want of manners," retorted the lieutenant. "Come along +with me, my brave piece! I know those who will make a whole man of you +before they're done." + +With that he seized the fellow, meaning to take him to his boat, which +lay near by, but the pressed man, watching his chance, tripped him up +and made off. Next day there was a sequel. The lieutenant "was taken +possession of by the Civil Power" on a charge of assault. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1531--Lieut. Watson, 27 Oct. 1804.] + +Another officer who met with base ingratitude from a pressed man whose +manners he attempted to reform was Capt. Bethel of the _Phoenix_. At the +Nore he was once grossly abused by the crew of a Customs-House boat, +and in retaliation took one of their number and carried him to sea. +Peremptory orders reaching him at one of the Scottish ports, however, he +discharged the man and paid his passage south. He was immediately sued +for false imprisonment and cast in heavy damages. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1493--Capt. Bethel, 29 Aug. 1762.] + +Capt. Brereton, of the _Falmouth_, was "had" in similar fashion by the +master of an East-Indiaman whom he pressed at Manilla because of his +insolence, and who afterwards, by a successful suit at law, let him +in for 400 Pounds damages and costs. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1494--Capt. Brereton, 18 Oct. 1765.] + +This was turning the tables of etiquette on its professors with a +vengeance. + +Such costly lessons in the art of politeness, however, did not in +the least abash the naval officer or deter him from the continued +inculcation of manners. Young fellows idly roystering on the river could +not be permitted to miscall with impunity the gorgeous admiral +passing in his twelve-oared barge, [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 577--Admiral the Marquis of Carmarthen, 24 June 1710.] nor irate +shipmasters who flouted the impress service of the Crown as a "pitiful" +thing and its officers as "little scandalous creatures," be allowed to +go scot-free. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2379--Capt. Robinson, +21 Feb. 1725-6.] At whatever cost, the dignity of the service must be +maintained. + +Nowhere did the use of invective attain such extraordinary perfection as +amongst those who plied their vocations on the country's busy waterways. +Here "sauce" was reduced to a science and vituperation to a fine art. +Thames watermen and Tyne keelmen in particular acquired an astounding +proficiency in the choice and application of abusive epithets, but of +the two the keelman carried off the palm. The wherryman, it is true, +possessed a ripe vocabulary, but the fact that it embraced only a single +dialect seriously handicapped him in his race with the keelman, who +had no less than three to draw upon, all equally prolific. Between +"keelish," "coblish" and "sheelish," the respective dialects of the +north-country keelman, pilot and tradesman, he had at his command a +source of supply unrivalled in vituperative richness, abundance and +variety. With these at his tongue's end none could touch, much less +outdo him in power and scope of abusive description. He became in +consequence of these superior advantages so "insupportably impudent" +that the only known cure for his complaint was to follow the +prescription of Capt. Atkins of the _Panther_, and "take him as fast +as you could ketch him"; [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1438--Capt. +Atkins, 23 Dec. 1720.] but even this drastic method of curbing his +tongue was robbed of much of its efficacy by the jealous care with which +he was "protected." + +Failure to amain, that is, to douse your topsail or dip your colours +when you meet with a ship of war--the marine equivalent for raising +one's hat--constituted a gross contempt of the king's service. The +custom was very ancient, King John having instituted it in the second +year of his reign. At that time, and indeed for long after, the salute +was obligatory, its omission entailing heavy penalties; [Footnote: A +copy of the original proclamation may be seen in Lansdowne MSS., clxxi, +f. 218, where it is also summarised in the following terms: _"Anno 2 +regni Johannis regis: Frends not amaining at the j sumons but resisting +the King his lieutenant, the L. Admirall or his lieutenant, to lose the +ship and goods, & theire bodies to be imprisoned."_] but with the advent +of the century of pressing another means of inspiring respect for the +flag, now exacted as a courtesy rather than a right, came into vogue. +The offending vessel paid for its omission in men. + +If you were anything but a king's ship, and flew a flag that only +king's ships were entitled to fly, you were guilty, in the eyes of every +right-seeing naval officer, of another piece of ill manners so gross +as to be deserving of the severest punishment the press was capable of +inflicting upon you. You might fly the "flag and Jack white, with a red +cross (commonly called St. George's cross) passing quite through the +same"; likewise the "ensign red, with the cross in a canton of white +at the upper corner thereof, next to the staff"; but if you presumed to +display His Majesty's Jack, commonly called the Union Jack, or any +other of the various flags of command flown by ships of war or +vessels employed in the naval service, swift retribution overtook +you. Similarly, the inadvertent hoisting of your colours "wrong end +uppermost," or in any other manner deemed inconsistent with the dignity +of the service which permitted you to fly them, laid you open +to reprisals of the most summary nature. Before you realised the +heinousness of your offence, a gang boarded you and your best man or +men were gone beyond recall. The joy of waterside weddings--occasions +prolific in the display of wrong colours--was often turned into sorrow +in this way. + +Inability to do the things you professed to do involved grave risk of +making intimate acquaintance with the gang. If, for example, you were +a skipper and navigated your vessel more like a 'prentice than a master +hand, some one belonging to you was bound, in waters swarming with ships +of war, to pay the piper sooner or later. "A few days ago," writes Capt. +Archer of the _Isis_, "a ship called the _Jane_, Stewart master, ran +on board of us in a most lubberly manner--for which, as is customary +on such occasions, I took four of his people." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1448--Capt. Archer, 17 May 1795.] + +Ability to handle a musical instrument sometimes proved as fatal to +one's liberty as inability to handle a ship. Queen Anne was directly +responsible for this. Almost immediately after her accession she signed +a warrant authorising the pressing of "drummers, fife and haut boys for +sea and land." [Footnote: _Home Office Military Entry Books_, clxviii, +f. 406.] Though the authorisation was only temporary, the practice +thus set up continued long after its origin had been relegated to the +scrap-heap of memory, and not only continued, but was interpreted in a +sense much broader than its royal originator ever intended it should +be. This tendency to take an ell in lieu of the stipulated inch was +illustrated as early as 1705, when Lieut. Thomson, belonging to the +_Lickfield_, chancing to meet one Richard Bullard, fiddler, "persuaded +him to go as far as Woolwich with him, to play a tune or two to him +and some friends who had a mind to dance, saying he would pay him for +it"--which he did, when tired of dancing, by handing him over to the +press-gang. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1467--Capt. Byron, 13 July +1705.] + +In 1781, again, a "stout lad of 17" was pressed at Waterford because, +as a piper, he was considered likely to be "useful in amusing the +new-raised men"; [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1501--Lieut. +Collingwood, 18 March 1781.] and as late as 1807 a gang at Portsmouth, +acting under orders from Capt. Sir Robert Bromley, took one Madden, +a blind man, because of his "qualification of playing on the Irish +bagpipes." His affliction saved him. He was discharged, and the amount +of his pay and victualling was deducted from Sir Robert's wages as +a caution to him to be more careful in future. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1544--Capt. Sir Robert Bromley, 1 Dec. 1808.] + +Perhaps the oddest reasons ever adduced in justification of specific +acts of pressing were those put forward in the cases of James Baily, a +Gosport ferry-man who was pressed on account of his "great inactivity," +and of John Conyear, exempt passenger on the packet-boat plying between +Dartmouth and Poole, subjected to the same process because, as the +officer responsible ingenuously put it when called to book for the act, +if Conyear had not been on board, "another would, who might have been a +proper person to serve His Majesty." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1451--Capt. Argles, 4 May 1807; _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2485--Capt. +Scott, 13 March 1780.] + +An ironical interest attaches to the pressing of John Hagin, a youth +of nineteen who cherished an ambition to go a-whaling. Tramping the +riverside at Hull one day in search of a ship, he accidentally met one +of the lieutenants employed in the local impress service, and mistaking +him for the master of a Greenland ship, stepped up to him and asked him +for a berth. "Berth?" said the obliging officer. "Come this way;" and +he conducted the unsuspecting youth to the rendezvous. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1455--Capt. Ackton, 23 March 1814.] + +Before you took a voyage for the benefit of your health in those days it +was always advisable to satisfy yourself as to the nature of the cargo +the vessel carried or intended to carry, otherwise you were liable to +be let in for a longer voyage than health demanded. Richard Gooding of +Bawdsey, in the county of Suffolk, a twenty-one-year-old yeoman who knew +nothing of the iniquities practised in ships, in an evil hour acted on +the advice of his apothecary and ran across to Holland for the sake of +his health, which the infirmities of youth appear to have undermined. +All went well until, on the return trip, just before Bawdsey Ferry hove +in sight, down swooped a revenue cutter's boat with an urgent request +that the master should open up his hatches and disclose what his hold +contained. He demurred, alleging that it held nothing of interest +to revenue men; but on their going below to see for themselves they +discovered an appreciable quantity of gin. Thereupon the master wickedly +declared Gooding to be the culprit, and he was pressed on suspicion of +attempting to run a cargo of spirits. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1530--Capt. Broughton, 20 April 1803, and enclosure.] + +Into the operations of the gang this element of suspicion entered very +largely, especially in the pressing of supposed sailors. To carry about +on your person any of the well-known marks of the seafaring man was to +invite certain disaster. When pressed, like so many others, because +he was "in appearance very much like a sailor," John Teede protested +vehemently that he had never been to sea in his life, and that all who +said he had were unmitigated liars. "Strip him," said the officer, who +had a short way with such cases. In a twinkling Teede's shirt was over +his head and the sailor stood revealed. Devices emblematic of love and +the sea covered both arms from shoulder to wrist. "You and I will lovers +die, eh?" said the officer, with a twinkle, as he spelt out one of +the amatory inscriptions. "Just so, John! I'll see to that. Next man!" +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1522--Description of a Person calling +himself John Teede, 28 Dec. 1799.] + +Bow-legged men ran the gravest of risks in this respect, and the goose +of many a tailor was effectually cooked because of the damning fact, +which no protestations of innocence of the sea could mitigate, that long +confinement to the board had warped his legs into a fatal resemblance to +those of a typical Jack-tar. Harwich once had a mayor who, after vowing +that he would "never be guilty of saying there was no law for pressing +sailors," as a convincing proof that he knew what was what, and was +willing to provide it to the best of his ability, straightway sent out +and pressed--a tailor! [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1436--Capt. +Allen, 26 March 1706.] + +The itinerant Jewish peddler who hawked his wares about the country +suffered grievously on this account. However indisputably Hebraic his +name, his accent and his nose might be, those evidences of nationality +were Anglicised, so to speak, by the fact that his legs were the legs of +a sailor, and the bandy appendages so characteristic of his race sooner +or later brought the gang down upon him in full cry and landed him in +the fleet. + +In the year 1780 the fishing town of Cromer was thrown into a state of +acute excitement by the behaviour of a casual stranger--a great, bearded +man of foreign aspect who, taking a lodging in the place, resorted daily +to the beach, where he walked the sands "at low water mark," now writing +with great assiduity in a book, again gesticulating wildly to the sea +and the cliffs, whence the suspicious townsfolk, then all unused to +"visitors" and their eccentricities, watched his antics in wonder and +consternation. The principal inhabitants of the place, alarmed by his +vagaries, constituted themselves a committee of safety, and with the +parson at their head went down to interview him; and when, in response +to their none too polite inquiries, he flatly refused to give any +account of himself, they by common consent voted him a spy and a public +menace, telling each other that he was undoubtedly engaged in drawing +plans of the coast in order to facilitate' the landing of some enemy; +for did not the legend run:-- + + "He who would Old England win, + Must at Weybourn Hope begin?" + +and was not the "Hoop," as it was called locally, only a few miles to +the northward? No time was to be lost. Post-haste they dispatched a +messenger to Lieut. Brace at Yarmouth, begging him, if he would save his +country from imminent danger, to lose not a moment in sending his gang +to seize the suspect and nip his fell design in the bud. With this +alarming request Brace promptly complied, and the stranger was dragged +away to Yarmouth. Arraigned before the mayor, he with difficulty +succeeded in convincing that functionary that he was nothing more +dangerous than a stray agriculturist whom the Empress Catherine had +sent over from Russia to study the English method of growing-turnips! +[Footnote: _State Papers_, Russia, cv.--Lieut. Brace, 18 Aug. 1780.] + +The unhandsome treatment meted out to the inoffensive Russian is of a +piece with the whole aspect of pressing by instigation, of which it is +at once a specimen and a phase. The incentive here was suspicion; but in +the fertile field of instigation motives flourished in forms as varied +as the weaknesses of human nature. + +Thomas Onions, respectable burgess of Bridgnorth, engaged in working +a trow from that place to Bristol, fell under suspicion owing to the +mysterious disappearance of a portion of the cargo, which consisted of +china. The rest of the crew being metaphorically as well as literally in +the same boat, the consignee's agent, on the trow's arrival at Bristol, +hinted at a more than alliterative connection between china and chests, +which he was proceeding to search when Onions objected, very rightly +urging that he had no warrant. "Is it a warrant you're wanting?" +demanded the baffled agent. "Very well, we'll see if we cannot find +one." With that he stepped ashore and hurried to the rendezvous, where +he knew the officers, and within the hour the gang added Onions to the +impress stock-pot. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1542--Memorial of +the Inhabitants and Burgesses of Bridgnorth, 12 March 1808.] + +Much the same motive led to the pressing of Charles M'Donald, a +north-country youth of education and property. His mother wished him to +enter the army, but his guardians, piqued by her insistence, "had him +kidnapped on board the impress tender at Shields, under pretence of +sending him on a visit." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1537--Capt. +Bland, 29 Nov. 1806, and enclosure.] + +An "independent fortune of fourteen hundred pounds," bequeathed to him +by his "Aunt Elizabeth," was instrumental in launching John Stillwell of +Clerkenwell upon a similar career. His step-mother and uncle desired +to retain possession of the money, of which they were trustees; so they +suborned the gang and the young man disappeared. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1539--Capt. Burton, 25 April 1806, and enclosure.] + +A more legitimate pastime of the gang was the pressing of incorrigible +sons. George Clark of Birmingham and William Barnicle of Margate, the +one a notorious thief, the other the despair of his family because of +his drunken habits, were two out of many shipped abroad by this cheap +but effectual means, the instigator of the gang being in each case +the lad's own father. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1537--Jeremiah +Clark, 30 July 1806; _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1547--Lieut. Dawe, 4 Sept. +1809.] The distracting problem, "What to do with our sons?" was in this +way amazingly simplified. + +In thus utilising the gang as a means of retaliating upon those who +incurred their displeasure, both naval officers and private individuals, +had they been arraigned for the offence, could have pleaded in +justification of their conduct the example of no less exalted a body +than the Admiralty itself. The case of the bachelor seamen of Dover, +pressed because of an official animus against that town, was as +notorious as their Lordships' futile attempt to teach the Brighton +fishermen respect for their betters, or their later orders to Capt. +Culverhouse, of the Liverpool rendezvous, instructing him "to take all +opportunities of impressing seafaring men belonging to the Isle of +Man," as a punishment for the "extreme ill-conduct of the people of that +Island to His Majesty's Officers on the Impress Service." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 3. 148--Admiralty Minutes, 11 Oct. 1803.] The +Admiralty method of paying out anyone against whom you cherished a +grudge possessed advantages which strongly commended it to the splenetic +and the vindictive. For suppose you lay in wait for your enemy and +beat or otherwise maltreated him: the chances were that he would either +punish you himself or invoke the law to do it for him; while if you +removed him by means of the garrot, the knife or the poisoned glass, no +matter how discreetly the deed was done the hangman was pretty sure to +get you sooner or later. But the gang--it was as safe as an epidemic! +The fact was not lost upon the community. People in almost every station +of life appreciated it at its true worth, and, encouraged by the example +of the Admiralty, availed themselves of the gang as the handiest, +speediest and safest of mediums for wiping out old scores. + +On shipboard, where life was more cramped and men consequently came +into sharper contact than on shore, resentments were struck from daily +intercourse like sparks from steel. Like sparks some died, impotent to +harm their object; but others, cherished in bitterness of spirit through +many a lonely watch, flashed into malicious action with that hoped-for +opportunity, the coming of the gang. John Gray, carpenter of a merchant +ship, in a moment of anger threatened to cut the skipper down with an +axe. This happened under a West-Indian sun. Months afterwards, as the +ship swung lazily into Bristol river and the gang came aboard, the +skipper found his opportunity. Beckoning to the impress officer, he +pointed to John Gray and said: "Take that man!" [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1542--Capt. Barker, 22 June 1808, and enclosure.] Gray never +again lifted an axe on board a merchant vessel. + +Certain amenities which once passed between the master and the mate of +the _Lady Shore_ serve to throw an even broader light upon the origin +of quarrels at sea and the methods of settling them then in vogue. The +_Lady Shore_ was on the passage home from Quebec when the master one day +gave certain sailing directions which the mate, who was a sober, careful +seaman, thought fit to disregard on the ground that the safety of the +ship would be endangered if he followed them. The master, an irascible, +drunken brute, at this flew into a passion and sought to ingraft his +ideas of seamanship upon the mate through the medium of a handspike, +with which he caught him a savage blow "just above the eye, cutting him +about three inches in length." It was in mid-ocean that this lesson in +navigation was administered. By the time Scilly shoved its nose above +the horizon the skipper's "down" on the mate had reached an acute stage. +His resentment of the latter's being the better seaman had now deepened +into hatred, and to this, as the voyage neared its end, was added +growing fear of prosecution. At this juncture a man-o'-war hove in +sight and signalled an inspection of hands. "Get your chest on deck, Mr. +Mate," cried the exultant skipper. "You are too much master here. It is +time for us to part." Taken out of the ship as a pressed man, the mate +was ultimately discharged by order of the Admiralty; but the skipper +had his revenge. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 583--Matthew Gill to +Admiral Moorsom, 15 Jan. 1813.] + +A riot that occurred at King's Lynn in the year '55 affords a striking +instance of the retaliatory use of the gang on shore. In the course of +the disturbance mud and stones were thrown at the magistrates, who +had come out to do what they could to quell it. Angered by so gross +an indignity, they supplied the gang with information that led to the +pressing of some sixty persons concerned in the tumult, but as these +consisted mainly of "vagrants, gipsies, parish charges, maimed, halt and +idiots," the magisterial resentment caused greater rejoicings at +Lynn than it did at Spithead, where the sweepings of the borough were +eventually deposited. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 920--Admiral Sir +Edward Hawke, 8 June 1755.] + +There is a decided smack of the modern about the use the gang was put to +by the journeymen coopers of Bristol. Considering themselves underpaid, +they threatened to go on strike unless the masters raised their wages. +In this they were not entirely unanimous, however. One of their number +stood out, refusing to join the combine; whereupon the rest summoned +the gang and had the "blackleg" pressed for his contumacy. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1542--Capt. Barker, 20 Aug. 1808, and enclosure.] + +In pressing William Taylor of Broadstairs the gang nipped in the bud +as tender a romance as ever flourished in the shelter of the Kentish +cliffs, which is saying not a little. Taylor was only a poor fisherman, +and when he dared to make love to the pretty daughter of the Ramsgate +Harbour-Master, that exalted individual, who entertained for the girl +social ambitions in which fishermen's shacks had no place, resented +his advances as insufferable impertinence. A word to Lieut. Leary, his +friend at the local rendezvous, did the rest. Taylor disappeared, and +though he was afterwards discharged from His Majesty's ship Utrecht on +the score of his holding a Sea-Fencible's ticket, the remedy had worked +its cure and the Harbour-Master was thenceforth free to marry his +daughter where he would. