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- 14625
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z
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- spontaneous impress of truth, the old sailor, in the most artless,
touching, and almost uncomplaining manner, tells of his “skulking like
a thief” for whole years in the country round about Edinburgh, to avoid
the press-gangs, prowling through the land like bandits and Burkers. At
this time (Bonaparte’s wars), according to “Steel’s List,” there were
forty-five regular press-gang stations in Great Britain.[6]
[6] Besides this domestic kidnapping, British frigates, in friendly or
neutral harbours, in some instances pressed into their service foreign
sailors of all nations from the public wharves. In certain cases,
where Americans were concerned, when “_protections_” were found upon
their persons, these were destroyed; and to prevent the American
consul from claiming his sailor countrymen, the press-gang generally
went on shore the night previous to the sailing of the frigate, so
that the kidnapped seamen were far out to sea before they could be
missed by their friends. These things should be known; for in case the
English government again goes to war with its fleets, and should again
resort to indiscriminate impressment to man them, it is well that both
Englishmen and Americans, that all the world be prepared to put down
an iniquity outrageous and insulting to God and man.
In a later instance, a large body of British seamen solemnly assembled
upon the eve of an anticipated war, and together determined, that in
case of its breaking out, they would at once flee to America, to avoid
being pressed into the service of their country—a service which
degraded her own guardians at the gangway.
At another time, long previous to this, according to an English Navy
officer, Lieutenant Tomlinson, three thousand seamen, impelled by the
same motive, fled ashore in a panic from the colliers between Yarmouth
Roads and the Nore. Elsewhere, he says, in speaking of some of the men
on board the king’s ships, that “they were most miserable objects.”
This remark is perfectly corroborated by other testimony referring to
another period. In alluding to the lamented scarcity of good English
seamen during the wars of 1808, etc., the author of a pamphlet on
“Naval Subjects” says, that all the best seamen, the steadiest and
best-behaved men, generally succeeded in avoiding the impress. This
writer was, or had been, himself a Captain in the British fleet.
Now it may be easily imagined who are the men, and of what moral
character they are, who, even at the present day, are willing to enlist
as full-grown adults in a service so galling to all shore-manhood as
the Navy. Hence it comes that the skulkers and scoundrels of all sorts
in a man-of-war are chiefly composed not of regular seamen, but of
these “dock-lopers” of landsmen, men who enter the Navy to draw their
grog and murder their time in the notorious idleness of a frigate. But
if so idle, why not reduce the number of a man-of-war’s crew, and
reasonably keep employed the rest? It cannot be done. In the first
place, the magnitude of most of these ships requires a large number of
hands to brace the heavy yards, hoist the enormous top-sails, and weigh
the ponderous anchor. And though the occasion for the employment of so
many men comes but seldom, it is true, yet when that occasion _does_
come—and come it may at any moment—this multitude of men are
indispensable.
But besides this, and to crown all, the batteries must be manned. There
must be enough men to work all the guns at one time. And thus, in order
to have a sufficiency of mortals at hand to “sink, burn and destroy;” a
man-of-war, through her vices, hopelessly depraving the volunteer
landsmen and ordinary seamen of good habits, who occasionally
enlist—must feed at the public cost a multitude of persons, who, if
they did not find a home in the Navy, would probably fall on the
parish, or linger out their days in a prison.
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