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volunteers tended to be treated exactly the same way as impressed men, and they were immediately dispatched to the fleet anchorage at Spithead and consigned to the
Prince George
under the command of Captain Rodney. The men got together and composed an eloquent letter to Hawke setting out their circumstances and explaining that âwe have been so long out of land upon a very tedious voyage and several of us having wives and families who are in great distress by our long absence and others of us on private concerns we most humbly intreat your Honour that you would grant us leave of absence for three or four weeks. . . .â 14 Hawke secured permission from the Admiralty and directed Captain Rodney to allow the men three weeksâ leave. This was by no means an isolated instance, but when the demands of war put captains and admirals under pressure to get their ships to sea, there was an obvious reluctance to allow men ashore and risk losing them through desertion.
W HILE MUCH HAS been written about the horrors of the press gang in Britain, it is often forgotten that the system was operated on a similar scale on the other side of the Atlantic. Indeed impressment was one of the causes of the War of 1812, which was fought by America for âFree Trade and Sailorsâ Rights.â The war tends to be played down in British history books, partly because it was overshadowed by the events in Europe leading up to the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, and partly because the British suffered several humiliating defeats at sea during the course of the war in actions against formidable American ships such as the USS
Constitution.
Throughout the eighteenth century, British warships sent press gangs into the ports along the east coast of America and forcibly recruited men for the Royal Navy. During a period of five months in 1745 and 1746, press gangs from the 14-gun HMS
Shirley
impressed 92 men from Boston. In 1771, HMS
Arethusa
took 31 men during a cruise along the coast of Virginia. One of the most draconian raids was a night raid on New York in 1757, when the navy sent in 3,000 seamen and impressed 800 men. 15 Nearly half of this number were subsequently found to be unsuitable and were released, but operations like this fueled the fury of all sections of the community. The merchants feared the effects on trade, the townspeople saw their communities devastated by the seizure of so many able-bodied men, the women lost husbands and sons, and the seamen themselves no longer felt safe in their own towns.
The American newspapers and the minutes of town meetings frequently recorded official protests, riots, and violent responses to the raids of the press gangs. There were three days of rioting in Boston in November 1747. An angry crowd that included Negroes, servants, and hundreds of seamen stormed the Town House where the General Court was sitting and demanded the seizure of the impressing officers and the release of the men they had taken. During the course of the riot, they besieged the governorâs house, laid hold of a naval lieutenant, assaulted a sheriff, and put his deputy in the stocks. 16 In Newport, Rhode Island, in June 1765, around 500 seamen, boys, and Negroes went on a rampage in protest after suffering five weeks of impressment.
After the American Revolution of 1776, in which the British colonies achieved their independence, the Royal Navy could no longer impress American seamen. Any operations by British captains in American ports or aboard American ships were restricted in theory to searching for deserters from the navy, and the men who were seized were therefore not impressed but recovered. In practice, the navy did continue to impress American seamen. The British argued that a man who was born British remained a British subject and that applied to any man born in America before she achieved her independence. In an effort to safeguard their citizens, the American government issued their seamen with a
Prince George
under the command of Captain Rodney. The men got together and composed an eloquent letter to Hawke setting out their circumstances and explaining that âwe have been so long out of land upon a very tedious voyage and several of us having wives and families who are in great distress by our long absence and others of us on private concerns we most humbly intreat your Honour that you would grant us leave of absence for three or four weeks. . . .â 14 Hawke secured permission from the Admiralty and directed Captain Rodney to allow the men three weeksâ leave. This was by no means an isolated instance, but when the demands of war put captains and admirals under pressure to get their ships to sea, there was an obvious reluctance to allow men ashore and risk losing them through desertion.
W HILE MUCH HAS been written about the horrors of the press gang in Britain, it is often forgotten that the system was operated on a similar scale on the other side of the Atlantic. Indeed impressment was one of the causes of the War of 1812, which was fought by America for âFree Trade and Sailorsâ Rights.â The war tends to be played down in British history books, partly because it was overshadowed by the events in Europe leading up to the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, and partly because the British suffered several humiliating defeats at sea during the course of the war in actions against formidable American ships such as the USS
Constitution.
Throughout the eighteenth century, British warships sent press gangs into the ports along the east coast of America and forcibly recruited men for the Royal Navy. During a period of five months in 1745 and 1746, press gangs from the 14-gun HMS
Shirley
impressed 92 men from Boston. In 1771, HMS
Arethusa
took 31 men during a cruise along the coast of Virginia. One of the most draconian raids was a night raid on New York in 1757, when the navy sent in 3,000 seamen and impressed 800 men. 15 Nearly half of this number were subsequently found to be unsuitable and were released, but operations like this fueled the fury of all sections of the community. The merchants feared the effects on trade, the townspeople saw their communities devastated by the seizure of so many able-bodied men, the women lost husbands and sons, and the seamen themselves no longer felt safe in their own towns.
The American newspapers and the minutes of town meetings frequently recorded official protests, riots, and violent responses to the raids of the press gangs. There were three days of rioting in Boston in November 1747. An angry crowd that included Negroes, servants, and hundreds of seamen stormed the Town House where the General Court was sitting and demanded the seizure of the impressing officers and the release of the men they had taken. During the course of the riot, they besieged the governorâs house, laid hold of a naval lieutenant, assaulted a sheriff, and put his deputy in the stocks. 16 In Newport, Rhode Island, in June 1765, around 500 seamen, boys, and Negroes went on a rampage in protest after suffering five weeks of impressment.
After the American Revolution of 1776, in which the British colonies achieved their independence, the Royal Navy could no longer impress American seamen. Any operations by British captains in American ports or aboard American ships were restricted in theory to searching for deserters from the navy, and the men who were seized were therefore not impressed but recovered. In practice, the navy did continue to impress American seamen. The British argued that a man who was born British remained a British subject and that applied to any man born in America before she achieved her independence. In an effort to safeguard their citizens, the American government issued their seamen with a
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