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1450--Capt. +Austen, 23 Sept. 1803.] + +So natural is the transition from love to hate that no apology is needed +for introducing here the story of Sam Burrows, the ex-beadle of Chester +who fell a victim to the harsher in much the same manner as Taylor did +to the gentler passion. Burrows' evil genius was one Rev. Lucius Carey, +an Irish clergyman--whether Anglican or Roman we know not, nor does it +matter--who had contracted the unclerical habit of carrying pistols and +too much liquor. In this condition he was found late one night knocking +in a very violent manner at the door of the "Pied Bull," and swearing +that, while none should keep him out, any who refused to assist him +in breaking in should be shot down forthwith. Burrows, the ex-beadle, +happened to be passing at the moment. He seized the drunken cleric and +with the assistance of James Howell, one of the city watchmen, forcibly +removed him to the watch-house, whence he was next day taken before the +mayor and bound over to appear at the Sessions. Now it happened that +certain members of the local press-gang were Carey's boon companions, so +no sooner did he leave the presence of the mayor than he looked them up. +That same evening Burrows was missing. Carey had found him a "hard bed," +otherwise a berth on board a man-o'-war. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1532--Capt Birchall, 17 July 1804, and enclosures.] + +In the columns of the _Westminster Journal_, under date of both May +1743, we read of a sailor who, dying at Ringsend, was brought to +Irishtown church-yard, near Dublin, for burial. "When they laid him on +the ground," the narrative continues, "the coffin was observed to stir, +on which he was taken up, and by giving him some nourishment he came +to himself, and is likely to do well." Whether this sailor was ever +pressed, either before or after his abortive decease, we are not +informed; but there is on record at least one well-authenticated +instance of that calamity overtaking a person who had passed the bourne +whence none is supposed to return. + +In the year 1723 a young lad whose name has not been preserved, but who +was at the time apprentice to a master sailmaker in London, set out from +that city to visit his people, living at Sandwich. He appears to have +travelled afoot, for, getting a "lift" on the road, he was carried into +Deal, where he arrived late at night, and having no money was glad to +share a bed with a seafaring man, the boatswain of an Indiaman then in +the Downs. From this circumstance sprang the events which here follow. +Along in the small hours of the night the lad awoke, and finding the +room stuffy and day on the point of breaking, he rose and dressed, +purposing to see the town in the cool of the morning. The catch of +the door, however, refused to yield under his hand, and while he was +endeavouring to undo it the noise he made awakened the boatswain, who +told him that if he looked in his breeches pocket he would find a knife +there with which he could lift the latch. Acting on this hint, the +lad succeeded in opening the door, and thereupon went downstairs in +accordance with his original intention. When he returned some half-hour +later, as he did for the purpose of restoring the knife, which he +had thoughtlessly slipped into his pocket, the bed was empty and the +boatswain gone. Of this he thought nothing. The boatswain had talked, he +remembered, of going off to his ship at an early hour, in order, as he +had said, to call the hands for the washing down of the decks. The +lad accordingly left the house and went his way to Sandwich, where, as +already stated, his people lived. + +Meantime the old inn at Deal, and indeed the whole town, was thrown into +a state of violent commotion by a most shocking discovery. Going about +their morning duties at the inn, the maids had come to the bed in which +the boatswain and the apprentice had slept, and to their horror found +it saturated with blood. Drops of blood, together with marks of +blood-stained hands and feet, were further discovered on the floor and +the door of the chamber, down the stairs, and along the passage leading +to the street, whence they could be distinctly traced to the waterside, +not so very far away. Imagination, working upon these ghastly survivals +of the hours of darkness, quickly reconstructed the crime which it was +evident had been committed. The boatswain was known to have had money +on him; but the youth, it was recalled, had begged his bed. It was +therefore plain to the meanest understanding that the youth had murdered +the boatswain for his money and thrown the body into the sea. + +At once that terrible precursor of judgment to come, the hue and cry was +raised, and that night the footsore apprentice lay in Sandwich jail, a +more than suspected felon, for his speedy capture had supplied what +was taken to be conclusive evidence of his guilt. In his pocket they +discovered the boatswain's knife, and both it and the lad's clothing +were stained with blood. Asked whose blood it was, and how it came +there, he made no answer. Asked was it the boatswain's knife, he +answered, "Yes, it was," and therewith held his peace. In face of such +evidence, and such an admission, he stood prejudged. His trial at the +Assizes was a mere formality. The jury quickly found him guilty, and +sentence of death was passed upon him. + +The day of execution came. Up to this point Fate had set her face +steadfastly against our apprentice lad; but now, in the very hour +and article of death, she suddenly relented and smiled upon him. The +dislocating "drop" was in those days unknown. When you were hanged, +you were hanged from a cart, which was suddenly whisked from under you, +leaving you dangling in mid-air like a kind of death-fruit nearly, but +not quite, ready to fall. Much depended on the executioner, and that +grim functionary was in this case a raw hand, unused to his work, who +bungled the job. The knot was ill-adjusted, the rope too long, the +convict tall and lank. This last circumstance was no fault of the +executioner's, but it helped. When they turned him off, the lad's feet +swept the ground, and his friends, gathering round him like guardian +angels, bore him up. Cut down at the end of a tense half-hour, he was +hurried away to a surgeon's and there copiously bled. And being young +and virile, he revived. + +Trudging to Portsmouth some little time after, with the intention of for +ever leaving a country to which he was legally dead, he fell in with one +of the numerous press-gangs frequenting that road, and was sent on board +a man-o'-war. There, in course of time, he rose to be master's mate, and +in that capacity, whilst on the West-India station, was transferred to +another ship. On this ship he met the surprise of his life--if life can +be said to hold further surprises for one who has died and lived again. +As he stepped on deck the first person he met was his old bed-fellow, +the boatswain. + +The explanation of the amazing series of events which led up to this +amazing meeting is very simple. On the evening of that fateful night at +Deal the boatswain, who had been ailing, was let blood. In his sleep the +bandage slipped and the wound reopened. Discovering his condition when +awakened by the apprentice, he rose and left the house, intending to +have the wound re-dressed by the barber-surgeon who had inflicted it, +with more effect than discretion, some hours earlier. At the very door +of the inn, however, he ran into the arms of a press-gang, by whom +he was instantly seized and hurried on board ship. [Footnote: Watts, +_Remarkable Events in the History of Man_, 1825.] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +WOMEN AND THE PRESS-GANG. + + + +The medieval writer who declared women to be "capable of disturbing the +air and exciting tempests" was not indulging a mere quip at the expense +of that limited storm area, his own domestic circle. He expressed +what in his day, and indeed for long after, was a cardinal article of +belief--that if you were so ill-advised as to take a woman to sea, she +would surely upset the weather and play the mischief with the ship. + +To this ungallant superstition none subscribed more heartily than the +sailor, though always, be it understood, with a mental reservation. +Unlike many landsmen who held a similar belief, he limited the malign +influence of the sex strictly to the high-seas, where, for that reason, +he vastly preferred woman's room to her company; but once he was safe +in port, woman in his opinion ceased to be dangerous, and he then vastly +preferred her company to her room. + +For her companionship he had neither far to seek nor long to wait. It +was a case of + + "Deal, Dover and Harwich, + The devil gave his daughter in marriage." + +All naval seaports were full of women, and to prevent the supply from +running short thoughtful parish officials--church-wardens and other +well-meaning but sadly misguided people--added constantly to the number +by consigning to such doubtful reformatories the undesirable females of +their respective petty jurisdictions. The practice of admitting women +on board the ships of the fleet, too--a practice as old as the Navy +itself--though always forbidden, was universally connived at and tacitly +sanctioned. Before the anchor of the returning man-of-war was let go a +flotilla of boats surrounded her, deeply laden with pitiful creatures +ready to sell themselves for a song and the chance of robbing their +sailor lovers. No sooner did the boats lay alongside than the last +vestige of Jack's superstitious dread of the malevolent sex went by the +board, and discipline with it. Like monkeys the sailors swarmed into +the boats, where each selected a mate, redeemed her from the grasping +boatman's hands with money or blows according to the state of his +finances or temper, and so brought his prize, save the mark! in triumph +to the gangway. It was a point of honour, not to say of policy, with +these poor creatures to supply their respective "husbands," as they +termed them, with a drop of good-cheer; so at the gangway they were +searched for concealed liquor. This was the only formality observed on +such occasions, and as it was enforced in the most perfunctory manner +imaginable, there was always plenty of drink going. Decency there was +none. The couples passed below and the hell of the besotted broke loose +between decks, where the orgies indulged in would have beggared the pen +of a Balzac. [Footnote: Statement of Certain Immoral Practices, 1822.] + +During the earlier decades of the century these conditions, monstrous +though they were, passed almost unchallenged, but as time wore on and +their pernicious effects upon the _morale_ of the fleet became more and +more appalling, the service produced men who contended strenuously, and +in the end successfully, with a custom that, to say the least of it, did +violence to every notion of decency and clean living. In 1746 the ship's +company of the _Sunderland_ complained bitterly because not even their +wives were "suffer'd to come aboard to see them." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1482--Capt. Brett, 22 Feb. 1745-6.] It was a sign of the +times. By the year '78 the practice had been fined down to a point +where, if a wherry with a woman in it were seen hovering in a suspicious +manner about a ship of war, the boatman was immediately pressed and the +woman turned on shore. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1498--Capt. +Boteler, 18 April 1778.] Another twenty years, and the example of such +men as Jervis, Nelson and Collingwood laid the evil for good and all. +The seamen of the fleet themselves pronounced its requiescat when, +drawing up certain "Rules and Orders" for their own guidance during the +mutiny of '97, they ordained that "no woman shall be permitted to go +on shore from any ship, but as many come in as pleases." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--A Detail of the Proceedings on Board the +_Queen Charlotte_ in the Year 1797.] + +An unforeseen consequence of thus suppressing the sailor's impromptu +liaisons was an alarming increase in the number of desertions. On shore +love laughs at locksmiths; on shipboard it derided the boatswain's mate. +To run and get caught meant at the worst "only a whipping bout," and, +the sailor's hide being as tough as his heart was tender, he ran and +took the consequences with all a sailor's stoicism. In this respect he +was perhaps not singular. The woman in the case so often counts for more +than the punishment she brings. + +Few of those who deserted their ships for amatory reasons had the +luck--viewing the escapade from the sailor's standpoint--that attended +the schoolmaster of the _Princess Louisa_. Going ashore at Plymouth to +fetch his chest from the London wagon, he succumbed to the blandishments +of an itinerant fiddler's wife, whom he chanced to meet in the husband's +temporary absence, and was in consequence "no more heard of." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1478--Capt. Boys, 5 April 1742.] + +Had it always been a case of the travelling woman, the sailor's flight +in response to the voice of the charmer would seldom have landed him in +the cells or exposed his back to the caress of the ship's cat. Where he +was handicapped in his love flights was this. The haunt or home of his +seducer was generally known to one or other of his officers, and when +this was not the case there were often other women who gladly gave +him away. "Captain Barrington, Sir," writes "Nancy of Deptford" to the +commander of a man-o'-war in the Thames, "there is a Desarter of yours +at the upper water Gate. Lives at the sine of the mantion house. He is +an Irishman, gose by the name of Youe (Hugh) MackMullins, and is trying +to Ruing a Wido and three Children, for he has Insenuated into the Old +Woman's faver so far that she must Sartingly come to poverty, and you +by Sarching the Cook's will find what I have related to be true and much +oblidge the hole parrish of St. Pickles Deptford." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1495--Capt. Barrington, 22 Oct. 1771, enclosure.] + +A favourite resort of the amatory tar was that extra-parochial spot +known as the Liberty of the Fleet, where the nuptial knot could be tied +without the irksome formalities of banns or licence. The fact strongly +commended it to the sailor and brought him to the precinct in great +numbers. + +"I remember once on a time," says Keith, the notorious Fleet parson, "I +was at a public-house at Ratcliffe, which was then full of Sailors and +their Girls. There was fiddling, piping, jigging and eating. At length +one of the Tars starts up and says: 'Damn ye, Jack! I'll be married just +now; I will have my partner.' The joke took, and in less than two hours +Ten Couples set out for the Flete. They returned in Coaches, five Women +in each Coach; the Tars, some running before, some riding on the Coach +Box, and others behind. The Cavalcade being over, the Couples went up +into an upper Room, where they concluded the evening with great Jollity. +The landlord said it was a common thing, when a Fleet comes in, to have +2 or 3 Hundred Marriages in a week's time among the Sailors." [Footnote: +Keith, Observations on the Act for Preventing Clandestine Marriages, +1753.] + +In the "Press-Gang, or Love in Low Life," a play produced at Covent +Garden Theatre in 1755, Trueblue is pressed, not in, but out of the +arms of his tearful Nancy. The situation is distressingly typical. The +sailor's happiness was the gangsman's opportunity, however Nancy might +suffer in consequence. + +For the average gangsman was as void of sentiment as an Admiralty +warrant, pressing you with equal avidity and absence of feeling whether +he caught you returning from a festival or a funeral. To this callosity +of nature it was due that William Castle, a foreign denizen of Bristol +who had the hardihood to incur the marital tie there, was called +upon, as related elsewhere, to serve at sea in the very heyday of his +honeymoon. Similarly, if four seamen belonging to the _Dundee_ Greenland +whaler had not stolen ashore one night at Shields "to see some women," +they would probably have gone down to their graves, seawards or +landwards, under the pleasing illusion that the ganger was a man of like +indulgent passions with themselves. The negation of love, as exemplified +in that unsentimental individual, was thus brought home to many a +seafaring man, long debarred from the society of the gentler sex, +with startling abruptness and force. The pitiful case of the "Maidens +Pressed," whose names are enrolled in the pages of Camden Hotten, +[Footnote: Hotten, List of Persons of Quality, etc., who Went from +England to the American Plantations.] is in no way connected with +pressing for naval purposes. Those unfortunates were not victims of the +gangsman's notorious hardness of heart, but of their own misdeeds. Like +the female disciples of the "diving hand" stated by Lutterell [Footnote: +Lutterell, Historical Relation of State Affairs, 12 March 1706.] to have +been "sent away to follow the army," they were one and all criminals of +the Moll Flanders type who "left their country for their country's good" +under compulsion that differed widely, both in form and purpose, from +that described in these pages. + +To assert, however, that women were never pressed, in the enigmatic +sense of their being taken by the gang for the manning of the fleet, +would be to do violence to the truth as we find it in naval and other +records. As a matter of fact, the direct contrary was the case, and +there were in the kingdom few gangs of which, at one time or another +in their career, it could not be said, as Southey said of the gang at +Bristol, that "they pressed a woman." + +The incident alluded to will be familiar to all who know the poet as +distinguished from the Bard of Avon. It is found in the second "English +Eclogue," under the caption of the "Grandmother's Tale," and has to do +with the escapade, long famous in the more humorous annals of Southey's +native city, of blear-eyed Moll, a collier's wife, a great, ugly +creature whose voice was as gruff as a mastiff's bark, and who wore +habitually a man's hat and coat, so that at a few yards' distance you +were at a loss to know whether she was man or woman. + + "There was a merry story told of her, + How when the press-gang came to take her husband + As they were both in bed, she heard them coming, + Drest John up in her nightcap, and herself + Put on his clothes and went before the captain." + +A case of pressing on all-fours with this is said to have once occurred +at Portsmouth. A number of sailors, alarmed by the rumoured approach of +a gang while they were a-fairing, took it into their heads, so the story +goes, to effect a partial exchange of clothing with their sweethearts, +in the hope that the hasty shifting of garments would deceive the gang +and so protect them from the press. It did. In their parti-garb make-up +the women looked more sailorly than the sailors themselves. The gang +consequently pressed them, and there were hilarious scenes at the +rendezvous when the fair recruits were "regulated" and the ludicrous +mistake brought to light. + +It was not only on shore, however, or on special occasions such as +this, that women played the sailor. A naval commander, accounting to +the Admiralty for his shortness of complement, attributes it mainly to +sickness, partly to desertion, and incidentally to the discharge of one +of the ship's company, "who was discovered to be a woman." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1503--Capt. Burney, 15 Feb. 1782.] + +His experience is capped by that of the master of the _Edmund and Mary_, +a vessel engaged in carrying coals to Ipswich. Shrewdly suspecting +one of his apprentices, a clever, active lad, to be other than what he +seemed, he taxed him with the deception. Taken unawares, the lad burst +into womanly tears and confessed himself to be the runaway daughter of +a north-country widow. Disgrace had driven her to sea. [Footnote: _Naval +Chronicle_, vol. xxx. 1813, p. 184.] + +These instances are far from being unique, for both in the navy and the +mercantile marine the masquerading of women in male attire was a not +uncommon occurrence. The incentives to the adoption of a mode of life +so foreign to all the gentler traditions of the sex were various, though +not inadequate to so surprising a change. Amongst them unhappiness +at home, blighted virtue, the secret love of a sailor and an abnormal +craving for adventure and the romantic life were perhaps the most +common and the most powerful. The question of clothing presented little +difficulty. Sailors' slops could be procured almost anywhere, and no +questions asked. The effectual concealment of sex was not so easy, and +when we consider the necessarily intimate relations subsisting between +the members of a ship's crew, the narrowness of their environment, the +danger of unconscious betrayal and the risks of accidental discovery, +the wonder is that any woman, however masculine in appearance or skilled +in the arts of deception, could ever have played so unnatural a part for +any length of time without detection. The secret of her success perhaps +lay mainly in two assisting circumstances. In theory there were no women +at sea, and despite his occasional vices the sailor was of all men the +most unsophisticated and simple-minded. + +Conspicuous among women who threw the dust of successful deception in +the eyes of masters and shipmates is Mary Anne Talbot. Taking to the sea +as a girl in order to "follow the fortunes" of a young naval officer for +whom she had conceived a violent but unrequited affection, she was known +afloat as John Taylor. In stature tall, angular and singularly lacking +in the physical graces so characteristic of the average woman, +she passed for years as a true shellback, her sex unsuspected and +unquestioned. Accident at length revealed her secret. Wounded in an +engagement, she was admitted to hospital in consequence of a shattered +knee, and under the operating knife the identity of John Taylor merged +into that of Mary Anne Talbot. [Footnote: Times, 4 Nov. 1799.] + +It is said, perhaps none too kindly or truthfully, that the lady doctor +of the present day no sooner sets up in practice than she incontinently +marries the medical man around the corner, and in many instances the +sailor-girl of former days brought her career on the ocean wave to an +equally romantic conclusion. However skilled in the art of navigation +she might become, she experienced a constitutional difficulty in +steering clear of matrimony. Maybe she steered for it. + +A romance of this description that occasioned no little stir in its day +is associated with a name at one time famous in the West-India trade. +Through bankruptcy the name suffered eclipse, and the unfortunate +possessor of it retired to a remote neighbourhood, taking with him his +two daughters, his sole remaining family. There he presently sank under +his misfortunes. Left alone in the world, with scarce a penny-piece to +call their own, the daughters resolved on a daring departure from the +conventional paths of poverty. + +Making their way to Portsmouth, they there dressed themselves as sailors +and in that capacity entered on board a man-o'-war bound for the West +Indies. At the first reduction of Curacoa, in 1798, as in subsequent +naval engagements, both acquitted themselves like men. No suspicion of +the part they were playing, and playing with such success, appears to +have been aroused till a year or two later, when one of them, in a brush +with the enemy, was wounded in the side. The surgeon's report terminated +her career as a seaman. + + [Illustration: MARY ANNE TALBOT.] + + + Meanwhile the other sister contracted tropical fever, and whilst +lying ill was visited by one of the junior officers of the ship. +Believing herself to be dying, she told him her secret, doubtless with +a view to averting its discovery after death. He confessed that the news +was no surprise to him. In fact, not only had he suspected her sex, he +had so far persuaded himself of the truth of his suspicions as to fall +in love with one of his own crew. The tonic effect of such avowals is +well known. The fever-stricken patient recovered, and on the return of +the ship to home waters the officer in question made his late foremast +hand his wife. [Footnote: Naval Chronicle, vol. viii. 1802, p. 60.] + +Of all the veracious yarns that are told of girl-sailors, there is +perhaps none more remarkable than the story of Rebecca Anne Johnson, the +girl-sailor of Whitby. One night a hundred and some odd years ago a Mrs. +Lesley, who kept the "Bull" inn in Halfmoon Alley, Bishopsgate Street, +found at her door a handsome sailor-lad begging for food. He had eaten +nothing for four and twenty hours, he declared, and when plied with +supper and questions by the kind-hearted but inquisitive old lady, he +explained that he was an apprentice to the sea, and had run from +his ship at Woolwich because of the mate's unduly basting him with a +rope's-end. "What! you a 'prentice?" cried the landlady; and turning his +face to the light, she subjected him to a scrutiny that read him through +and through. + +Next day, at his own request, he was taken before the Lord Mayor, to +whom he told his story. That he was a girl he freely admitted, and he +accounted for his appearing in sailor rig by asserting that a brutal +father had apprenticed him to the sea in his thirteenth year. More +astounding still, the same unnatural parent had actually bound her, the +sailor-girl's, mother, apprentice to the sea, and in that capacity +she was not only pressed into the navy, but killed at the battle of +Copenhagen, up to which time, though she had followed the sea for many +years and borne this child in the meantime, her sex had never once been +called in question. [Footnote: _Naval Chronicle_, vol. xx. 1808, p. +293.] + +While woman was thus invading man's province at sea, that universal +feeder of the Navy, the pressgang, made little or no appeal to her as +a sphere of activity. On Portland Island, it is true, Lieut. McKey, who +commanded both the Sea-Fencibles and the press-gang there, rated his +daughter as a midshipman; [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral +Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 15 April 1805] but with this exception +no woman is known to have added the hanger to her adornment. The three +merry maids of Taunton, who as gangsmen put the Denny Bowl quarrymen to +rout, were of course impostors. + +But if the ganger's life was not for woman, there was ample compensation +for its loss in the wider activities the gang opened up for her. The +gangsman was nothing if not practical. He took the poetic dictum that +"men must work and women must weep"--a conception in his opinion too +sentimentally onesided to be tolerated as one of the eternal verities of +human existence--and improved upon it. By virtue of the rough-and-ready +authority vested in him he abolished the distinction between toil and +tears, decreeing instead that women should suffer both. + +"M'Gugan's wife?" growled Capt. Brenton, gang-master at Greenock, when +the corporation of that town ventured to point out to him that +M'Gugan's wife and children must inevitably come to want unless +their bread-winner, recently pressed, were forthwith restored to +them,--"_M'Gugan's wife is as able to get her bread as any woman in the +town!_" [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1511--Capt. Brenton, 15 Jan. +1795.] + +For two hundred and fifty years, off and on--ever since, in fact, the +press-masters of bluff King Hal denuded the Dorset coast of fishermen +and drove the starving women of that region to sea in quest of food +[Footnote: _State Papers Domestic, Henry VIII_.: Lord Russell to the +Privy Council, 22 Aug. 1545.]--the press-gang had been laboriously +teaching English housewives this very lesson, the simple economic truth +that if they wanted bread for themselves and their families while their +husbands were fagging for their country at sea, they must turn to and +work for it. Yet in face of this fact here was M'Gugan's wife trying to +shirk the common lot. It was monstrous! + +M'Gugan's wife ought really to have known better. The simplest +calculation, had she cared to make it, would have shown her the utter +futility of hoping to live on the munificent wage which a grateful +country allowed to M'Gugan, less certain deductions for M'Gugan's slops +and contingent sick-benefit, in return for his aid in protecting it from +its enemies; and almost any parish official could have told her, what +she ought in reason to have known already, that she was no longer merely +M'Gugan's wife, dependent upon his exertions for the bread she ate, but +a Daughter of the State and own sister to thousands of women to whom the +gang in its passage brought toil and poverty, tears and shame--not, mark +you, the shame of labour, if there be such a thing, but the bedraggled, +gin-sodden shame of the street, or, in the scarce less dreadful +alternative, the shame of the goodwife of the ballad who lamented her +husband's absence because, worse luck, sundry of her bairns "were gotten +quhan he was awa'." + +Lamentable as this state of things undoubtedly was, it was nevertheless +one of the inevitables of pressing. You could not take forcibly one +hundred husbands and fathers out of a community of five hundred souls, +and pay that hundred husbands and fathers the barest pittance instead of +a living wage, without condemning one hundred wives and mothers to hard +labour on behalf of the three hundred children who hungered. Out of +this hundred wives and mothers a certain percentage, again, lacked the +ability to work, while a certain other percentage lacked the will. These +recruited the ranks of the outcast, or with their families burdened +the parish. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--Memorial of the +Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor of the Parish of Portsmouth, +3 Dec 1793, and numerous instances.] The direct social and economic +outcome of this mode of manning the Navy, coupled with the payment of +a starvation wage, was thus threefold. It reversed the natural +sex-incidence of labour; it fostered vice; it bred paupers. The first +was a calamity personal to those who suffered it. The other two were +national in their calamitous effects. + +In that great diurnal of the eighteenth-century navy, the Captains' +Letters and Admirals' Dispatches, no volume can be opened without +striking the broad trail of destitution, misery and heart-break, to +mention no worse consequences, left by the gang. At nearly every turn of +the page, indeed, we come upon recitals or petitions recalling vividly +the exclamation involuntarily let fall by Pepys the tender-hearted when, +standing over against the Tower late one summer's night, he watched +by moonlight the pressed men sent away: "Lord! how some poor women did +cry." + +A hundred years later and their heritors in sorrow are crying still. Now +it is a bed-ridden mother bewailing her only son, "the principal prop +and stay of her old age"; again a wife, left destitute "with three +hopeful babes, and pregnant." And here, bringing up the rear of the sad +procession--lending to it, moreover, a touch of humour in itself not far +removed from tears--comes Lachlan M'Quarry. The gang have him, and amid +the Stirling hills, where he was late an indweller, a motley gathering +of kinsfolk mourn his loss--"me, his wife, two Small helpless Children, +an Aged Mother who is Blind, an Aged Man who is lame and unfit for work, +his father in Law, and a sister Insane, with his Mother in Law who is +Infirm." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1454--The Humble Petition of +Jullions Thomson, Spouse to Lachlan M'Quarry, 2 May 1812.] The fact +is attested by the minister and elders of the parish, being otherwise +unbelievable; and Lachlan is doubtless proportionately grieved to find +himself at sea. Men whose wives "divorced" them through the medium of +the gang--a not uncommon practice--experienced a similar grief. + +Besides the regular employment it so generously provided for wives +bereft of their lawful support, the press-gang found for the women of +the land many an odd job that bore no direct relation to the earning of +their bread. When the mob demolished the Whitby rendezvous in '93, it +was the industrious fishwives of the town who collected the stones +used as ammunition on that occasion; and when, again, Lieut. M'Kenzie +unwisely impressed an able seaman in the house of Joseph Hook, +inn-keeper at Pill, it was none other than "Mrs. Hook, her daughter and +female servant" who fell upon him and tore his uniform in shreds, thus +facilitating the pressed man's escape "through a back way." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1534--Lieut. M'Kenzie, 20 Oct. 1805.] + +The good people of Sunderland at one time indulged themselves in the +use of a peculiar catch-phrase. Whenever any feat of more than ordinary +daring came under their observation, they spoke of it as "a case of +Dryden's sister." The saying originated in this way. The Sunderland gang +pressed the mate of a vessel, one Michael Dryden, and confined him in +the tender's hold. One night Dryden's sister, having in vain bribed the +lieutenant in command to let him go, at the risk of her life smuggled +some carpenter's tools on board under the very muzzles of the sentinel's +muskets, and with these her brother and fifteen other men cut their way +to freedom. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 2740--Lieut. Atkinson, 24 +June and 10 July 1798.] + +A tender lying in King Road, at the entrance to Bristol River, was the +scene of another episode of the "Dryden's sister" type. Going ashore +one morning, the lieutenant in command fell from the bank and broke +his sword. It was an ill omen, for in his absence the hard fate of the +twenty pressed men who lay in the tender's hold, "all handcuft to each +other," made an irresistible appeal to two women, pressed men's wives, +who had been with singular lack of caution admitted on board. Whilst the +younger and prettier of the two cajoled the sentinel from his post, the +elder and uglier secured an axe and a hatchet and passed them unobserved +through the scuttle to the prisoners below, who on their part made such +good use of them that when at length the lieutenant returned he found +the cage empty and the birds flown. The shackles strewing the press-room +bore eloquent testimony to the manner of their flight. The irons had +been hacked asunder, some of them with as many as "six or seven Cutts." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1490--Capt. Brown, 12 May 1759.] + +Never, surely, did the gang provide an odder job for any woman than the +one it threw in the way of Richard Parker's wife. The story of his part +in the historic mutiny at the Nore is common knowledge. Her's, being +less familiar, will bear retelling. But first certain incidents in the +life of the man himself, some of them hitherto unknown, call for brief +narration. + +Born at Exeter in or about the year 1764, it is not till some nineteen +years later, or, to be precise, the 5th of May 1783, that Richard Parker +makes his debut in naval records. On that date he appears on board +the _Mediator_ tender at Plymouth, in the capacity of a pressed man. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ Ships' Musters, 1. 9307--Muster Book of +H.M. Tender the _Mediator_.] + +The tender carried him to London, where in due course he was delivered +up to the regulating officers, and by them turned over to the _Ganges_, +Captain the Honourable James Lutterell. This was prior to the 30th of +June 1783, the date of his official "appearance" on board that ship. +On the _Ganges_ he served as a midshipman--a noteworthy fact [Footnote: +Though one of rare occurrence, Parker's case was not altogether unique; +for now and then a pressed man by some lucky chance "got his foot on the +ladder," as Nelson put it, and succeeded in bettering himself. Admiral +Sir David Mitchell, pressed as the master of a merchantman, is a notable +example. Admiral Campbell, "Hawke's right hand at Quiberon," who entered +the service as a substitute for a pressed man, is another; and James +Clephen, pressed as a sea-going apprentice, became master's-mate of the +Doris, and taking part in the cutting out of the Chevrette, a corvette +of twenty guns, from Cameret Bay, in 1801, was for his gallantry on that +occasion made a lieutenant, fought at Trafalgar and died a captain. On +the other hand, John Norris, pressed at Gallions Reach out of a collier +and "ordered to walk the quarter-deck as a midshipman," proved such a +"laisie, sculking, idle fellow," and so "filled the sloop and men +with vermin," that his promoter had serious thoughts of "turning him +ashore."--_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1477--Capt. Bruce, undated letter, +1741.]--till the 4th of September following, when he was discharged to +the _Bull-Dog_ sloop by order of Admiral Montagu. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ Ships' Musters, 1. 10614--Muster Book of H.M.S. _Ganges_.] + +His transfer from the _Bull-Dog_ banished him from the quarter-deck and +sowed within him the seeds of that discontent which fourteen years later +made of him, as he himself expressed it, "a scape-goat for the sins of +many." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5339--Dying Declaration of the +Late Unfortunate Richard Parker, 28 June 1797.] He was now, for what +reason we do not learn, rated as an ordinary seaman, and in that +capacity he served till the 15th of June 1784, when he was discharged +sick to Haslar Hospital. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ Ships' Musters, +1. 10420, 10421--Muster Books of H.M. Sloop _Bull-Dog_.] + +At this point we lose track of him for a matter of nearly fourteen +years, but on the 31st of March 1797, the year which brought his period +of service to so tragic a conclusion, he suddenly reappears at the Leith +rendezvous as a Quota Man for the county of Perth. Questioned as to his +past, he told Brenton, then in charge of that rendezvous, "that he had +been a petty officer or acting lieutenant on board the _Mediator_, Capt. +James Lutterell, at the taking of five prizes in 1783, when he received +a very large proportion of prize-money." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1517--Capt. Brenton, 10 June 1797.] The inaccuracies evident on the +face of this statement are unquestionably due to Brenton's defective +recollection rather than to Parker's untruthfulness. Brenton wrote his +report nearly two and a half months after the event. + +After a period of detention on board the tender at Leith, Parker, in +company with other Quota and pressed men, was conveyed to the Nore in +one of the revenue vessels occasionally utilised for that purpose, and +there put on board the _Sandwich_, the flag-ship for that division of +the fleet. At half-past nine on the morning of the 12th of May, upon the +2nd lieutenant's giving orders to "clear hawse," the ship's company got +on the booms and gave three cheers, which were at once answered from the +_Director_. They then reeved yard-ropes as a menace to those of the +crew who would not join them, and trained the forecastle guns on the +quarter-deck as a hint to the officers. The latter were presently put +on shore, and that same day the mutineers unanimously chose Parker to +be their "President" or leader. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +5339--Court-Martial on Richard Parker: Deposition of Lieut. Justice.] +The fact that he had been pressed in the first instance, and that +after having served for a time in the capacity of a "quarter-deck young +gentleman" he had been unceremoniously derated, singled him out for +this distinction. There was amongst the mutineers, moreover, no other so +eligible; for whatever Parker's faults, he was unquestionably a man of +superior ability and far from inferior attainments. + +The reeving of yard-ropes was his idea, though he disclaimed it. An +extraordinary mixture of tenderness and savagery, he wept when it was +proposed to fire upon a runaway ship, the _Repulse_, but the next moment +drove a crowbar into the muzzle of the already heavily shotted gun and +bade the gunner "send her to hell where she belonged." "I'll make a +beefsteak of you at the yard-arm" was his favourite threat. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 5339--Court-Martial on Richard Parker: +Depositions of Capt. John Wood, of H.M. Sloop _Hound_, William +Livingston, boat-swain of the _Director_, and Thomas Barry, seaman on +board the _Monmouth._] It was prophetic, for that way, as events quickly +proved, lay the finish of his own career. + +At nine o'clock on the morning of the 30th of June Parker, convicted and +sentenced to death after a fair trial, stood on the scaffold awaiting +his now imminent end. The halter, greased to facilitate his passing, was +already about his neck, and in one of his hands, which had been freed at +his own request, he held a handkerchief borrowed for the occasion from +one of the officers of the ship. This he suddenly dropped. It was the +preconcerted signal, and as the fatal gun boomed out in response to it +he thrust his hands into his pockets with great rapidity and jumped +into mid-air, meeting his death without a tremor and with scarce a +convulsion. Thanks to the clearness of the atmosphere and the facility +with which the semaphores did their work that morning, the Admiralty +learnt the news within seven minutes. [Footnote: Trial and Life of +Richard Parker, Manchester, 1797.] Now comes the woman's part in the +drama on which the curtain rose with the pressing of Parker in '83, and +fell, not with his execution at the yard-arm of the _Sandwich_, as one +would suppose, but four days after that event. + +In one of his spells of idleness ashore Parker had married a Scotch +girl, the daughter of an Aberdeenshire farmer--a tragic figure of a +woman whose fate it was to be always too late. Hearing that her husband +had taken the bounty, she set out with all speed for Leith, only to +learn, upon her arrival there, that he was already on his way to the +fleet. At Leith she tarried till rumours of his pending trial reached +the north country. The magistrates would then have put her under arrest, +designing to examine her, but the Admiralty, to whom Brenton reported +their intention, vetoed the proceeding as superfluous. The case +against Parker was already complete. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1517--Capt. Brenton, 15 June 1797, and endorsement.] Left free to follow +the dictates of her tortured heart, the distracted woman posted south. + +Eating his last breakfast in the gun-room of the _Sandwich_, Parker +talked affectionately of his wife, saying that he had made his will and +left her a small estate he was heir to. Little did he dream that she was +then within a few miles of him. + +The _Sandwich_ lay that morning above Blackstakes, the headmost ship of +the fleet, and at the moment when Parker leapt from her cathead scaffold +a boat containing his wife shot out into the stream. He was run up to +the yard-arm before her very eyes. She was again too late. + +He hung there for an hour. Meantime, with a tenacity of purpose as +touching as her devotion, the unhappy woman applied to the Admiral +for the body of her husband. She was denied, and Parker's remains were +committed to the new naval burial ground, beyond the Red-Barrier Gate +leading to Minster. The burial took place at noon. By nightfall the +grief-stricken woman had come to an amazing resolution. _She would steal +the body_. + +Ten o'clock that night found her at the place of interment. Save for the +presence of the sentinel at the adjoining Barrier Gate, the loneliness +of the spot favoured her design, but a ten-foot palisade surrounded the +grounds, and she had neither tools nor helpers. Unexpectedly three women +came that way. To them she disclosed her purpose, praying them for the +love of God to help her. Perhaps they were sailors' wives. Anyhow, they +assented, and the four body-snatchers scaled the fence. + + [Illustration: MARY ANNE TALBOT. Dressed as a sailor.] + + +The absence of tools, as it happened, presented no serious impediment to +the execution of their design. The grave was a shallow one, the freshly +turned mould loose and friable. Digging with their hands, they soon +uncovered the coffin, which they then contrived to raise and hoist over +the cemetery gates into the roadway, where they sat upon it to conceal +it from chance passers-by till four o'clock in the morning. It was then +daylight. The neighbouring drawbridge was let down, and, a fish-cart +opportunely passing on its way to Rochester, the driver was prevailed +upon to carry the "lady's box" into that town. A guinea served to allay +his suspicions. + +Three days later a caravan drew up before the "Hoop and Horseshoe" +tavern, in Queen Street, Little Tower Hill. A woman alighted--furtively, +for it was now broad daylight, whereas she had planned to arrive while +it was still dark. A watchman chanced to pass at the moment, and the +woman's strange behaviour aroused his suspicions. Pulling aside the +covering of the van, he looked in and saw there the rough coffin +containing the body of Parker, which the driver of the caravan had +carried up from Rochester for the sum of six guineas. Later in the +day the magistrates sitting at Lambeth Street Police Court ordered +its removal, and it was deposited in the vaults of Whitechapel church. +[Footnote: Trial and Life of Richard Parker, Manchester, 1797.] + +Full confirmation of this extraordinary story, should any doubt it, may +be found in the registers of the church in question. Amongst the burials +there we read this entry: "_July, 1797, Richard Parker, Sheerness, Kent, +age 33. Cause of death, execution. This was Parker, the President of +the Mutinous Delegates on board the fleet at the Nore. He was hanged +on board H.M.S._ Sandwich _on the 30th day of June_." [Footnote: Burial +Registers of St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, 1797.