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Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
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The Myth of the Press Gang - Volunteers, Impressment and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Late Eighteenth Century (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R2,489
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The Myth of the Press Gang - Volunteers, Impressment and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Late Eighteenth Century (Hardcover)
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Overturns the generally held view that the press gang was the main
means of recruiting seamen by the British navy in the late
eighteenth century. SHORTLISTED for the Society for Nautical
Research's prestigious Anderson Medal. The press gang is generally
regarded as the means by which the British navy solved the problem
of recruiting enough seamen in the late eighteenth century. This
book, however, based on extensive original research conducted
primarily in a large number of ships' muster books, demonstrates
that this view is false. It argues that, in fact, the overwhelming
majority of seamen in the navy were there of their own free will.
Taking a long view across the late eighteenth century but
concentrating on the period of the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815, the book provides great detail on the
sort of men that were recruited and the means by which they were
recruited, and includes a number of individuals' stories. It shows
how manpower was a major concern for the Admiralty; how the
Admiralty put in place a range of recruitment methods including the
quota system; how it worried about depleting merchant shipping of
sufficient sailors; and how, although most seamen were volunteers,
the press gang was resorted to, especially during the initial
mobilisation at the beginning of wars and to find certain kinds of
particularly skilled seamen. The book also makes comparisons with
recruitment methods employed by the navies of other countries and
by the British army. J. Ross Dancy is Assistant Professor of
History at Sam Houston State University.
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