London was the Navy’s most important recruiting ground. As the principal port of the kingdom for long- and short-haul merchant vessels, London, if figures existing for 1779 are reliable and typical, provided approximately 30 per cent of all recruits into the Navy.

Alongside the Thames, immediately to the east of the City and stretching out towards Woolwich, were the lodgings of families of artisans and labourers with a maritime association. It was these men who were particularly susceptible to impressment, given that the lieutenants in charge of a press gang were normally instructed to seek out ‘such persons whose occupation and calling are to work in vessels or boats upon rivers’.

To protect ship building and the supply of materials to the Admiralty, some were issued with protection certificates that ensured they could not be pressed into the Navy (although at times of urgency these could prove useless). Among those holding ‘protections’ were men employed in the naval dock and victualling yards at Deptford and Woolwich, with exemption also including some of the artisans of the private ship building and repair yards together with those in less obvious occupations such as orange porters and Limehouse biscuit manufacturers.

To recruit London seamen, the captain of a newly commissioned ship would instruct a recruiting party headed by a lieutenant to establish a rendezvous. Most commonly an inn or tap house close to the river would be chosen, with the Black Boy and Trumpet at St Katherine’s Stairs and the Angel in Rotherhithe popular choices. Should a suitable number of volunteers fail to enlist, a more forcible means of recruitment would be adopted. Often this involved acting upon information gathered as to where seamen might be found and a subsequent heavy-handed descent on a nearby tavern or private residence.

The alternative to a recruiting party sent from individual ships was the Naval Impress Service, a permanent organisation within the Navy. The Naval Impress Service also sent out gangs to recruit seamen but these men were permanently employed in the duty and paid additional travel money (3d per mile for officers and 1d for men) and anything up to 10s for every man pressed.The Naval Impress Service also sought out deserters and, for this purpose, gangs of seamen working for the Impress Service would often position themselves on the roads leading into London following the arrival of ships at Portsmouth or Chatham.

The number of men who, during periods of mobilisation, were pressed, as compared with volunteers, has long been debated by naval historians. Unfortunately there is no clear answer and the difficulty of determining from a ship’s muster book whether a seaman was a volunteer or pressed can pose difficulties for those researching their own ancestors.

The muster books of any ship will sometimes reveal whether a man was pressed or volunteered but the bulk are more often listed as having been ‘turned over’ from another ship, with the original terms of enlistment requiring numerous individual searches. Furthermore, a man indicated as a volunteer might well have been pressed but subsequently allowed to volunteer, so permitting him to receive two months’ wages in advance together with an additional payment known as conduct money. Both were supposed to be paid only to volunteers but the money was usually paid to any man prepared to deny that he had been pressed.As a result, only the most stubborn, or those with a strong belief that they could gain release, would choose to be mustered as a pressed man.

In the late 1750s, the Navy Office did produce figures that suggest the Navy was heavily dependent on the impressment of men, with a possible 40,000 or more forced to join the crews of naval warships during the Georgian period.

Since so many had to be forced to serve in the Navy, it is clear that many of those living and working in London, including those with a maritime background, took a conscious decision to avoid service. Compared with service in the merchant marine, a seaman in the Royal Navy could expect to receive a much lower wage, with this only paid when the ship arrived back in England. Given that a ship might be at sea for several years, seamen in the Navy spent most of their lives on a promise; especially as it was customary for the Navy to keep back the last six months’ pay to discourage desertion. Furthermore, discipline on board a warship was often harsher than on a merchantman, with naval captains having absolute authority over every aspect of the lives of those on the lower deck. Not surprisingly therefore, with the government unwilling to see a rise in seamen’s wages and the Admiralty unwilling to relent on discipline, it was necessary for the Navy to enter into the market place with a recruitment tool that overrode the many advantages possessed by the merchant service – impressment.

In London, it has been estimated that between 1740 and 1815 there was a total of 130 reported street conflicts that directly resulted from the appearance of press gangs. Usually these centred on Whitechapel, Ratcliffe,Wapping, Shadwell, Limehouse, Poplar, Southwark and Bermondsey. However, the press gangs would also follow fleeing seamen across the City, with a number of violent outbreaks taking place along the Strand, Covent Garden, Drury Lane and the Haymarket areas.

Edward Oglethorpe, writing in 1728, provides a contemporary description of the workings of the press gang in and around London at that time:

You will see droves of the lawless fellows, armed with great sticks, force such as they think proper into the service, and knock down any who will not submit to appear before their magistrate [the officer commanding the gang] who is sometimes a lieutenant, but often an officer of the lowest rank, in an alehouse at Wapping or St Catherine’s, a boatswain’s, mate, or some such like judge of liberty and property.

Press gangs could be very intrusive, entering uninvited into houses and private property while also making assumptions about a person’s connections with the sea on the very slightest evidence. In 1804 The Morning Post reported on one case of a false impressment that had resulted from a malicious accusation that had no truth:

Yesterday at two o’clock a press gang entered the Library of Mr Creighton of Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, and seized upon a Mr George Dowling, a reputable youth, aged 19 who has been some time employed there as a librarian, upon the false authority of an anonymous letter, charging him with being a deserter from the Navy.

Generally, it was claimed that a seaman was relatively easy to identify through having a weather-beaten face, hard-worn hands, a rolling gait and recourse to nautical slang. Also, seamen were noted for their manner of dress: blue jacket, silk handkerchief round the neck, white trousers and silver buckles. This resulted in ‘Jack Tar’ being easily recognised when on shore. However, gangers often jumped to the wrong conclusion (see case study).

An attempt by the government to increase the number of volunteers came with the introduction in 1795 of a county quota that fostered bounty payments. It would be another 20 years (with the end of the Napoleonic wars) before impressment faded out, although it remained legal. Finally, in 1853 a new system of fixed-term engagements gave the Navy a sufficient number of volunteers recruits to meet its needs until conscription returned in WW1.