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +IN THE CLUTCH OF THE GANG. + + + +Once the gang had a man in its power, his immediate destination was +either the rendezvous press-room or the tender employed as a substitute +for that indispensable place of detention. + +The press-room, lock-up or "shut-up house," as it was variously termed, +must not be confounded with the press-room at Newgate, where persons +indicted for felony, and perversely refusing to plead, were pressed +beneath weights till they complied with that necessary legal formality. +From that historic cell the rendezvous press-room differed widely, both +in nature and in use. Here the pressed men were confined pending their +dispatch to His Majesty's ships. As a matter of course the place was +strongly built, heavily barred and massively bolted, being in these +respects merely a commonplace replica of the average bridewell. Where it +differed from the bridewell was in its walls. Theoretically these were +elastic. No matter how many they held, there was always room within them +for more. As late as 1806 the press-room at Bristol consisted of a cell +only eight feet square, and into this confined space sixteen men were +frequently packed. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral +Berkeley, Report on Rendezvous, 14 March 1806.] + +Nearly everywhere it was the same gruesome story. The sufferings of +the pressed man went for nothing so long as the pressed man was kept. +Provided only the bars were dependable and the bolts staunch, anything +would do to "clap him up in." The town "cage" came in handy for the +purpose; and when no other means of securing him could be found, he +was thrust into the local prison like a common felon, often amidst +surroundings unspeakably awful. + +According to the elder Wesley, no "seat of woe" on this side of the +Bottomless Pit outrivalled Newgate except one. [Footnote: London +Chronicle, 6 Jan. 1761.] The exception was Bristol jail. A filthy, +evil-smelling hole, crowded with distempered prisoners without medical +care, it was deservedly held in such dread as to "make all seamen fly +the river" for fear of being pressed and committed to it. For when the +eight-foot cell at the rendezvous would hold no more, Bristol pressed +men were turned in here--to come out, if they survived the +pestilential atmosphere of the place, either fever-stricken or pitiful, +vermin-covered objects from whom even the hardened gangsman shrank with +fear and loathing. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1490--Capt. Brown, +4 Aug. 1759.] Putting humane considerations entirely aside, it is +well-nigh inconceivable that so costly an asset as the pressed man +should ever have been exposed to such sanitary risks. The explanation +doubtless lies in the enormous amount of pressing that was done. The +number of men taken was in the aggregate so great that a life more or +less was hardly worth considering. + +Of ancient use as a county jail, Gloucester Castle stood far higher in +the pressed man's esteem as a place of detention than did its sister +prison on the Avon. The reason is noteworthy. Richard Evans, for many +years keeper there, possessed a magic palm. Rub it with silver in +sufficient quantity, and the "street door of the gaol" opened before +you at noonday, or, when at night all was as quiet as the keeper's +conscience, a plank vanished from the roof of your cell, and as you +stood lost in wonder at its disappearance there came snaking down +through the hole thus providentially formed a rope by the aid of which, +if you were a sailor or possessed of a sailor's agility and daring, it +was feasible to make your escape over the ramparts of the castle, though +they towered "most as high as the Monument." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1490--Capt. Brown, 28 April and 26 May 1759.] + +In the absence of the gang on road or other extraneous duty the +precautions taken for the safety of pressed men were often very +inadequate, and this circumstance gave rise to many an impromptu rescue. +Sometimes the local constable was commandeered as a temporary guard, and +a story is told of how, the gang having once locked three pressed men +into the cage at Isleworth and stationed the borough watchman over them, +one Thomas Purser raised a mob, demolished the door of the cage, and set +its delighted occupants free amid frenzied shouts of: "Pay away within, +my lads! and we'll pay away without. Damn the constable! He has no +warrant." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 298--Law Officers' Opinions, +1733-56, No. 99.] + +In strict accordance with the regulations governing, or supposed to +govern, the keeping of rendezvous, the duration of the pressed man's +confinement ought never to have exceeded four-and-twenty hours from +the time of his capture; but as a matter of fact it often extended far +beyond that limit. Everything depended on the gang. If men were brought +in quickly, they were as quickly got rid of; but when they dribbled in +in one's and two's, with perhaps intervals of days when nothing at all +was doing, weeks sometimes elapsed before a batch of suitable size could +be made ready and started on its journey to the ships. + +All this time the pressed man had to be fed, or, as they said in the +service, subsisted or victualled, and for this purpose a sum varying +from sixpence to ninepence a day, according to the cost of provisions, +was allowed him. On this generous basis he was nourished for a hundred +years or more, till one day early in the nineteenth century some +half-score of gaunt, hungry wretches, cooped up for eight weary weeks in +an East-coast press-room during the rigours of a severe winter, made the +startling discovery that the time-honoured allowance was insufficient +to keep soul and body together. They accordingly addressed a petition to +the Admiralty, setting forth the cause and nature of their sufferings, +and asking for a "rise." A dozen years earlier the petition would have +been tossed aside as insolent and unworthy of consideration; but the +sharp lesson of the Nore mutiny happened to be still fresh in their +Lordships' memories, so with unprecedented generosity and haste they +at once augmented the allowance, and that too for the whole kingdom, to +fifteen-pence a day. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1546--Petition of +the Pressed Men at King's Lynn, 27 Jan. 1809, and endorsement.] + +It was a red-letter day for the pressed man. A single stroke of +the official pen had raised him from starvation to opulence, and +thenceforward, when food was cheap and the purchasing power of the penny +high, he regaled himself daily, as at Limerick in 1814, on such abundant +fare as a pound of beef, seven and a half pounds of potatoes, a pint of +milk, a quart of porter, a boiling of greens and a mess of oatmeal; or, +if he happened to be a Catholic, on fish and butter twice a week instead +of beef. The quantity of potatoes is worthy of remark. It was peculiar +to Ireland, where the lower classes never used bread. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1455--Capt. Argles, 1 March 1814.] + +Though faring thus sumptuously at his country's expense, the pressed man +did not always pass the days of his detention in unprofitable idleness. +There were certain eventualities to be thought of and provided against. +Sooner or later he must go before the "gent with the swabs" and be +"regulated," that is to say, stripped to the waist, or further if that +exacting officer deemed it advisable, and be critically examined for +physical ailments and bodily defects. In this examination the local +"saw-bones" would doubtless lend a hand, and to outwit the combined +skill of both captain and surgeon was a point of honour with the pressed +man if by any possibility it could be done. With this laudable end in +view he devoted much of his enforced leisure to the rehearsal of such +symptoms and the fabrication of such defects as were best calculated to +make him a free man. + +For the sailor to deny his vocation was worse than useless. The ganger's +shrewd code--"All as says they be land-lubbers when I says they baint, +be liars, and all liars be seamen"--effectually shut that door in his +face. There were other openings, it is true, whereby a knowing chap +might wriggle free, but officers and medicoes were extremely "fly." He +had not practised his many deceptions upon them through long years +for nothing. They well knew that on principle he "endeavoured by every +stratagem in his power to impose"--that he was, in short, a cunning +cheat whose most serious ailments were to be regarded with the least +sympathy and the utmost suspicion. Yet in spite of this disquieting fact +the old hand, whom long practice had made an adept at deception, and +who, when he was so inclined, could simulate "complaints of a nature +to baffle the skill of any professional man," [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1540--Capt. Barker, 5 Nov. 1807.] rarely if ever faced +the ordeal of regulating without "trying it on." Often, indeed, he +anticipated it. There was nothing like keeping his hand in. + +Fits were his great stand-by, [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1534--Capt. Barker, 11 Jan. 1805, and many instances.] and the time +he chose for these convulsive turns was generally night, when he could +count upon a full house and nothing to detract from the impressiveness +of the show. Suddenly, at night, then, a weird, horribly inarticulate +cry is heard issuing from the press-room, and at once all is uproar and +confusion. Unable to make himself heard, much less to restore order, and +fearing that murder is being done amongst the pressed men, the sentry +hastily summons the officer, who rushes down, half-dressed, and hails +the press-room. + +"Hullo! within there. What's wrong?" + +Swift silence. Then, "Man in a fit, sir," replies a quavering voice. + +"Out with him!" cries the officer. + +Immediately, the door being hurriedly unbarred, the "case" is handed out +by his terrified companions, who are only too glad to be rid of him. +To all appearances he is in a true epileptic state. In the light of the +lantern, held conveniently near by one of the gangsmen, who have by this +time turned out in various stages of undress, his features are seen to +be strongly convulsed. His breathing is laboured and noisy, his head +rolls incessantly from side to side. Foam tinged with blood oozes from +between his gnashing teeth, flecking his lips and beard, and when his +limbs are raised they fall back as rigid as iron. [Footnote: Almost the +only symptom of _le grand mal_ which the sailor could not successfully +counterfeit was the abnormal dilation of the pupils so characteristic of +that complaint, and this difficulty he overcame by rolling his eyes up +till the pupils were invisible.] + +After surveying him critically for a moment the officer, if he too is +an old hand, quietly removes the candle from the lantern and with a +deft turn of his wrist tips the boiling-hot contents of the tallow cup +surrounding the flaming wick out upon the bare arm or exposed chest of +the "case." When the fit was genuine, as of course it sometimes was, the +test had no particular reviving effect; but if the man were shamming, as +he probably was in spite of the great consistency of his symptoms, the +chances were that, with all his nerve and foreknowledge of what was +in store for him, the sudden biting of the fiery liquid into his naked +flesh would bring him to his feet dancing with pain and cursing and +banning to the utmost extent of his elastic vocabulary. + +When this happened, "Put him back," said the officer. "He'll do, alow or +aloft." + +Going aloft at sea was the true epileptic's chief dread. And with good +reason, for sooner or later it meant a fall, and death. + +In the meantime other enterprising members of the press-room community +made ready for the scrutiny of the official eye in various ways, +practising many devices for procuring a temporary disability and a +permanent discharge. Some, horrible thought! "rubbed themselves with Cow +Itch and Whipped themselves with Nettles to appear in Scabbs"; +others "burnt themselves with oil of vitriol" to induce symptoms with +difficulty distinguishable from those of scurvy, that disease of such +dread omen to the fleet; whilst others emulated the passing of the poor +consumptive of the canting epitaph, whose "legs it was that carried her +off." Bad legs, indeed, ran a close race with fits in the pressed man's +sprint for liberty. They were so easily induced, and so cheaply. The +industrious application of the smallest copper coin procurable, +the humble farthing or the halfpenny, speedily converted the most +insignificant abrasion of the skin into a festering sore. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1439--Capt. Ambrose, 20 June 1741; _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1544--Capt. Bowyer, 18 Dec. 1808; _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1451--A. Clarke, Examining Surgeon at Dublin, 18 May 1807; _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1517--Letters of Capt. Brenton, March and April 1797, and +many instances.] + +Here and there a man of iron nerve, acting on the common belief that if +you had lost a finger the Navy would have none of you, adopted a more +heroic method of shaking off the clutch of the gang. Such a man was +Samuel Caradine, some time inhabitant of Kendal. Committed to the House +of Correction there as a preliminary to his being turned over to the +fleet for crimes that he had done, he expressed a desire to bid farewell +to his wife. She was sent for, and came, apparently not unprepared; for +after she had greeted her man through the iron door of his cell, "he put +his hand underneath, and she, with a mallet and chisel concealed for +the purpose, struck off a finger and thumb to render him unfit for His +Majesty's service." [Footnote: _Times_, 3 Nov. 1795.] + +A stout-hearted fellow named Browne, who hailed from Chester, would have +made Caradine a fitting mate. "Being impressed into the sea service, he +very violently determined, in order to extricate himself therefrom, to +mutilate the thumb and a finger of his left hand; which he accomplished +by repeatedly maiming them with an old hatchet that he had obtained +for that purpose. He was immediately discharged." [Footnote: _Liverpool +Advertiser_, 6 June 1777.] Such men as these were a substantial loss to +the service. Fighting a gun shoulder to shoulder, what fearful execution +would they not have wrought upon the "hereditary enemy"! + +It did not always do, however, to presume upon the loss of a forefinger, +particularly if it were missing from the left hand. Capt. Barker, while +he was regulating the press at Bristol, once had occasion to send into +Ilchester for a couple of brace of convicts who had received the royal +pardon on condition of their serving at sea. Near Shepton Mallet, on the +return tramp, his gangsmen fell in with a party armed with sticks and +knives, who "beat and cut them in a very cruel manner." They succeeded, +however, in taking the ringleader, one Charles Biggen, and brought him +in; but when Barker would have discharged the fellow because his left +forefinger was wanting, the Admiralty brushed the customary rule +aside and ordered him to be kept. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1528--Capt. Barker, 28 July 1803, and endorsement.] + +The main considerations entering into the dispatch of pressed men to the +fleet, when at length their period of detention at headquarters came to +an end, were economy, speed and safety. Transport was necessarily either +by land or water, and in the case of seaport, river or canal towns, both +modes were of course available. Gangs operating at a distance from the +sea, or remote from a navigable river or canal, were from their very +situation obliged to send their catch to market either wholly by +land, or by land and water successively. Land transport, though always +healthier, and in many instances speedier and cheaper than transport by +water, was nevertheless much more risky. Pressed men therefore preferred +it. The risks--rescue and desertion--were all in their favour. Hence, +when they "offered chearfully to walk up," or down, as the case might +be, the seeming magnanimity of the offer was never permitted to blind +those in charge of them to the need for a strong attendant guard. +[Footnote: In the spring of 1795 a body of Quota Men, some 130 strong, +voluntarily marched from Liverpool to London, a distance of 182 miles, +instead of travelling by coach as at first proposed. Though all had +received the bounty and squandered it in debauchery, not a man deserted; +and in their case the danger of rescue was of course absent. _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1511--Capt. Bowen, 21 April 1795.] The men would have had +to walk in any case, for transport by coach, though occasionally +sanctioned, was an event of rare occurrence. A number procured in +Berkshire were in 1756 forwarded to London "by the Reading machines," +but this was an exceptional indulgence due to the state of their feet, +which were already "blistered with travelling." + +Even with the precaution of a strong guard, there were parts of the +country through which it was highly imprudent, if not altogether +impracticable, to venture a party on foot. Of these the thirty-mile +stretch of road between Kilkenny and Waterford, the nearest seaport, +perhaps enjoyed the most unenviable reputation. No gang durst traverse +it; and no body of pressed men, and more particularly of pressed +Catholics, could ever have been conveyed even for so short a distance +through a country inhabited by a fanatical and strongly disaffected +people without courting certain bloodshed. The naval authorities in +consequence left Kilkenny severely alone. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1529--Capt. Bowen, 12 Oct. 1803.] + +The sending of men overland from Appledore to Plymouth, a course +frequently adopted to avoid the circuitous sea-route, was attended +with similar risks. The hardy miners and quarrymen of the intervening +moorlands loved nothing so much as knocking the gangsman on the head. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral Berkeley, Report on +Rendezvous, 22 Sept. 1805.] + +The attenuated neck of land between the Mersey and the Dee had an evil +reputation for affairs of this description. Men pressed at Chester, +and sent across the neck to the tenders or ships of war in the Mersey, +seldom reached their destination unless attended by an exceptionally +strong escort. The reason is briefly but graphically set forth by Capt. +Ayscough, who dispatched three such men from Chester, under convoy of +his entire gang, in 1780. "On the road thither," says he, "about seven +miles from hence, at a village called Sutton, they were met by upwards +of one Hundred Arm'd Seamen from Parkgate, belonging to different +privateers at Liverpool. An Affray ensued, and the three Impress'd men +were rescued by the Mobb, who Shot one of my Gang through the Body +and wounded two others." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1446--Capt. +Ayscough, 17 Nov. 1780.] Parkgate, it will be recalled, was a notorious +"nest of seamen." The alternative route to Liverpool, by passage-boat +down the Dee, was both safer and cheaper. To send a pressed man +that way, accompanied by two of the gang, cost only twelve-and-six. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 580--Admiral Phillip, 14 Sept. 1804.] + +Mr. Midshipman Goodave and party, convoying pressed men from Lymington +to Southampton, once met with an adventure in traversing the New Forest +which, notwithstanding its tragic sequel, is not without its humorous +side. They had left the little fishing village of Lepe some miles +behind, and were just getting well into the Forest, when a cavalcade of +mounted men, some thirty strong, all muffled in greatgoats and armed to +the teeth, unexpectedly emerged from the wood and opened fire upon them. +Believing it to be an attempt at rescue, the gang closed in about +their prisoners, but when one of these was the first to fall, his arm +shattered and an ear shot off, the gangsmen, perceiving their mistake, +broke and fled in all directions. Not far, however. The smugglers, for +such they were, quickly rounded them up and proceeded, not to shoot +them, as the would-be fugitives anticipated, but to administer to them +the "smugglers' oath." This they did by forcing them on their knees +and compelling them, at the point of the pistol and with horrible +execrations, to "wish their eyes might drop out if they told their +officers which way they, the smugglers, were gone." Having extorted this +unique pledge of secrecy as to their movements, they rode away into the +Forest, unaware that Mr. Midshipman Goodave, snugly ensconced in the +neighbouring ditch, had seen and heard all that passed--a piece of +discretion on his part that later on brought at least one of the +smugglers into distressing contact with the law. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 7. 300--Law Officers' Opinions, 1778-83, No. 18: Informations +of Shepherd Goodave, 1 Oct. 1779.] + +Just as the dangers of the sea sometimes rendered it safer to dispatch +pressed men from seaport towns by land--as at Exmouth, where the +entrance to the port was in certain weathers so hazardous as to bottle +all shipping up, or shut it out, for days together--so the dangers +peculiar to the land rendered it as often expedient to dispatch them +from inland towns by water. This was the case at Stourbridge. Handed +over to contractors responsible for their safe-keeping, the numerous +seamen taken by the gangs in that town and vicinity were delivered +on board the tenders in King Road, below Bristol--conveyed thither +by water, at a cost of half a guinea per head. This sum included +subsistence, which would appear to have been mainly by water also. To +Liverpool, the alternative port of delivery, carriage could only be had +by land, and the risks of land transit in that direction were so great +as to be considered insuperable, to say nothing of the cost. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1500--Letters of Capt. Beecher, 1780.] + +At ports such as Liverpool, Dublin and Hull, where His Majesty's ships +made frequent calls, the readiest means of disposing of pressed men was +of course to put them immediately on ship-board; but when no ship was +thus available, or when, though available, she was bound foreign or +on other prohibitive service, there was nothing for it, in the case +of rendezvous lying so far afield as to render land transport +impracticable, but to forward the harvest of the gangs by water. In +this way there grew up a system of sea transport that centred from many +distant and widely separated points of the kingdom upon those great +entrepots for pressed men, the Hamoaze, Spithead and the Nore. + +Now and then, for reasons of economy or expediency, men were shipped +to these destinations as "passengers" on colliers and merchant vessels, +their escort consisting of a petty officer and one or more gangsmen, +according to the number to be safeguarded. Occasionally they had no +escort at all, the masters being simply bound over to make good all +losses arising from any cause save death, capture by an enemy's ship or +the act of God. From King's Lynn to the Nore the rate per head, by this +means of transport, was 2 Pounds, 15s., including victualling; from +Hull, 2 Pounds 12s. 6d.; from Newcastle, 10s. 6d. The lower rates for +the longer runs are explained by the fact that, shipping facilities +being so much more numerous on the Humber and the Tyne, competition +reduced the cost of carriage in proportion to its activity. