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Impressment, colloquially, "the press" or the "press gang", refers to the act of taking men into a navy by force and with or without notice. Navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means. The large size of the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail meant impressment was most commonly associated with Britain. It was used by the Royal Navy in wartime, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to the time of Edward I of England. The Royal Navy impressed many merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other nations. People liable to impressment were "eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 55 years". Non-seamen were impressed as well, though rarely. Impressment was strongly criticized by those who believed it to be contrary to the British constitution; at the time, unlike many of its continental rivals, British subjects were not subject to conscription for any other military service, aside from a brief experiment with army impressment from 1778 to 1780. Though the public opposed conscription in general, impressment was repeatedly upheld by the courts, as it was deemed vital to the strength of the navy and, by extension, to the survival of the realm. Impressment was essentially a Royal Navy practice, reflecting the size of the British fleet and its substantial manpower demands. While other European navies applied forced recruitment in time of war this was generally as an extension of the practice of formal conscription applied to most European armies from the Napoleonic Wars on. The U.S. Continental Navy did however apply a form of impressment during the American War of Independence. The impressment of seamen from American ships caused serious tensions between Britain and the United States in the years leading up to the War of 1812. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, Britain ended the practice, later conscription was not limited to the Royal Navy but covered all armed forces. ==Royal Navy recruiting and desertion== Working and living conditions for the average sailor in the Royal Navy in the 18th century were harsh by modern standards. Naval pay was attractive in the 1750s, although towards the end of the century its value had been eroded by rising prices.〔Roger (1986) p. 137〕 Sailors' pay on merchant ships was somewhat higher during peacetime, and could increase to double naval pay during wartime. Until 19th century reforms improved conditions, the Royal Navy was known to pay wages up to two years in arrears, and always withheld six months' pay to discourage desertion. Naval wages had been set in 1653, and were not increased until April 1797 after sailors on 80 ships of the Channel Fleet based at Spithead mutinied.〔Rodger (1986), pp 63–64, 115–118, 127–128〕 Despite this, there were many volunteers for naval service. The work for individual sailors was less than on merchant ships as the naval crew size was determined by the number needed to man the guns, around four times the number of crew needed to sail the ship. Also the food supplied by the Navy was plentiful and good by the standards of the day.〔Rodger (1986), p.116〕 The main problem with recruitment, though, was a shortage of qualified seamen during wartime, when the Navy quickly had to recruit an extra 20,000 (early 18th century) to 40,000 men (late 18th century). Privateers, the Royal Navy, and the Merchant Navy all competed for a small pool of ordinary and able seamen in wartime, and all three groups were usually short-handed. The recruitment figures presented to Parliament for the years 1755–1757 list 70,566 men, of whom 33,243 were volunteers (47%), 16,953 pressed men (24%), while another 20,370 were also listed as volunteers separately (29%). Although there are no records that explain why volunteers were separated into two groups, it is likely these were pressed men who became "volunteers" to get the sign-up bonus, two months' wages in advance and a higher wage; it is known large numbers did do this. Volunteering also protected the sailor from creditors, as the law forbade collecting debts accrued before enlistment. The main disadvantage was that enlisted deserters who were recaptured would be hanged, whereas pressed men would simply be returned to service. Other records confirm similar percentages throughout the 18th century.〔 Average annual recruitment 1736–1783〔Fischer, Lewis R.; Nordvik, Helge W. Shipping and Trade, 1750-1950: Essays in International Maritime Economic History 1990, p. 25.〕 All three groups also suffered high levels of desertion. In the 18th century, British desertion rates on naval ships averaged 25% annually, with little difference between volunteers and pressed men.〔IRSH 54 (2009), Niklas Frykman: Seamen on Late Eighteenth-Century European Warships. pp. 67–93 doi:10.1017/S0020859009000030 For example, the frigate HMS Hermione, with a regular complement of 180 men had 129 desertions between 1793 and 1797. Desertion rates for Dutch and French warships was even higher with annual rates of up to 90% not uncommon. In 1795, the Dutch vessel''Staaten Generaal'', with a complement of 550 lost 428 to desertion, the ''Delft'', with 350 men lost 340.〕 The rate of desertion starting high, then fell heavily after a few months on board a ship, and generally becoming negligible after a year — Navy pay ran months or years in arrears, and desertion might mean not only abandoning companions in the ship's company, but also the loss of a large amount of money already earned. If a naval ship had taken a prize, a deserting seaman would also forfeit his share of the prize money. In a report on proposed changes to the RN written by Admiral Nelson in 1803, he noted that since 1793 more than 42,000 sailors had deserted. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「impressment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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