British Royal Navy Impressment (c. 1800 AD)
The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy is one of the world’s oldest and most respected professional military institutions, boasting an operational history that spans over four centuries. Critics lament recent declines in the organization, citing budget shortfalls and aging technology as points of concern. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of sailors currently enjoy fruitful employ within the Her Majesty’s Naval Service. To be sure, there were darker times in the RN’s history—particularly around the turn of the 19th century when the old British Royal Navy was in desperate need of men to fight at sea.
Prior to the introduction of conscription, or legally sanctioned compulsory service, many countries simply abducted recruits and forced them into uniform. The practice was referred to as impressment and typically involved groups of men, called “press gangs,” forcibly seizing individuals and carrying them off to war. Several armies impressed unwilling men into service centuries before the rise of the English navy, but it remained a mainstay of Royal Naval service until the mid-1800s. It’s also worth mentioning that the practice wasn’t restricted to captured prisoners of war. Nobody was safe from impressment, including the subjects of the British Empire.
Distressed sailors resisted impressment, going as far as jumping overboard while their ship was at sea. The British responded by implementing an unforgiving disciplinary system that made a public spectacle of foolish dissenters. A good flogging or whipping by the gangway was effective. Almost as popular was caning, where juvenile offenders were beaten repeatedly while spread-eagle over the top of a cannon. Finally, hanging at the yard-arm was a fatal sentence reserved for deserters or mutineers. Wrongdoers were typically strangled to death, in full view of their petrified shipmates, while swinging from a noose attached to the ship’s rigging.