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 579--Admiral Phillip, 3 and 11 Aug. 1801; Admiral +Pringle, 2 April 1795.] + +In spite of every precaution, such serious loss attended the shipping +of men in this manner as to force the Admiralty back upon its own +resources. Recourse was accordingly had, in the great majority of cases, +to that handy auxiliary of the fleet, the hired tender. Tenders fell +into two categories--cruising tenders, employed exclusively, or almost +exclusively, in pressing afloat after the manner described in an earlier +chapter, and tenders used for the double purpose of "keeping" men +pressed on land and of conveying them to the fleet when their numbers +grew to such proportions as to make a full and consequently dangerous +ship. In theory, "any old unmasted hulk, unfit to send to sea, would +answer to keep pressed men in." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +579--Admiral Pringle, 2 April 1795.] In practice, the contrary was the +case. Fitness for sea, combined with readiness to slip at short notice, +was more essential than mere cubic capacity, since transhipment was thus +avoided and the pressed man deprived of another chance of taking French +leave. + +One all-important consideration, in the case of tenders employed for +the storing and detention of pressed men prior to their dispatch to the +fleet, was that the vessel should be able to lie afloat at low +water; for if the fall of the tide left her high and dry, the risk +of desertion, as well as of attack from the shore, was enormously +increased. Whitehaven could make no use of man-storing tenders for this +reason; and at the important centre of King's Lynn, which was really a +receiving station for three counties, it was found "requisite to have +always a vessel below the Deeps to keep pressed men aboard," since their +escape or rescue by way of the flats was in any anchorage nearer +the town a foregone conclusion. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1486--Capt. Baird, 27 Feb. 1755.] + +On board the tenders the comfort and health of the pressed man were no +more studied than in the strong-rooms and prisons ashore. A part of the +hold was required to be roughly but substantially partitioned off for +his security, and on rare occasions this space was fitted with bunks; +but as the men usually arrived "all very bare of necessaries"--except +when pressed afloat, a case we are not now considering--any provision +for the slinging of hammocks, or the spreading of bedding they did +not possess, came to be looked upon as a superfluous and uncalled-for +proceeding. Even the press-room was a rarity, save in tenders that had +been long in the service. Down in the hold of the vessel, whither the +men were turned like so many sheep as soon as they arrived on board, +they perhaps found a rough platform of deal planks provided for them to +lie on, and from this they were at liberty to extract such sorry comfort +as they could during the weary days and nights of their incarceration. +Other conveniences they had none. When this too was absent, as not +infrequently happened, they were reduced to the necessity of "laying +about on the Cables and Cask," suffering in consequence "more than +can well be expressed." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1439--Capt. +A'Court, 22 April 1741; _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1497--Capt. Bover, 11 +Feb. 1777, and Captains' Letters, _passim_.] It is not too much to say +that transported convicts had better treatment. + +Cooped up for weeks at a stretch in a space invariably crowded to +excess, deprived almost entirely of light, exercise and fresh air, and +poisoned with bad water and what Roderick Random so truthfully called +the "noisome stench of the place," it is hardly surprising that on +protracted voyages from such distant ports as Limerick or Leith the men +should have "fallen sick very fast." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1444--Capt. Allen, 4 March 1771, and Captains' Letters, _passim_.] +Officers were, indeed, charged "to be very careful of the healths of the +seamen" entrusted to their keeping; yet in spite of this most salutary +regulation, so hopelessly bad were the conditions under which the men +were habitually carried, and so slight was the effort made to ameliorate +them, that few tenders reached their destination without a more or less +serious outbreak of fever, small-pox or some other equally malignant +distemper. Upon the fleet the effect was appalling. Sickly tenders could +not but make sickly ships. + +If the material atmosphere of the tender's hold was bad, its moral +atmosphere was unquestionably worse. Dark deeds were done here at times, +and no man "peached" upon his fellows. Out of this deplorable state +of things a remarkable legal proceeding once grew. Murder having +been committed in the night, and none coming forward to implicate the +offender, the coroner's jury, instead of returning their verdict against +some person or persons unknown, found the entire occupants of the +tender's hold, seventy-two in number, guilty of that crime. A warrant +was actually issued for their apprehension, though never executed. +To put the men on their trial was a useless step, since, in the +circumstances, they would have been most assuredly acquitted. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 7. 300--Law Officers' Opinions, 1778-83, No. 20.] +Just as assuredly any informer in their midst would have been murdered. + +The scale of victualling on board the tenders was supposed to be the +same as on shore. "Full allowance daily" was the rule; and if the copper +proved too small to serve all at one boiling, there were to be as many +boilings as should be required to go round. Unhappily for the pressed +man, there was a weevil in his daily bread. While it was the bounden +duty of the master of the vessel to feed him properly, and of the +officers to see that he was properly fed, "officers and masters +generally understood each other too well in the pursery line." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 579--Admiral M'Bride, 19 March 1795.] +Rations were consequently short, boilings deficient, and though the +cabin went well content, the hold was the scene of bitter grumblings. + +Nor were these the only disabilities the pressed man laboured under. +His officers proved a sore trial to him. The Earl of Pembroke, Lord High +Admiral, foreseeing that this would be the case, directed that he should +be "used with all possible tenderness and humanity." The order was +little regarded. The callosity of Smollett's midshipman, who spat in +the pressed man's face when he dared to complain of his sufferings, +and roughly bade him die for aught he cared, was characteristic of the +service. Hence a later regulation, with grim irony, gave directions for +his burial. He was to be put out of the way, as soon as might be after +the fatal conditions prevailing on board His Majesty's tenders had done +their work, with as great a show of decency as could be extracted from +the sum of ten shillings. + +Strictly speaking, it was not in the power of the tender's officers +to mitigate the hardships of the pressed man's lot to any appreciable +extent, let them be as humane as they might. For this the pressed man +himself was largely to blame. An ungrateful rogue, his hide was as +impervious to kindness as a duck's back to water. Supply him with slops +[Footnote: The regulations stipulated that slops should be served out +to all who needed them; but as their acceptance was held to set up a +contract between the recipient and the Crown, the pressed man was not +unnaturally averse from drawing upon such a source of supply as long as +any chance of escape remained to him.] wherewith to cover his nakedness +or shield him from the cold, and before the Sunday muster came round +the garments had vanished--not into thin air, indeed, but in tobacco and +rum, for which forbidden luxuries he invariably bartered them with +the bumboat women who had the run of the vessel while she remained in +harbour. Or allow him on deck to take the air and such exercise as could +be got there, and the moment your back was turned he was away _sans +conge_. Few of these runaways were as considerate as that Scotch +humorist, William Ramsay, who was pressed at Leith for beating +an informer and there put on board the tender. Seizing the first +opportunity of absconding, "Sir," he wrote to the lieutenant in command, +"I am so much attached to you for the good usage I have received at your +hands, that I cannot think of venturing on board your ship again in the +present state of affairs. I therefore leave this letter at my father's +to inform you that I intend to slip out of the way." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1524.--Capt. Brenton, 20 Oct. 1800.] + +When that clever adventuress, Moll Flanders, found herself booked for +transportation beyond the seas, her one desire, it will be recalled, was +"to come back before she went." So it was with the pressed man. The idea +of escape obsessed him--escape before he should be rated on shipboard +and sent away to heaven only knew what remote quarter of the globe. It +was for this reason that irons were so frequently added to his comforts. +"Safe bind, safe find" was the golden rule on board His Majesty's +tenders. + +How difficult it was for him to carry his cherished design into +execution, and yet how easy, is brought home to us with surprising force +by the catastrophe that befell the _Tasker_ tender. On the 23rd of May +1755 the _Tasker_ sailed out of the Mersey with a full cargo of pressed +men designed for Spithead. She possessed no press-room, and as the +men for that reason had the run of the hold, all hatches were securely +battened down with the exception of the maindeck scuttle, an opening +so small as to admit of the passage of but one man at a time. Her crew +numbered thirty-eight, and elaborate precautions were taken for the +safe-keeping of her restless human freight. So much is evident from the +disposition of her guard, which was as follows:-- + +_(a)_ At the open scuttle two sentries, armed with pistol and cutlass. +Orders, not to let too many men up at once. + +_(b)_ On the forecastle two sentries, armed with musket and bayonet. +Orders, to fire on any pressed man who should attempt to swim away. + +_(c)_ On the poop one sentry, similarly armed, and having similar +orders. + +_(d)_ On the quarter-deck, at the entrance to the great cabin, where +the remaining arms were kept, one sentry, armed with cutlass and pistol. +Orders, to let no pressed man come upon the quarter-deck. + +There were thus six armed sentinels stationed about the ship--ample +to have nipped in the bud any attempt to seize the vessel, but for two +serious errors of judgment on the part of the officer responsible for +their disposition. These were, first, the discretionary power vested +in the sentries at the scuttle; and, second, the inadequate guard, a +solitary man, set for the defence of the great cabin and the arms it +contained. Now let us see how these errors of judgment affected the +situation. + +Either through stupidity, bribery or because they were rapidly making +an offing, the sentries at the scuttle, as the day wore on, admitted a +larger number of pressed men to the comparative freedom of the deck +than was consistent with prudence. The number eventually swelled to +fourteen--sturdy, determined fellows, the pick of the hold. One of them, +having a fiddle, struck up a merry tune, the rest fell to dancing, the +tender's crew who were off duty caught the infection and joined in, +while the officers stood looking on, tolerantly amused and wholly +unsuspicious of danger. Suddenly, just when the fun was at its height, +a splash was heard, a cry of "Man overboard!" ran from lip to lip, and +officers and crew rushed to the vessel's side. They were there, gazing +into the sea, for only a minute or two, but by the time they turned +their faces inboard again the fourteen determined men were masters of +the ship. In the brief disciplinary interval they had overpowered the +guard and looted the cabin of its store of arms. That night they carried +the tender into Redwharf Bay and there bade her adieu. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 920--Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, 3 June 1755, and +enclosures.] To pursue them in so mountainous a country would have been +useless; to punish them, even had they been retaken, impossible. As +unrated men they were neither mutineers nor deserters, [Footnote: By 4 & +5 Anne, cap. 6, pressed men could be apprehended and tried for desertion +by virtue of the Queen's shilling having been forced upon them at the +time they were pressed, but as the use of that coin fell into abeyance, +so the Act in question became gradually a dead-letter. Hay, Murray, +Lloyd, Pinfold and Jervis, Law Officers of the Crown, giving an opinion +on this important point in 1756, held that "pressed men are not subject +to the Articles (of War) until they are actually rated on board some +of His Majesty's ships."--_Admiralty Records_ 7. 299--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1756-77, No. 3, Case 2.] and the seizure of the tender was at +the worst a bloodless crime in which no one was hurt save an obdurate +sentry, who was slashed over the head with a cutlass. + +The boldness of its inception and the anticlimaxical nature of its +finish invest another exploit of this description with an interest all +its own. This was the cutting out of the _Union_ tender from the river +Tyne on the 12th April 1777. The commander, Lieut. Colville, having that +day gone on shore for the "benefit of the air," and young Barker, the +midshipman who was left in charge in his absence, having surreptitiously +followed suit, the pressed men and volunteers, to the number of about +forty, taking advantage of the opportunity thus presented, rose and +seized the vessel, loaded the great guns, and by dint of threatening +to sink any boat that should attempt to board them kept all comers, +including the commander himself, at bay till nine o'clock in the +evening. By that time night had fallen, so, with the wind blowing strong +off-shore and an ebb-tide running, they cut the cables and stood out to +sea. For three days nothing was heard of them, and North Shields, the +scene of the exploit and the home of most of the runaways, was just on +the point of giving the vessel up for lost when news came that she +was safe. Influenced by one Benjamin Lamb, a pressed man of more than +ordinary character, the rest had relinquished their original purpose +of either crossing over to Holland or running the vessel ashore on +some unfrequented part of the coast, and had instead carried her into +Scarborough Bay, doubtless hoping to land there without interference and +so make their way to Whitby or Hull. In this design, however, they were +partly frustrated, for, a force having been hastily organised for their +apprehension, they were waylaid as they came ashore and retaken to the +number of twenty-two, the rest escaping. Lamb, discharged for his good +offices in saving the tender, was offered a boatswain's place if he +would re-enter; but for poor Colville the affair proved disastrous. +Becoming demented, he attempted to shoot himself and had to be +superseded. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1497--Capt. Bover, 13 +April 1777, and enclosures.] + +All down through the century similar incidents, crowding thick and fast +one upon another, relieved the humdrum routine of the pressed man's +passage to the fleet, and either made his miserable life in a measure +worth living or brought it to a summary conclusion. Of minor incidents, +all tending to the same happy or unhappy end, there was no lack. Now +he sweltered beneath a sun so hot as to cause the pitch to boil in the +seams of the deck above his head; again, as when the _Boneta_ sloop, +conveying pressed men from Liverpool to the Hamoaze in 1740, encountered +"Bedds of two or three Acres bigg of Ice & of five or Six foot +thicknesse, which struck her with such force 'twas enough to drive her +bows well out," he "almost perished" from cold. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 2732--Capt. Young, 8 Feb. 1739-40.] To-day it was broad +farce. He held his sides with laughter to see the lieutenant of the +tender he was in, mad with rage and drink, chase the steward round and +round the mainmast with a loaded pistol, whilst the terrified hands, +fearing for their lives, fled for refuge to the coalhole, the roundtops +and the shore. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1498--Complaint of the +Master and Company of H. M. Hired Tender _Speedwell_, 21 Dec. 1778.] +To-morrow it was tragedy. Some "little dirty privateer" swooped down +upon him, as in the case of the _Admiral Spry_ tender from Waterford to +Plymouth, [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1500--Dickson, Surveyor of +Customs at the Cove of Cork, April 1780.] and consigned him to what +he dreaded infinitely more than any man-o'-war--a French prison; or +contrary winds, swelling into a sudden gale, drove him a helpless wreck +on to some treacherous coast, as they drove the _Rich Charlotte_ upon +the Formby Sands in 1745, [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1440--Capt. +Amherst, 4 Oct. 1745.] and there remorselessly drowned him. + +Provided he escaped such untoward accidents as death or capture by the +enemy, sooner or later the pressed man arrived at the receiving station. +Here another ordeal awaited him, and here also he made his last bid for +freedom. + +Taking the form of a final survey or regulating, the ordeal the pressed +man had now to face was no less thoroughgoing than its precursor at the +rendezvous had in all probability been superficial and ineffective. Eyes +saw deeper here, wits were sharper, and in this lay at once the pressed +man's bane and salvation. For if genuinely unfit, the fact was speedily +demonstrated; whereas if merely shamming, discovery overtook him with +a certainty that wrote "finis" to his last hope. Nevertheless, for this +ordeal, as for his earlier regulating at the rendezvous, the sailor who +knew his book prepared himself with exacting care during the tedium of +his voyage. + +No sooner was he mustered for survey, then, than the most extraordinary, +impudent and in many instances transparent impostures were sprung upon +his examiners. Deafness prevailed to an alarming extent, dumbness was by +no means unknown. Men who fought desperately when the gang took them, +or who played cards with great assiduity in the tender's hold, developed +sudden paralysis of the arms. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1464--Capt. Bloyes, Jan. 1702-3; _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1470--Capt. +Bennett, 26 Sept. 1711. An extraordinary instance of this form of +malingering is cited in the "Naval Sketch-Book," 1826.] Legs which had +been soundness itself at the rendezvous were now a putrefying mass +of sores. The itch broke out again, virulent and from all accounts +incurable. Fits returned with redoubled frequency and violence, the sane +became demented or idiotic, and the most obviously British, losing the +use of their mother tongue, swore with many gesticulatory _sacres_ that +they had no English, as indeed they had none for naval purposes. Looking +at the miserable, disease-ridden crew, the uninitiated spectator was +moved to tears of pity. Not so the naval officer. In France, when a +prisoner of war, learning French there without a master, he had heard a +saying that he now recalled to some purpose: _Vin de grain est plus doux +que n'est pas vin de presse_--"Willing duties are sweeter than those +that are extorted." The punning allusion to the press had tickled his +fancy and fixed the significant truism in his memory. From it he now +took his cue and proceeded to man his ship. + +So at length the pressed man, in spite of all his ruses and +protestations, was rated and absorbed into that vast agglomeration +of men and ships known as the fleet. Here he underwent a speedy +metamorphosis. It was not that he lost his individuality and became a +mere unit amongst thousands. Quite the contrary. Friends, creditors +or next-of-kin, concocting petitions on his behalf, set forth in +heart-rending terms the many disabilities he suffered from, together +with many he did not, and prayed, with a fervour often reaching no +deeper than their pockets, that he might be restored without delay to +his bereaved and destitute family. Across the bottom right-hand +corner of these petitions, conveniently upturned for that purpose, the +Admiralty scrawled its initial order: "Let his case be stated." The +immediate effect of this expenditure of Admiralty ink was magical. It +promoted the subject of the petition from the ranks, so to speak, and +raised him to the dignity of a "State the Case Man." + +He now became a person of consequence. The kindliest inquiries were made +after his health. The state of his eyes, the state of his limbs, the +state of his digestion were all stated with the utmost minuteness and +prolixity. Reams of gilt-edged paper were squandered upon him; and +by the time his case had been duly stated, restated, considered, +reconsidered and finally decided, the poor fellow had perhaps voyaged +round the world or by some mischance gone to the next. + +In the matter of exacting their pound of flesh the Lords Commissioners +were veritable Shylocks. Neither supplications nor tears had power to +move them, and though they sometimes relented, it was invariably for +reasons of policy and in the best interests of the service. Men clearly +shown to be protected they released. They could not go back upon their +word unless some lucky quibble rendered it possible to traverse the +obligation with honour. Unprotected subjects who were clearly unfit to +eat the king's victuals they discharged--for substitutes. + + [Illustration: The Press Gang, or English Liberty Displayed.] + +The principle underlying their Lordships' gracious acceptance of +substitutes for pressed men was beautifully simple. If as a pressed +man you were fit to serve, but unwilling, you were worth at least two +able-bodied men; if you were unfit, and hence unable to serve, you +were worth at least one. This simple rule proved a source of great +encouragement to the gangs, for however bad a man might be he was always +worth a better. + +The extortions to which the Lords Commissioners lent themselves in this +connection--three, and, as in the case of Joseph Sanders of Bristol, +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1534--Capt. Barker, 4 Jan. 1805, +and endorsement.] even four able-bodied men being exacted as +substitutes--could only be termed iniquitous did we not know the +duplicity, roguery and deep cunning with which they had to cope. Upon +the poor, indeed, the practice entailed great hardship, particularly +when the home had to be sacrificed in order to obtain the discharge of +the bread-winner who had been instrumental in getting it together; but +to the unscrupulous crimp and the shady attorney the sailor's misfortune +brought only gain. Buying up "raw boys," or Irishmen who "came over for +reasons they did not wish known"--rascally persons who could be had for +a song--they substituted these for seasoned men who had been pressed, +and immediately, having got the latter in their power, turned them over +to merchant ships at a handsome profit. At Hull, on the other hand, +substitutes were sought in open market. The bell-man there cried a +reward for men to go in that capacity. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1439--George Crowle, Esq., M.P. for Hull, 28 Dec. 1739.] + +Even when the pressed man had procured his substitutes and obtained his +coveted discharge, his liberty was far from assured. In theory exempt +from the press for a period of at least twelve months, he was in reality +not only liable to be re-pressed at any moment, but to be subjected to +that process as often as he chose to free himself and the gang to take +him. A Liverpool youth named William Crick a lad with expectations to +the amount of "near 4000 Pounds," was in this way pressed and discharged +by substitute three times in quick succession. [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 579--Rear-Admiral Child, 8 Aug. 1799.] Intending substitutes +themselves not infrequently suffered the same fate ere they could carry +out their intention. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1439--Lieut. +Leaver, 5 Jan. 1739-40, and numerous instances.] + +The discharging of a pressed man whose petition finally succeeded did +not always prove to be the eminently simple matter it would seem. +Time and tide waited for no man, least of all for the man who had the +misfortune to be pressed, and in the interval between his appeal and the +order for his release his ship, as already hinted, had perhaps put half +the circumference of the globe between him and home; or when the crucial +moment arrived, and he was summoned before his commander to learn the +gratifying Admiralty decision, he made his salute in batches of two, +three or even four men, each of whom protested vehemently that he was +the original and only person to whom the order applied. An amusing +attempt at "coming Cripplegate" in this manner occurred on board the +_Lennox_ in 1711. A woman, who gave her name as Alice Williams, having +petitioned for the release of her "brother," one John Williams, a +pressed man then on board that ship, succeeded in her petition, and +orders were sent down to the commander, Capt. Bennett, to give the man +his discharge. He proceeded to do so, but to his amazement discovered, +first, that he had no less than four John Williamses on board, all +pressed men; second, that while each of the four claimed to be the +man in question, three of the number had no sister, while the fourth +confessed to one whose name was not Alice but "Percilly"; and, after +long and patient investigation, third, that one of them had a wife named +Alice, who, he being a foreigner domiciled by marriage, had "tould him +she would gett him cleare" should he chance to fall into the hands +of the press-gang. In this she failed, for he was kept. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1470--Capt. Bennett, 2 Dec. 1711.] + +Of the pressed man's smiling arrest for debts which he did not owe, and +of his jocular seizure by sheriffs armed with writs of Habeas Corpus, +the annals of his incorporation in the fleet furnish many instances. +Arrest for fictitious debt was specially common. In every seaport +town attorneys were to be found who made it their regular practice. +Particularly was this true of Bristol. Good seamen were rarely pressed +there for whom writs were not immediately issued on the score of +debts of which they had never heard. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +579--Admiral Philip, 5 Dec. 1801.] To warrant such arrest the debt had +to exceed twenty pounds, and service, when the pressed man was already +on shipboard, was by the hands of the Water Bailiff. + +The writ of Habeas Corpus was, in effect, the only legal check it +was possible to oppose to the impudent pretensions and high-handed +proceedings of the gang. While H.M.S. _Amaranth_ lay in dock in 1804 +and her company were temporarily quartered on a hulk in Long Reach, two +sheriff's officers, accompanied by a man named Cumberland, a tailor of +Deptford, boarded the latter and served a writ on a seaman for debt. The +first lieutenant, who was in charge at the time, refused to let the man +go, saying he would first send to his captain, then at the dock, for +orders, which he accordingly did. The intruders thereupon went over +the side, Cumberland "speaking very insultingly." Just as the messenger +returned with the captain's answer, however, they again put in an +appearance, and the lieutenant hailed them and bade them come aboard. +Cumberland complied. "I have orders from my captain," said the +lieutenant, stepping up to him, "to press you." He did so, and had it +not been that a writ of Habeas Corpus was immediately sworn out, the +Deptford tailor would most certainly have exchanged his needle for a +marlinespike. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1532--Lieut. Collett, 13 +Feb. 1804.] + +Provocative as such redemptive measures were, and designedly so, they +were as a rule allowed to pass unchallenged. The Lords Commissioners +regretted the loss of the men, but thought "perhaps it would be as well +to let them go." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 7. 302--Law Officers' +Opinions, 1783-95, No. 24.] For this complacent attitude on the part of +his captors the pressed man had reason to hold the Law Officers of the +Crown in grateful remembrance. As early as 1755 they gave it as their +opinion--too little heeded--that to bring any matter connected with +pressing to judicial trial would be "very imprudent." Later, with the +lesson of twenty-two years' hard pressing before their eyes, they went +still further, for they then advised that a subject so contentious, +not to say so ill-defined in law, should be kept, if not altogether, at +least as much as possible out of court. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +7. 298--Law Officers' Opinions, 1733-56, No. 99; _Admiralty Records_ 7. +299--Law Officers' Opinions, 1756-77, No. 70.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HOW THE GANG WENT OUT. + + + +Not until the year 1833 did belated Nemesis overtake the press-gang. It +died the unmourned victim of its own enormities, and the manner of +its passing forms the by no means least interesting chapter in its +extraordinary career. + +Summarising the causes, direct and indirect, which led to the final +scrapping of an engine that had been mainly instrumental in manning +the fleet for a hundred years and more, and without which, whatever its +imperfections, that fleet could in all human probability never have been +manned at all, we find them to be substantially these:-- + +_(a)_ The demoralising effects of long-continued, violent and +indiscriminate pressing upon the Fleet; + +_(b)_ Its injurious and exasperating effects upon Trade; + +_(c)_ Its antagonising effect upon the Nation; and + +_(d)_ Its enormous cost as compared with recruiting by the good-will of +the People. + +Frederick the Great, it is related, being in one of his grim humours +after the dearly bought victory of Czaslaw, invited the neighbouring +peasantry to come and share the spoil of the carcases on the field of +battle. They responded in great numbers; whereupon he, surrounding +them, pressed three hundred of the most promising and "cloathed them +immediately from the dead." [Footnote: _State Papers Foreign, +Germany,_ vol. cccxl.--Robinson to Hyndford, 31 May 1742.] In this way, +Ezekiel-like, he retrieved his losses; but to the regiments so completed +the addition of these resurrection recruits proved demoralising to a +degree, notwithstanding the Draconic nature of the Prussian discipline. +In like manner the discipline used in the British fleet, while not less +drastic, failed conspicuously to counteract the dry-rot introduced and +fostered by the press-gang. In its efforts to maintain the Navy, indeed, +that agency came near to proving its ruin. + +On the most lenient survey of the recruits it furnished, it cannot be +denied that they were in the aggregate a desperately poor lot, unfitted +both physically and morally for the tremendous task of protecting an +island people from the attacks of powerful sea-going rivals. How bad +they were, the epithets spontaneously applied to them by the outraged +commanders upon whom they were foisted abundantly prove. Witness the +following, taken at random from naval captains' letters extending over a +hundred years:-- + +"Blackguards." + +"Sorry poor creatures that don't earn half the victuals they eat." + +"Sad, thievish creatures." + +"Not a rag left but what was of such a nature as had to be destroyed." + +"150 on board, the greatest part of them sorry fellows." + +"Poor ragged souls, and very small." + +"Miserable poor creatures, not a seaman amongst them, and the fleet in +the same condition." + +"Unfit for service, and a nuisance to the ship." + +"Never so ill-manned a ship since I have been at sea. The worst set I +ever saw." + +"Twenty-six poor souls, but three of them seamen. Ragged and half dead." + +"Landsmen, boys, incurables and cripples. Sad wretches great part of +them are." + +"More fit for an hospital than the sea." + +"All the ragg-tagg that can be picked up." + +In this last phrase, "All the rag-tag that can be picked up," we have +the key to the situation; for though orders to press "no aged, diseased +or infirm persons, nor boys," were sufficiently explicit, yet in +order to swell the returns, and to appease in some degree the fleet's +insatiable greed for men, the gangs raked in recruits with a lack of +discrimination that for the better part of a century made that fleet the +most gigantic collection of human freaks and derelicts under the sun. + +Billingsley, commander of the _Ferme_, receiving seventy pressed men to +complete his complement in 1708, discovers to his chagrin that thirteen +are lame in the legs, five lame in the hands, and three almost blind. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1469--Capt. Billingsley, 5 May 1708.] +Latham, commanding the _Bristol_, on the eve of sailing for the West +Indies can muster only eighteen seamen amongst sixty-eight pressed men +that day put on board of him. As for the rest, they are either sick, +or too old or too young to be of service--"ragged wretches, bad of the +itch, who have not the least pretensions to eat His Majesty's bread." +Forty of the number had to be put ashore. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 161--Admiral Watson, 26 Feb. 1754.] Admiral Mostyn, boarding his +flagship, the _Monarch_, "never in his life saw such a crew," though the +_Monarch_ had an already sufficiently evil reputation in that respect, +insomuch that whenever a scarecrow man-o'-war's man was seen ashore the +derisive cry instantly went up: "There goes a _Monarch_!" So hopelessly +bad was the company in this instance, it was found impossible to carry +the ship to sea. "I don't know where they come from," observes the +Admiral, hot with indignation, "but whoever was the officer who received +them, he ought to be ashamed, for I never saw such except in the +condemned hole at Newgate. I was three hours and a half mustering this +scabby crew, and I should have imagined that the Scum of the Earth +had been picked up for this ship." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +480--Admiral Mostyn, 1 and 6 April 1755.] The vigorous protest prepares +us for what Capt. Baird found on board the _Duke_ a few years later. +The pressed men there exhibited such qualifications for sea duty as +"fractured thigh-bone, idiocy, strained back and sickly, a discharged +soldier, gout and sixty years old, rupture, deaf and foolish, fits, +lame, rheumatic and incontinence of urine." [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1490--Capt. Baird, 22 May 1759.] + +That most reprehensible practice, the pressing of cripples for naval +purposes, would appear to have had its origin in the unauthorised +extension of an order issued by the Lord High Admiral, in 1704, to the +effect that in the appointment of cooks to the Navy the Board should +give preference to persons so afflicted. For the pressing of boys there +existed even less warrant. Yet the practice was common, so much so that +when, during the great famine of 1800, large numbers of youths flocked +into Poole in search of the bread they could not obtain in the country, +the gangs waylaid them and reaped a rich harvest. Two hundred was the +toll on this occasion. As all were in a "very starving, ragged, filthy +condition," the gangsmen stripped them, washed them thoroughly in the +sea, clad them in second-hand clothing from the quay-side shops, and +giving each one a knife, a spoon, a comb and a bit of soap, sent them on +board the tenders contented and happy. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 579--Capt. Boyle, 2 June 1801.] These lads were of course a cut +above the "scum of the earth" so vigorously denounced by Admiral Mostyn. +Beginning their career as powder-monkeys, a few years' licking into +shape transformed them, as a rule, into splendid fighting material. + +The utter incapacity of the human refuse dumped into the fleet is justly +stigmatised by one indignant commander, himself a patient long-sufferer +in that respect, as a "scandalous abuse of the service." Six of these +poor wretches had not the strength of one man. They could not be got +upon deck in the night, or if by dint of the rope's-end they were at +length routed out of their hammocks, they immediately developed the +worst symptoms of the "waister"--seasickness and fear of that which +is high. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1471--Capt. Billop, 26 Oct. +1712.] Bruce, encountering dirty weather on the Irish coast, when in +command of the _Hawke_, out of thirty-two pressed men "could not get +above seven to go upon a yard to reef his courses," but was obliged to +order his warrant officers and master aloft on that duty. [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 1477--Capt. Bruce, 6 Oct. 1741.] Belitha, of the +_Scipio_, had but one man aboard him, out of a crew of forty-one, who +was competent to stand his trick at the wheel; [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 1482--Capt. Belitha, 15 July 1746.] Bethell, of the +_Phoenix_, had many who had "never seen a gun fired in their lives"; +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1490--Capt. Bethell, 21 Aug. 1759.] +and Adams, of the _Bird-in-hand_, learnt the fallacy of the assertion +that that _rara avis_ is worth two in the bush. Mustered for drill in +small-arms, his men "knew no more how to handle them than a child." +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1440--Capt. Adams, 7 Oct. 1744.] +For all their knowledge of that useful exercise they might have been +Sea-Fencibles. + +Yet while ships were again and again prevented from putting to sea +because, though their complements were numerically complete, they had +only one or no seaman on board, and hence were unable to get their +anchors or make sail; [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1478--Capt. +Boys, 14 April 1742; _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1512--Capt. Bayly, 21 July +1796, and Captains' Letters, _passim_.] while Bennett, of the _Lennox_, +when applied to by the masters of eight outward-bound East-India ships +for the loan of two hundred and fifty men to enable them to engage the +French privateers by whom they were held up in the river of Shannon, +dared not lend a single hand lest the pressed men, who formed the +greater part of his crew, should rise and run away with the ship; +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1499--Capt. Bennett, 22 Sept. 1779.] +Ambrose, of the _Rupert_, cruising off Cape Machichaco with a crew of +"miserable poor wretches" whom he feared could be of "no manner of use +or service" to him, after a short but sharp engagement of only an +hour's duration captured, with the loss of but a single man, the largest +privateer sailing out of San Sebastian--the _Duke of Vandome_, +of twenty-six carriage guns and two hundred and two men, of whom +twenty-nine were killed; [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1439--Capt. +Ambrose, 7 July and 26 Sept. 1741.] and Capt. Amherst, encountering a +heavy gale in Barnstable Pool, off Appledore, would have lost his ship, +the low-waisted, over-masted _Mortar_ sloop, had it not been for +the nine men he was so lucky as to impress shortly before the gale. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1440--Capt. Amherst, 12 Dec. 1744.] +Anson regarded pressed men with suspicion. When he sailed on his famous +voyage round the world his ships contained only sixty-seven; but with +his complement of five hundred reduced by sickness to two hundred and +one, he was glad to add forty of those undesirables to their number +out of the India-men at Wampoo. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +1439--Capt. Anson, 18 Sept. 1740, and 7 Dec. 1742.] These, however, were +seamen such as the gangs did not often pick up in England, where, as we +have seen, the able seaman who was not fully protected avoided the press +as he would a lee shore. + +In addition to the sweepings of the roads and slums, there were in His +Majesty's ships many who trod the decks "wide betwixt the legs, as if +they had the gyves on." Peculiar to the seafaring man, the tailor and +the huckstering Jew, the gait of these individuals, who belonged +mostly to the sailor class, was strongly accentuated by an adventitious +circumstance having no necessary connection with Israelitish descent, +the sartorial board or the rolling deep. They were in fact convicts who +had but recently shed their irons, and who walked wide from force of +habit. Reasons of policy rather than of mercy explained their presence +in the fleet. The prisons of the country, numerous and insanitary though +they were, could neither hold them all nor kill them; America would have +no more of them; and penal settlements, those later garden cities of +a harassed government, were as yet undreamt of. In these circumstances +reprieved and pardoned convicts were bestowed in about equal +proportions, according to their calling and election, upon the army and +the navy. + +The practice was one of very respectable antiquity and antecedents. By +a certain provision of the Feudal System a freeman who had committed a +felony, or become hopelessly involved in debt, might purge himself of +either by becoming a serf. So, at a later date, persons in the like +predicament were permitted to exchange their fetters, whether of debt or +iron, for the dear privilege of "spilling every drop of blood in their +bodies" [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--Petition of the Convicts +on board the _Stanislaus_ hulk, Woolwich, 18 May 1797.] on behalf of +the sovereign whose clemency they enjoyed. Broken on the wheel of naval +discipline, they "did very well in deep water." Nearer land they were +given, like the jailbirds they were, to "hopping the twig." [Footnote: +_Admiralty Records_ 1. 2733--Capt. Young, 21 March 1776.] + +The insolvent debtor, who in the majority of cases had studied his +pleasures more than his constitution, was perhaps an even less desirable +recruit than his cousin the emancipated convict. In his letters to +the Navy Board, Capt. Aston, R.N., relates how, immediately after the +passing of the later Act [Footnote: 4 & 5 Anne, cap. 6.] for the +freeing of such persons from their financial fetters, he "gave constant +attendance for almost two years at the sittings of the Courts of +Sessions in London and Surrey," lying in wait there for such debtors +as should choose the sea. From the Queen's Bench Prison, the Clink, +Marshalsea, Borough Compter, Poultry Compter, Wood Street Compter, +Ludgate Prison and the Fleet, he obtained in that time a total of one +hundred and thirty-two, to whom in every case the prest-shilling was +paid. They were dear at the price. Bankrupt in pocket, stamina and +health, they cumbered the ships to the despair of commanders and were +never so welcome as when they ran away. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 1436--Letters of Capt. Aston, 1704-5.] + +The responsibility for jail-bird recruiting did not of course rest with +the gangs. They saw the shady crew safe on board ship, that was all. +Yet the odium of the thing was theirs. For not only did association with +criminals lower the standard of pressing as the gangs practised it, +it heightened the general disrepute in which they were held. For an +institution whose hold upon the affections of the people was at the best +positively negative, this was a serious matter. Every convict whom the +gang safeguarded consequently drove another nail in the coffin preparing +for it. The first and most lasting effect of the wholesale pumping +of sewage into the fleet was to taint the ships with a taint far more +deadly than mere ineptitude. A spirit of ominous restlessness +prevailed. Slackness was everywhere observable, coupled with incipient +insubordination which no discipline, however severe, could eradicate or +correct. At critical moments the men could with difficulty be held to +their duty. To hold them to quarters in '97, when engaging the enemy +off Brest, the rattan and the rope's-end had to be unsparingly used. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 5125--Petition of the Company of +H.M.S. _Nymph_, 1797.] In no circumstances were they to be trusted. +Given the slightest opening, they "ran" like water from a sieve. To +counteract these dangerous tendencies the Marines were instituted. +Drafted into the ships in thousands, they checked in a measure the +surface symptoms of disaffection, but left the disease itself untouched. +The fact was generally recognised, and it was no uncommon circumstance, +when the number of pressed men present in a ship was large in proportion +to the unpressed element, for both officers and marines to walk the deck +day and night armed, fearful lest worse things should come upon them. +[Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1499--Capt. Bennett, 22 Sept. 1799, +and Captains' Letters, _passim_.] What they anticipated was the mutiny +of individual crews. But a greater calamity than this was in store for +them. + +In the wholesale mutinies at Spithead and the Nore the blow fell with +appalling suddenness, notwithstanding the fact that in one form or +another it had been long foreseen. Fifty-five years had elapsed since +Vernon, scenting danger from the existing mode of manning the fleet, had +first sounded the alarm. He dreaded, he told the Lords Commissioners +in so many words, the consequences that must sooner or later ensue +from adherence to the press. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +578--Vice-Admiral Vernon, 27 Jan. 1742-3.] Though the utterance of one +gifted with singularly clear prevision, the warning passed unheeded. Had +it been made public, it would doubtless have met with the derision with +which the voice of the national prophet is always hailed. Veiled as it +was in service privacy, it moved their Lordships to neither comment nor +action. Action, indeed, was out of the question. The Commissioners were +helpless in the grip of a system from which, so far as human sagacity +could then perceive, there was no way of escape. Let its issue be what +it might, they could no more replace or reconstruct it than they could +build ships of tinsel. + +Other warnings were not wanting. For some years before the catastrophic +happenings of '97 there flowed in upon the Admiralty a thin but steady +stream of petitions from the seamen of the fleet, each of them a rude +echo of Vernon's sapient warning. To these, coming as they did from an +unconsidered source, little if any significance was attached. Beyond the +most perfunctory inquiry, in no case to be made public, they received +scant attention. The sailor, it was thought, must have his grievances if +he would be happy; and petitions were the recognised line for him to air +them on. They were accordingly relegated to that limbo of distasteful +and quickly forgotten things, their Lordships' pigeon-holes. + +Yet there was amongst these documents at least one which should have +given the Heads of the Navy pause for serious thought. It was the +petition of the seamen of H.M.S. _Shannon_, [Footnote: _Admiralty +Records_ 1. 5125--Petition of the Ship's Company of the _Shannon_, 16 +June 1796.] in which there was conveyed a threat that afterwards, when +the mutiny at the Nore was at its height, under the leadership of a +pressed man whose coadjutors were mainly pressed men, came within an +ace of resolving itself in action. That threat concerned the desperate +expedient of carrying the revolted ships into an enemy's port, and of +there delivering them up. Had this been done--and only the Providence +that watches over the destinies of nations prevented it--the act would +have brought England to her knees. + +At a time like this, when England's worst enemies were emphatically the +press-gangs which manned her fleet with the riff-raff of the nation and +thus made national disaster not only possible but hourly imminent, the +"old stander" and the volunteer were to her Navy what salt is to the +sea, its perpetual salvation. Such men inculcated an example, created an +_esprit de corps_, that infected even the vagrant and the jail-bird, to +say nothing of the better-class seaman, taken mainly by gangs operating +on the water, who was often content, when brought into contact with +loyal men, to settle down and do his best for king and country. Amongst +the pressed men, again, desertion and death made for the survival of the +fittest, and in this residuum there was not wanting a certain savour. +Subdued and quickened by man-o'-war discipline, they developed a +dogged resolution, a super-capacity not altogether incompatible with +degeneracy; and to crown all, the men who officered the resolute if +disreputable crew were men in whose blood the salt of centuries tingled, +men unrivalled for sea-sagacity, initiative and pluck. If they could not +uphold the honour of the flag with the pressed man's unqualified aid, +they did what was immeasurably greater. They upheld it in spite of him. + +Upon the trade of the nation the injury inflicted by the press-gang is +rightly summed up in littles. Every able seaman, every callow apprentice +taken out of or forcibly detained from a merchant vessel was, _ipso +facto,_ a minute yet irretrievably substantial loss to commerce of one +kind or another. Trade, it is true, did not succumb in consequence. +Possessed of marvellous recuperative powers, she did not even languish +to any perceptible degree. Nevertheless, the detriment was there, +a steadily cumulative factor, and at the end of any given period of +pressing the commerce of the nation, emasculated by these continuous if +infinitesimal abstractions from its vitality, was substantially less in +bulk, substantially less in pounds sterling, than if it had been allowed +to run its course unhindered. + +British in name, but Teutonic in its resentments, trade came to regard +these continual "pin-pricks" as an intolerable nuisance. It was not so +much the loss that aroused her anger as the constant irritation she +was subjected to. This she keenly resented, and the stream of her +resentment, joining forces with its confluents the demoralisation of +the Navy through pressing, the excessive cost of pressing and the +antagonising effects of pressing upon the nation at large, contributed +in no small degree to that final supersession of the press-gang which +was in essence, if not in name, the beginning of Free Trade. + +To the people the impress was as an axe laid at the root of the tree. +There was here no question, as with trade, of the mere loss of hands +who could be replaced. Attacking the family in the person of its natural +supporter and protector, the octopus system of which the gangs were the +tentacles struck at the very foundations of domestic life and brought to +thousands of households a poverty as bitter and a grief as poignant as +death. + +If the people were slow to anger under the infliction it was because, in +the first place, the gang had its advocates who, though they could not +extol its virtues, since it had none, were yet able, and that with no +small measure of success, to demonstrate to a people as insular in their +prejudices as in their habitat that, but for the invincible Navy which +the gang maintained for their protection, the hereditary enemy, the +detested French, would most surely come and compel them one and all to +subsist upon a diet of frogs. What could be seriously urged against the +gang in face of an argument such as that? + +Patriotism, moreover, glowed with ardent flame. Fanned to twofold heat +by natural hatred of the foreigner and his insolent challenge of insular +superiority, it blinded the people to the truth that liberty of the +subject is in reality nothing more than freedom from oppression. +So, with the gang at their very doors, waiting to snatch away their +husbands, their fathers and their sons, they carolled "Rule Britannia" +and congratulated themselves on being a free people. The situation was +unparalleled in its sardonic humour; and, as if this were not enough, +the "Noodle of Newcastle," perceiving vacuously that something was still +wanting, supplied the bathetic touch by giving out that the king, God +bless him! could never prevail upon himself to break through the sacred +liberties of his people save on the most urgent occasions. [Footnote: +_Newcastle Papers_--Newcastle to Yorke, 27 Feb. 1749-50.] + +The process of correcting the defective vision of the nation was as +gradual as the acquisition of the sea-power the nation had set as its +goal, and as painful. In both processes the gang participated largely. +To the fleet it acted as a rude feeder; to the people as a ruder +specialist. Wielding the cutlass as its instrument, it slowly and +painfully hewed away the scales from their eyes until it stood +visualised for what it really was--the most atrocious agent of +oppression the world has ever seen. For the operation the people should +have been grateful. The nature of the thing they had cherished so +blindly filled them with rage and incited them to violence. + +Two events now occurred to seal the fate of the gang and render its +final supersession a mere matter of time rather than of debate or +uncertainty. The mutiny at the Nore brought the people face to face with +the appalling risks attendant on wholesale pressing, while the war with +America, incurred for the sole purpose of upholding the right to press, +taught them the lengths to which their rulers were still prepared to go +in order to enslave them. In the former case their sympathies, though +with the mutineers, were frozen at the fountain-head by fear of invasion +and that supposititious diet of frogs. In the latter, as in the ancient +quarrel between Admiralty and Trade, they went out to the party who not +only abstained from pressing but paid the higher wages. + +While the average cost of 'listing a man "volunteerly" rarely exceeded +the modest sum of 30s., the expense entailed through recruiting him by +means of the press-gang ranged from 3s. 9d. per head in 1570 [Footnote: +_State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth_, vol. lxxiii. f. 38: Estimate of +Charge for Pressing 400 Mariners, 1570.] to 114 Pounds in 1756. Between +these extremes his cost fluctuated in the most extraordinary manner. +At Weymouth, in 1762, it was at least 100 Pounds; at Deal, in 1805, 32 +Pounds odd; at Poole, in the same year, 80 Pounds. [Footnote: _London +Chronicle_, 16-18 March, 1762; _Admiralty Records_ 1. 581--Admiral +Berkeley, 14 Feb. and 5 Aug. 1805.] From 1756 the average steadily +declined until in 1795 it touched its eighteenth century minimum of +about 6 Pounds. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 579--Average based on +Admirals' Reports on Rendezvous, 1791-5.] A sharp upward tendency then +developed, and in the short space of eight years it soared again to 20 +Pounds. It was at this figure that Nelson, perhaps the greatest naval +authority of his time, put it in 1803. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. +580--Memorandum on the State of the Fleet, 1803.] + +Up to this point we have considered only the prime cost of the pressed +man. A secondary factor must now be introduced, for when you had got +your man at an initial cost of 20 Pounds--a cost in itself out of all +proportion to his value--you could never be sure of keeping him. Nelson +calculated that during the war immediately preceding 1803 forty-two +thousand seamen deserted from the fleet. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ +1. 580--Memorandum on the State of the Fleet, 1803.] Assuming, with him, +that every man of this enormous total was either a pressed man or had +been procured at the cost of a pressed man, the loss entailed upon the +nation by their desertion represented an outlay of 840,000 Pounds for +raising them in the first instance, and, in the second, a further outlay +of 840,000 Pounds for replacing them. + +In this estimate there is, however, a substantial error; for, +approaching the question from another point of view, let us suppose, as +we may safely do without overstraining the probabilities of the case, +that out of every three men pressed at least one ran from his rating. +Now the primary cost of pressing three men on the 20 Pound basis being +60 Pounds, it follows that in order to obtain their ultimate cost to the +country we must add to that sum the outlay incurred in pressing another +man in lieu of the one who ran. The total cost of the three men who +ultimately remain to the fleet consequently works out at 80 Pounds; the +cost of each at 26 Pounds, 13s. 4d. Hence Nelson's forty-two thousand +deserters entailed upon the nation an actual expenditure, not of +1,680,000 Pounds, but of nearly two and a quarter millions. + +Another fact that emerges from a scrutiny of these remarkable figures is +this. Whenever the number of volunteer additions to the fleet increased, +the cost of pressing increased in like ratio; whenever the number of +volunteers declined, the pressed man became proportionally cheaper. +Periods in which the pressed man was scarce and dear thus synchronise +with periods when the volunteer was plentiful; but scarcity of +volunteers, reacting upon the gangs, and conducing to their greater +activity, brought in pressed men in greater numbers in proportion to +expenditure and so reduced the cost per head. In this logical though at +first sight bewildering interrelation of the laws of supply and demand, +we have in a nutshell the whole case for the cost of pressing as against +the gang. Taking one year with another the century through, the impress +service, on a moderate estimate, employed enough able-bodied men to man +a first-rate ship of the line, and absorbed at least enough money to +maintain her, while the average number of men raised, taking again one +year with another, rarely if ever exceeded the number of men engaged in +obtaining them. With tranquillity at length assured to the country, with +trade in a state of high prosperity, the shipping tonnage of the nation +rising by leaps and bounds and the fleet reduced to an inexigent peace +footing, why incur the ruinous expense of pressing the seaman when, as +was now the case, he could be had for the asking or the making? + +For Peace brought in her train both change and opportunity. The frantic +dumping of all sorts and conditions of men into the fleet ceased. +Necessity no longer called for it. No enemy hovered in the offing, to be +perpetually outmanoeuvred or instantly engaged. Until that enemy could +renew its strength, or time should call another into being, the mastery +of the seas, the dear prize of a hundred years of strenuous struggle, +remained secure. Our ships, maintained nevertheless as efficient +fighting-machines, became schools of leisure wherein--a thing impossible +amid the perpetual storm and stress of war--the young blood of +the nation could be more gradually inured to the sea and tuned to +fighting-pitch. Science had not yet linked hands with warfare. Steam, +steel, the ironclad, the super-Dreadnought and the devastating cordite +gun were still in the womb of the future; but the keels of a newer +fleet were nevertheless already on the slips, and with the old order the +press-gang, now for ever obsolete, went the way of all things useless. + +Its memory still survives. Those who despair of our military system, or +of our lack of it, talk of conscription. They alone forget. A people +who for a hundred years patiently endured conscription in its most cruel +form will never again suffer it to be lightly inflicted upon them. + + + + +APPENDIX + +ADMIRAL YOUNG'S TORPEDO + + +DEAR NEPEAN,--I enclose a little project for destroying the Enemy's +Flatboats if they venture over to our Coast, which you may shew, if you +please, to your Sea Lords as coming from some anonymous correspondent. +If they can improve upon it so as to make it useful, I shall be glad +of it; and if they think it good for nothing, and throw it in the fire, +there is no harm done. As the conveying an Army must require a very +great number of Boats, which must be very near each other, if many such +vessels as I propose should get among them, they must necessarily commit +great havoc. I cannot ascertain whether the blocks or logs of wood would +be strong enough to throw the shot without bursting, or whether they +would not throw the shot though they should burst. I think they would +not burst, and so do some Officers of Artillery here; but that might +be ascertained by experiment at any time. This sort of Fire-vessel will +have the advantage of costing very little; and of being of no service to +the Enemy should it fall into their hands. + +W. YOUNG. LEWES, 14 _Aug_. 1803. + + + [Illustration: Admiral Young's Torpedo. From the Original Drawing at +the Public Record Office.] + +_Secret_ + +"The success of an attempt to land an Army on an Enemy's Coast, whose +Army is prepared to prevent it, will depend in a great degree on the +regularity of the order in which the Boats, or Vessels, are arranged, +that carry the Troops on Shore; everything therefore which contributes +to the breaking of that order will so far contribute to render success +more doubtful; especially if, in breaking the order, some of the Boats +or Vessels are destroyed. For this purpose Fireships well managed will +be found very useful; I should therefore think that, at all the King's +Ports, and at all places where the Enemy may be expected to attempt +a landing with Ships of War or other large Vessels, considerable +quantities of materials for fitting Fireships according to the latest +method should be kept ready to be put on board any small Vessels on the +Enemy's approach; but, as such Vessels would have little or no effect +on Gunboats or Flatboats, machines might be made for the purpose of +destroying them, by shot, and by explosion. The Shot should be large, +but as they will require to be thrown but a short distance, and will +have only thin-sided Vessels to penetrate, Machines strong enough to +resist the effort of the small quantity of Powder necessary to throw +them may probably be made of wood; either by making several chambers in +one thick Block, as No. 1, or one chamber at each end of a log as No. +2, which may be used either separately, or fastened together. The Vents +should communicate with each other by means of quick Match, which should +be very carefully covered to prevent its sustaining damage, or being +moved by things carried about. Such Machines, properly loaded, may be +kept in Fishing boats or other small vessels near the parts of the Coast +where the Enemy may be expected to land; or in secure places, ready to +be put on board when the Enemy are expected. The Chambers should be cut +horizontally, and the Machine should be so placed in the Vessel as to +have them about level with the surface of the water; under the Machine +should be placed a considerable quantity of Gunpowder; and over it, +large Stones, and bags of heavy shingle, and the whole may be covered +with fishing nets, or any articles that may happen to be on board. +Several fuses, or trains of Match, should communicate with the Machine, +and with the powder under it, so managed as to ensure those which +communicate with the Machine taking effect upon the others, that the +shot may be thrown before the Vessel is blown up. The Match, or Fuses, +should be carefully concealed to prevent their being seen if the Vessel +should be boarded.... If these Vessels are placed in the front of the +Enemy's Line, and not near the extremities of it, it would be scarcely +possible for them to avoid the effects of the explosion unless, from +some of them exploding too soon, the whole armament should stop. Every +Machine would probably sink the Boat on each side of it, and so do +considerable damage to others with the shot; and would kill and wound +many men by the explosion and the fall of the stones.... As the success +of these Vessels will depend entirely upon their not being suspected by +the Enemy, the utmost secrecy must be observed in preparing the +Machines and sending them to the places where they are to be kept. A few +confidential men only should be employed to make them, and they should +be so covered as to prevent any suspicion of their use, or of what they +contain." + + + +INDEX + +Adams, Capt., + +_Admiral Spry_ tender, + +_Adventure_, H.M.S., + +Ages below eighteen and over fifty-five exempt, + +Alcock, Henry, Mayor of Waterford, + +Alms, Capt., + +_Amaranth_, H.M.S., + +Ambrose, Capt., + +Amherst, Capt, + +_Amphitrite_, H.M.S., + +Andover, the press-gang at, + +_Anglesea_, H.M.S., + +Anne, Queen, impresses foreign seamen, + arms of press-gang under, + drummers and fifers pressed for navy in her reign, + sailors unwilling to serve, + +Anson, Admiral Lord, + +Anthony, John, pressed with two protections on him, + +Appledore, press-gang at, 72, + +Apprentices, exempt from impressment only in some circumstances, in +North-country pressed because their indentures bore Scotch 14s. stamp +instead of English 15s., + +Archer, Capt, + +Arms of the press-gang, + +_Assurance_, H.M.S., + +Aston, Capt, + +Atkinson, Lieut., + +Ayscough, Capt., + +Baily, James, a ferryman, pressed for his inactivity, + +Baird, Capt, + +Balchen, Capt., + +Ball, Capt., + +Banyan days, + +Bargemen impressed in thousands, + +Barker, Capt., regulating officer at Bristol, midshipman. + +Barking, the press-gang at, + +Barnicle, William, + +Barnsley, Lieut., + +Barrington, Capt., + +Bath, Bristol gang's fruitless attempt at, + +Bawdsey, + +_Beaufort_, East Indiaman, + +Beecher, Capt, + +Bennett, Capt, + +Bertie, Capt, + +Bethell, Capt, paid damages for wrongfully impressing, + +Bettesworth, John, claims privilege of granting private protections to +Ryde and Portsmouth ferrymen, + +Biggen, Charles, + +Billingsley, Capt., + +Bingham, William, + +Birchall, Lieut., + +_Bird-in-hand_, H.M.S., + +Birmingham, sham gangs at, + +_Black Book_ of the Admiralty, + +Blackstone, Sir W., + +Blackwater, men working turf boats on, not exempt, + +_Blanche_, H.M.S., + +Blear-eyed Moll, + +_Blonde_, H.M.S., + +Boats for the press-gang, + +Boat steerers on whalers exempt from impressment, + +Boatswains, conditions of exemption, + +_Bonetta_ sloop, + +Boscawen, Capt., + +Boston, Mass., + +Bounty system, the, + +Bowen, Capt., + +Box, Lieut, + +Boys, Capt., + +Brace, Lieut., + +Bradley, Lieut, + +Brawn, Capt., + +Breedon, Lieut., + +Brenton, Capt. Jahleel, afterwards Vice-Admiral, + +Brenton, E. P., _Naval History_, + +Brenton, Lieut, + +Brereton, Capt., + +Brett, Capt, 110, + +Bridges a favourite haunt of the press-gang, + +Brighton, the press-gang at, + +Bristol, the press-gang at, + +Bristol jail as press-room, + +_Bristol_, H.M.S., + +_Britannia_ trading vessel, + three of the crew shot in resisting the + press-gang, the ship captured and taken to port, + the affair not within the coroner's purview, the bodies + buried at sea, court-martial acquits officers, + +Brixham, the press-gang at, + +Broadfoot case, the, + +Broadstairs fishermen, the press-gang at, Bromley, Capt. Sir Robert, + +Bullard, Richard, a fiddler persuaded to go to Woolwich to play and for +payment was handed to the gang, + +_Bull-Dog_ sloop, + +Burchett, Josiah, _Observations on the Navy_, + +Burrows, Sam, + +Butler, Capt., + +Byron, Lord, + +Calahan, a gangsman, killed in attempting an arrest, + +Cambridge bargemen, press-gang among, + +Campbell, Admiral, + +Cape Breton, + +Caradine, Samuel, + +Carey, Rev. Lucius, + +Carmarthen, Admiral the Marquis of, + +Carolina, + +Carpenters, conditions of exemption, on warships on coast of Scotland +could be replaced by shipwrights pressed from the yards, + +Carrying the ship up, + +Cartel ships, + +Castle, William, an alien, impressed on his honeymoon, + +Castleford, the press-gang at, + +Cawsand safe from the press-gang, + +Cecil, William, Lord Burleigh, + +_Centurion_, H.M.S., Anson's flagship, whose crew on their return had +life-protection from the press, + +Chaplains, + +Charles II., + +Chatham, crimpage at, + +_Chatham_, H.M.S., + +Chester, the press-gang at + +_Chevrette_ corvette, + +Clapp, Midshipman, + +Clark, George, + +Clephen, James, + +_Clincher_ gun-brig, + +Cockburn, Bailie, of Leith, + +Cogbourne's electuary, + +Coke, Sir E., + +Collingwood, Admiral Lord, Lieut, + +Colvill, Admiral Lord, + +Colville, Lieut., + +Convoys, + +Conyear, John, + +Cooper, Josh, + +Cork, crimpage at, the press-gang at, + +Comet bomb ship, + +Cornwall, the press-gang in, + +Coversack, safe from the press-gang, + +Coventry, Mr. Commissioner, + +Coventry, sham gangs at, + +Cowes, press-gang at, + +Crabb, Henry, + +Crews depleted by the press-gang, + +Crick, William, + +Crimps, as sham gangsmen, + +Cromer, the suspicions of the inhabitants, + bring the press-gang, to take a noted Russian, + +Crown Colonies, desertions in, + + +Croydon, the press-gang around, + + +Cruickshank, John, chaplain, + +Culverhouse, Capt., + +Customs, Board of, + +Dansays, Capt., + +Danton, Midshipman, + +Darby, Capt., + +Dartmouth, H.M.S., + +Dartmouth, press-gang at, + +Davidson, Samuel, of Newcastle, applies for life protection + +"DD," discharged dead, in muster books against names of persons +deceased, + +Deal, press-gang at, + +cutters, + +Death of sailor in resisting impress, "accidental", + +Debusk, John, shot by the press-gang, on the Britannia, + +Dent, Capt., + +Deptford, the press-gang at, + +Desertion from the Navy, + +Devonshire, H.M.S., + +Dipping the flag, + +Director, H.M.S., + +Discipline in the Navy, + +Disinfecting a ship, + +Dispatch sloop, + +Dolan, Edward, + +Dominion and Laws of the Sea., See Justice, A., + +Dorsetshire, H.M.S., + +Douglas, Capt. Andrew, + +Dover, press-gang at, + +Downs, crimpage in the, + +press-gang in, + +Doyle, Lieut, + +Dreadnought, H.M.S., + +Drummers pressed for the Navy, + +Dryden, Michael, illegally pressed, + +Dryden's sister, + +Dublin, sham gangs at, the press-gang at, + +Duke, H.M.S., + +Duke of Vandome, H.M.S., + +Duncan case, the, + +Dundas, Henry, + +Dundonald, Lord, Autobiography, + +Dunkirk, H.M.S., + +Eccentricity leads to impressment, + +Eddystone lighthouse, building delayed through impressment of workmen, +builders of the third, protected, keepers at, put inward-bound, + ships' crews ashore, + +Edinburgh, press-gang at, + +Edmund and Mary Collier, + +Edward III. on the Navy, + +Elizabeth, Queen, + +Elizabeth ketch, + +Ely bargemen, press-gang among, + +Emergency crews of men unfit for pressing supplied to merchant-men by +the crimps, + +Emergency men working on their own account, places of muster for, + +English Eclogues. See Southey, R., + +Evading the press-gang. See under Press-gang, How it was evaded., + +Evans, Richard, keeper of Gloucester Castle, + +Exemption from impressment, + not a right, of foreigners, negroes not included, + of landsmen only theoretical, + property no qualification for exemption, + of harvesters, + of gentlemen, judged by appearances, + below 18 and over 55 years, + of apprentices dependent on circumstances, + of merchant seamen dependent on circumstances, + of masters, mates, boatswains, and carpenters dependent on + circumstances, + of some of crew of whalers, + of Thames wherrymen by quota system, + of Tyne keelman by the same, + of Severn and Wye trow-men by 10% levy, + did not extend to turf boats on Shannon and Blackwater, + special for four on each fishing vessel, and later for all engaged + in taking, curing, and selling fish, + of Worthing fishermen for a levy, + of Scottish and Manx fishermen, on similar terms, + worthless without a document of protection, + +Exeter, the press-gang at, + +_Falmouth_, H.M.S., + +Falmouth, press-gang at, + +Faversham, the press-gang at, + +_Ferme_, H.M.S., + +Ferries, a favourite haunt of the press-gang, + +_Feversham_, H.M.S., + +Fifers pressed for the Navy, + +Fire on ship board, + +Fisheries, carefully fostered, + three fish days made compulsory, became a great nursery for seamen, + few exemptions granted, at first special concessions only to the + whale and cod fisheries, + later only such number as the warrant specified might be taken, and + these the Justices chose; in 1801 no person employed in taking, + curing, or selling fish could be impressed, + with their best men impressed, only small smacks could be worked, + a quota system preferred by the fishermen of some ports, + in Cornwall, the men turned tinners in the off-season, + +Flags, flying without authority, omission to dip, + +Fleet, Liberty of, + +Folkstone market-boats, + +Folkstone, press-gang at, + +Forcible entry by the press-gang illegal, + +Foreigners impressed, theoretically exempt, married to English wives considered naturalised, + in emergency crews, + +Frederick the Great, + +Freeholders at one time exempt from impressment, + +_Fubbs_, H.M.S., + +Gage, Capt., + +_Galloper_, tender to the _Dreadnought_, + +_Ganges_, H.M.S., + +Garth, Dr., + +Gaydon, Lieut., + +Gentlemen exempt from the impress, but judged by appearance and manner, + +Gibbs, Capt., + +_Glory_, H.M.S., + +Gloucester, the press-gang at, + +Gloucester Castle used as press-room, the keeper's magic palm, + +Godalming, the press-gang at, + +Golden, John, Lord Mayor's bargeman, wrongfully impressed, + +Good, James, midshipman, + +Goodave, Midshipman, + +Gooding, Richard, + +Gosport, the press-gang at, + +Gravesend, the press-gang at, + +Gray, John, + +Great Yarmouth, press-gang at, + +Greenock, crimpage at, press-gang at, Trades Guild, + +Greenock ferries, the press-gang at, + +Greenwich Hospital, + + +Grimsby, the press-gang at, + + +Habeas Corpus, writs of, as means of arresting, and so freeing, pressed +men for debts not owing, + +Half-pay officers, their projects and inventions, + +Hamoaze, the, an entrepot for pressed men, + +Harpooners exempt from impressment, + +Harrison, Lieut., + +Hart, Alexander, + +_Harwich_, H.M.S., + +Haverfordwest, press-gang at, + +Hawke, Admiral Sir Edward, + +_Hawke_, H.M.S., + +Haygarth, Lieut., + +Health and illness, + +_Hector_, H.M.S., + +Herbert, Emanuel, + +_Hind_ armed sloop, + +_Historical Relation of State Affairs_. See Lutterell, N., + +Hogarth's "Stage Coach," + +Hook, Joseph, + +_Hope_ tender, + +Hotten, J. C., _List of Persons of Quality, etc., who went from England +to the American Plantations_, + +Hull, press-gang at, + +Humber, the press-gang on, + +Hurst Castle, the press-gang at, + +Ilfracombe, the press-gang at, + +Impressment. See Pressed labour., + +Informers, + +Inland waterways and the gang at one time without the jurisdiction of +the admirals, + +Innes, Capt, + +Ipswich, the press-gang at, + +_Isis_, H.M.S., + +Isle of Man fishermen, + +Jackson, Daniel, pressed from the Chester Volunteers, + +Jamaica, + +_Jason_, H.M.S., + +Jervis, John, Earl of St. Vincent, + +Jews, pressed on account of bandy legs, + +_John and Elizabeth_ pink, + +John, King, impressment under, + +Johnson, Rebecca Anne, + +Jones, Paul, + +Justice, A., _Dominion and Laws of the Sea_, + +Keith, A., parson of the Fleet, _Observations on the Act for Preventing +Clandestine Marriages_, + +Kilkenny, the press-gang at, + +King's Lynn, press-gang at, + +Kingston, William, case of, + +_King William_, Indiaman, + +_Lady Shore_, the, + +Landsmen exempt only in theory, + +Latham, Capt., + +Law officers' opinions on pressing, + +Leave, stoppage of, + +Leeds, the press-gang at, + +Leith, crimpage at, press-gang at, + +_Lennox_, H.M.S., + +Letting, John, pressed with two protections on him, + +Lewis, Edward, chaplain, + +Libraries, ships', + +_Lichfield_, H.M.S., + +Licorne, H.M.S., + +Limehouse Hole, the press-gang at, + +Lindsay, Admiral the Earl of, _Instructions_, + +Linesmen on whalers exempt from impressment, + +Liskeard, the press-gang at, + +_List of Persons of Quality, etc., who went from England to the American +Plantations_. See Hotten, J. C., + +_Litchfield_, H.M.S., + +Littlehampton, the press-gang at, + +Liverpool, crimpage at, press-gang at, + +Lodden Bridge, the press-gang at, + +London, the press-gang in, + +Londonderry, the press-gang at, + +Longcroft, Capt, + +_Loo_, H.M.S., + +Love, Henry, gets life protection as promised by Pitt and Dundas, + +Lowestoft, the press-gang at, + +Lulworth, + +Lundy Island, safe from the press-gang, + but not to the sailors' liking, + crews marooned on, + +Lutterell, N., _Historical Relation of State Affairs_, Capt. Hon. Jas., + +Lymington, the press-gang at, + +M'Bride, Admiral, + +M'Cleverty, Capt., + +M'Donald, Alexander, impressed under the age of twelve, Charles, + +M'Gugan's wife, + +M'Kenzie, Lieut., + +M'Quarry, Lachlan, + +Magna Carta, its provisions contrary to impressment, + +Mansfield, Lord, + +Margate, the press-gang at, + +_Maria_ brig, + +Marines, + +Marooned crews on Lundy Island, + +_Martin_ galley, + +_Mary_ smuggler, + +Masters, conditions of exemption, + +Mastery of the sea, a necessity for England, + +Mates, conditions of exemption, + +Medway, press-gang on, + +_Medway_, H.M.S., + +Men in lieu, + +Merchant seamen, conditions of exemption, unprotected when sleeping +ashore, the most valuable asset to the Navy, + +Merchant service, hard conditions of crews, + +_Mercury_, H.M.S., + +Messenger, George, + +Mike, James, hanged for desertion, + +Moll Flanders, + +_Monarch_, H.M.S., + +_Monmouth_, H.M.S., + +_Monumenta Juridica_, + +Morals in the Navy, improved by Jervis, Nelson, and Collingwood, + +Moriarty, Capt, + +_Mortar_ sloop, + +Mostyn, Admiral, + +_Mediator_ tender, + +Mitchell, Admiral Sir D., + +Montagu, Admiral, + +Mousehole, safe from the press-gang, + +Moverty, Thomas, pressed, not having protection on him, + +Nancy of Deptford, + +_Naseby_, H.M.S., + +_Nassau_, H.M.S., + +_Naval History_. See Brenton, E. P., + +Navy, the growth of, in 18th century, natural sources of supply of +crews, hard conditions of service in, + discipline in, + provisions in, + comforts in, + +Negroes not exempt from impressment, + +Nelson, Admiral Lord, + +_Nemesis_, H.M.S., + +Newcastle-upon-Tyne, press-gang at, grand protection enjoyed by, + +New England, + +Newgate compared with the press-room, + +Newhaven, the press-gang at, + +Newland, safe from the press-gang, + +Newquay, safe from the press-gang, + +Nore, the press-gang at the, the mutiny at, an entrepot for pressed-men, + +_Norfolk_, Indiaman, + +Norris, John, + +North Forland, press-gang at, + +_Nymph_, H.M.S., + + +Oakley, Lieut., + +Oaks, Lieut., + +O'Brien, Lieut., + +_Observations on Corporeal Punishment, Impressment, etc._ See Penrose, +Admiral Sir V. C., + +_Observations on the Act for Preventing Clandestine Marriages._ See +Keith, A., + +_Observations on the Navy._ See Burchett, J., + +Okehampton, the press-gang at, + +Onions, Thomas, + +_Orford_, H.M.S., + +Orkney fishermen, + +Osborne, Admiral, + +Osmer, Lieut., + +_Otter_ sloop, + +Oyster vessels, + + +_Pallas_, H.M.S., + +Parker, Richard, president of the mutineers at the Nore, + +Parkgate, a resort of seamen, + +Paying off discharged entire crews, + +Paying the shot, + +Pay of sailors, deferred, + +Pembroke, Earl of, Lord High Admiral, + +Penrose, Admiral Sir V. C., _Observations on Corporeal Punishment, +Impressment, etc._, + +Pepys, S., + +Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, + +Petitions of seamen of the Fleet and others, + +_Phoenix_, H.M.S., + +Pill, a favourite haunt of sailors, and shunned by gangsmen, + +Pilots, + +Pitt, William, + +Plymouth, the press-gang at, + +Polpero, safe from the press-gang, + +Poole, press-gang at, mayor refuses to back press-warrants, + +Popham, Admiral Sir Home, his scheme for coast defence, + +Portland Bill, press-gang off, + +Portland Island, + +Portsmouth, desertions at, the press-gang at, + +Post-chaise, sailors in, + +Press-boats sunk at sea, + +Pressed labour (see also Press-gang), antiquity of, for civil occupations, + for warfare, + means of enforcing, + contrary to the spirit of Magna Carta, + penalties for resistance, + derivation of the term, + the classes from which drawn, + exemptions from, + necessity of, in English Navy, + its crippling effect on trade, + +Press-gang, the why it was a necessity for the Navy, + its services not needed by some captains, + what it was, + the official and the popular views, + the class of men it was composed of, + its quarters, landsmen joining the land force not to be pressed + for sea service, + ship-gangs entirely seamen, varying numbers in gang, + the officers, + the shore service the grave of promotion, + general character of officers ashore, + duties of the Regulating Captain, + pay and road money, etc., + perquisites, peculation, and bribery in the service, + sham-gangs, + the rendezvous, + boat's arms, + press warrant, + whom the gang might take, + primarily those who used the sea, + later on trade suffers from the gang, + exemption granted as an indulgence, + the foreigner first exempted, + but not if he had an English wife, and was soon assumed to have + one, + negroes not exempt, landsmen theoretically only, + harvesters were exempt if holding a certificate, + gentlemen exempt if dressed as such, + only those proved to be between eighteen and fifty-five, + the position of apprentices was uncertain, + to press merchant seamen was resented by trade, + masters, mates, boatswains, and carpenters were exempt, + colliers were exempt up to a certain proportion, + ship protections did not count on shore, + mate was not entitled to liberty unless registered at the + rendezvous, + harpooners were protected out of season on land or on colliers, + the press-gang preyed upon its fellows, + watermen, bargemen, and canal boat-dwellers were considered to use + the see, + Thames watermen and some others exempt if certain quota of men + supplied, + large numbers pressed from Ireland, + fishermen indifferently protected, but fisheries fostered, + all protected persons bound to carry their protection on them, + an error in protection invalidated it, + protections often disregarded, + special protections, + its activities afloat, + the merchant seamen the principal quest, + the chain of sea-gangs, + the outer rings, frigates pressing for their own crews and armed + sloops as tenders to ships of the line, and the vessels employed + by regulating captains at the large ports, + the inner ring of boat-gangs in harbour or on rivers; + their methods., + methods of pressing at sea, + complications arising from pressing at sea, + their varied success., + and the right to search foreign vessels for English seamen, + and convoys, + and privateers, + and smugglers, + smuggling by, + and ships in quarantine, + and transports, + and cartel ships, + and pilots, + how it was evaded, + in the ship, with her or from her, + or a combination, + hiding on board from, + evasions assisted by the skipper, + and men in lieu and foreigners in emergency crews, + pilots and fisherman taken by, when acting as emergency men, + evaded by desertion from the ship, + evaded by hiding on land and changing quarters, + Cornwall dangerous for, + safe retreats from, + empowered to take Severn and Wye trow-men, + unsuccessful efforts of, + evaded by borrowed, forged, and American protections and by + disguises, + what it did ashore, + the sailor betrayed by marked characteristics; + sailors outnumbered on shore by the gang, + its object the pressing of sailors who escaped the seagangs, + its London rendezvous and taverns used. + the inland distribution of, + the class of places selected for operations of, + the land-gangs necessarily ambulatory, + its resting and refreshment places chosen for purposes of capture, + the methods adopted, + a hot press at Brighton, + a ruse at Portsmouth, + how the sailors' liking for drink was turned to account, + the amount of violence used, + outside assistance to, + rivalry between gangs, + assisted by mayors and county magistrates, + assisted by the military, + townsmen who sided with the sailors against, + brutal behaviour of, at Poole, + resisted at Deal and Dover, + forcible entry by, illegal, + magistrates consign vagabonds and disorderly persons to, + how it was resisted, + various weapons used against, + gangs-men killed by sailors resisting them, + sailors killed by gangsmen, + by armed bands of seamen, + by the populace in attempting to impress, + pressed-men recaptured from, + tenders attacked, + rendezvous attacked, + press-boats attacked and sunk, + resistance when the press-gang had come abroad, + the hardship of impressment on arrival from long voyage, + the only means of resistance, + a sailor's death in such case "accidental," casual, unavoidable, + or disagreeable, + a case in point, + at play, + humorous reason given for impressing a person, + inculcating manners by means of the press, + the respect due to naval officers, + the outsider liable to be pressed for breach of naval etiquette, + rudeness to the press-gang treated the same way, + damages from officers for wrongful impressment, failure to dip the + flag, or flying an unauthorised flag, might lead to pressing + from that crew, + unseamanlike management of a ship laid the crew open to pressing, + pipers and fiddlers, etc., impressed, + ridiculous reasons given for impressing, + unsuspecting passenger in a smuggler declared owner of contraband + and pressed, + tattoo marks and bandy legs lead to pressing, + any eccentricity sufficient to ensure the attention of the + press-gang, + used by trustees to keep heirs from their money, and by parents to + rid them of incorrigible sons, + used for purposes of retaliation, + used by strikers to get rid of a "blackleg." + used by stern parent to part his daughter and her lover, + a drunken cleric's revenge by means of, + by pressing a sailor, causes his late bedfellow to be hanged as + his murderer, + and women, + of women and sailors in general, + lack of sentiment in gangsmen, + women impressed by, + women masquerading as men to go to sea, + women in the gang, + the hardship brought on women by the gang, + fostered vice and bred paupers, + women who released sailors from the press-gang, + the devotion of Richard Parker's wife, + In the clutch of, + the press-room, what it was; strongly built and small as it might + be, could hold any number, + Bristol gaol and Gloucester Castle used as press-rooms, + inadequate precautions for retaining pressed men on the road, + regulations for rendezvous, + victualling in the press-room, + regulating or examining for fitness for service, + fabricated ailments and defects, + dispatching pressed men to the fleet, + tenders hired for transport of pressed men, + comfort and health of pressed men on tenders, + the victualling of pressed men on tenders, + prevention of escape, + an attempt to escape-with the Tasker tender escapes from, + The Union tender cut out from the Tyne by the pressed men, + various excitements aboard + a final examination, + petitions, + substitutes, + How the gang went out, + causes of withdrawal of press-gang, + the increasingly bad quality of the product, + the spirit of restlessness and mutiny engendered, + the injury to trade, + only continued so long by the apathy of the people, + the cost of impressing, + +Press-Gang, or Love in Low Life, The, + +Press warrants, forged, + +Presting, the original term and its meaning, + +Prest money, + +Price, Capt, + +Prince George guardship at Portsmouth, + +Princess Augusta, a letter of marque, + +Princess Augusta tender, + +Princess Louisa, H.M.S, + +Privateers, loss of seamen by, pressing from, + recapture of pressed crew of, + +Prize money, + +Profane abuse of crews by officers, + +Protections, for masters, mates, boatswains, and carpenters, worthless, +if the holder were ashore, bound to be always carried, + slightest error in description invalidated, + were often disregarded, + special, + for men in lieu, + for crews of convoys and privateers expired on arrival in home waters, + lent, bought, and exchanged, + American, + +Provisions in the Navy, + +Quarantine, + +Queensferry, the press-gang at, + +Quota men, + +"R" for "run" in ships' books to denote deserter, + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, + +Ramsgate, the press-gang at, + +Reading, the press-gang at, + +Registration of seamen, + +Regulating, i.e. examination of pressed-men for fitness, ailments and +defects fabricated or assumed, + +Regulating captains, character of a, + +Repulse, H.M.S., + +Rendezvous, attacked, regulations of, + +Rescue of pressed men from the gang, + +Reunion, H.M.S., + +Rhode Island, + +Rice, + +Richard II, + +Richards, John, midshipman, + +Richardson, Lieut, + +Right of search, + +Roberts, Capt. John, + +Rochester, the press-gang at, + +Rodney, Admiral Lord, + +Roebuck, H.M.S., + +Romsey, the press-gang at, + +Routh, Capt, + +_Royal Sovereign_, H.M.S., + +_Ruby_ gunship, + +Rudsdale, Lieut., + +Rum, + +_Rupert_, H.M.S., + +Russia, impressment in, + +Russian Navy, + +Ryde, the Lord of the Manor, claimed the privilege of private +protections for his ferrymen to Portsmouth and Gosport, the press-gang +at, + +_Rye_, H.M.S., + +Rye, the press-gang at, + + +Sailor, the word disfavoured by Navy Board, a creature of +contradictions, + +St. Ives, safe from the press-gang, + +St. Lawrence River, deserters in, + +St. Vincent, Earl of. See Jervis, J, + +Salisbury, the press-gang at, + +Sanders, Joseph, + +_Sandwich_, H.M.S., flag-ship at the Nore, + +Sax, Lieut, + +_Scipio_, H.M.S., + +Scott, John, pressed when his protection was lying in his coat beside +him, + +Scottish fishermen, + +_Seahorse_, H.M.S., + +"Serving out slops," + +Severn trow-men, exempted from impress by 10% levy, Court of Exchequer +rules the reverse, + +Seymour, Lieut., + +Sham gangs, + +_Shandois_ sloop, + +_Shannon_, H.M.S., + +Shannon, men working turf boats on, not exempt, + +_Shark_, sloop, + +"She" applied to a ship, a recent use, + +Sheerness, crimpage at, + +Shields, press-gang at, + +Ships, impressment of, + +Shipwrights in Scotch yards could be pressed as carpenters on warships, + +Shirley, Governor, + +Shoreham, the press-gang at, + +_Shrewsbury_, H.M.S., + +Shrewsbury, sham gangs at, + +Sloper, Major-General, + +Smeaton, John, + +Smugglers, crew of, pressed, unsuspecting passenger declared owner and +pressed, + +_Solebay_, H.M.S., + +Southampton, the press-gang at, + +Southey, Robt, _English Eclogues_, + +_Southsea Castle_, H.M.S., + +Spithead, crimpage at, an entrepot for pressed men, + +_Spy_ sloop of war, + +_Squirrel_, H.M.S., + +_Stag_, H.M.S., + +_Stag_ privateer, + +Stangate Creek, the fray at, + +Stephens, George, impressed at thirteen, + +Stephenson, George, + +Stepney Fields, press-gang at, + +Stillwell, John, + +Stourbridge, the press-gang at, + +Strike-me-blind. See Rice, + +Sturdy, Ralph, shot by the pressgang on the _Britannia_, + +Sunderland, press-gang at, + +Surgeons, + +Swansea, + + +Tailors pressed on account of bandy legs, + +Talbot, Mary Anne, + +_Tasker_ tender, + +Tassell, William, a protected mate, pressed ashore, + +Taunton, Denny-Bowl quarry, near--three girls as sham gang, the +press-gang at, + +Taylor, Lieut, + +Taylor, William, + +Teede, John, undone by tattoo marks, + +Tenders, attacked, hired for transport of pressed men, + the health and comfort of pressed men on, + their victualling, + attempts to escape from and with, + +Thames, press-gang on the, wherrymen exempted by levy of one in five, + +_Thetis_, H.M.S., + +Thomson, Lieut, + +Thurlow, Lord, + +Ticket men. See Men in lieu, + +Tobacco, + +Trading classes the greatest sufferers from impressment, not without +resentment, various trades gradually exempted, + +Tramps. See Vagabonds, + +Transports, + +Travelling, cost of, + +_Trial and Life of Richard Parker_, + +Trim, William, + +Trinity House, + +_Triton_ brig, + +_Triton_, Indiaman, + +Turning over of crews, + +Tyne keelman exempt from impress by levy--the men supplied being +obtained by them by bounties, + + +_Union_ tender, + +_Utrecht_, H.M.S., + + +Vagabonds handed over to the press-gang, + +_Vanguard_, H.M.S., + +Vernon, Admiral, + +Victualling in the press-room, + +Virginia, + + +Wages due to sailors to date of impressment, + +Walbeoff, Capt, + +Ward, Ned, _Wooden World Dissected_, + +Waterford, press-gang at, + +Watermen's language, + +Watson, Lieut, + +Watts, John, punished with 170 lashes, + +Weapons used against the press-gang, + +Weir, Alexander, + +Wellington, Duke of, + +Whalers, some of crew of, exempt from impressment, + +Whitby, the press-gang at, + +White, John, pressed at Bristol ninety yards from his vessel, + +Whitefoot, James, impressed at Bristol, + +Whitworth, Charles, Envoy to Russia, + +"Widows' men." + +Williams, John, + +_Willing Traveller_ smuggler, + +Wilson, John, shot by the press-gang on the _Britannia_, + +_Winchelsea_, H.M.S., + +Winstanley, London butcher, served as pressed man 16 years, + +_Wolf_ armed sloop, + +Women and the Press-gang, See also under Press-gang, "The Press-gang and +Women." + +_Wooden World Dissected_. See Ward, Ned, + +Wool, illegal export of, + +Worth, Capt, + +Worthing fishermen, + +Wye trow-men exempted from impress by 10% levy, + +Court of Exchequer rules the reverse, + +Yarmouth Roads, the press-gang in, + +"Yellow Admirals." + +Yorke, Sol. Gen, + +Young, Admiral, his torpedo, + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore, by +John R. Hutchinson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRESS-GANG AFLOAT AND ASHORE *** + +***** This file should be named 6766.txt or 6766.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/7/6/6766/ + +Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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