PRESS GANG. The Press Gang was the name given to the naval parties who, until the beginning of the 19th century, were used forcibly to take or "impress" men for service in the British fleet. From mediaeval times the Crown claimed the power to im press able-bodied subjects for the defence of the realm, and as early as the time of Edward III. complaints are recorded in Parlia ment of the excessive use of this power. From the earliest time, England depended upon her professional seamen, the merchant men, to man her fighting ships : but it was not until the end of the century that fishermen, watermen and mariners were ex empted by law from being "pressed" as soldiers : they remained liable to impressment for service in the Navy. The needs of Eliza beth's fighting fleet became so large that the Vagrancy Act was passed, rendering all "disreputable persons" liable for impressment for service in the fleet : the sheriffs and mayors being bound, upon the production of the warrant of the "takers" or "press gang," to produce the number of men required. This naturally led to jail clearance; the law remaining unaltered, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries there were constant complaints from naval officers of the quality of men supplied. In the 18th century certain exemptions were made, in the case of apprentices, a proportion of fishermen, seamen employed in the coastwise coal trade, but even at the height of Britain's maritime power, from 178o to 1815, the press gang was the chief means of recruiting the fleet.
The action of English cruisers in pressing men from the mer chant ships of the American colonies was one of the causes that led to the War of Independence. A favourite means of com
pleting the complement of warships was by stopping homeward bound merchantmen and removing some of their seamen. Service became so unpopular that in 1795 the press gangs and the jails failed to provide sufficient men. An Act was passed directing each county to provide a "quota" of men, with the result that the authorities of each district handed all malcontents and agitators over to the press gangs, by whom they were taken to the guard ships stationed round the coast for drafting into the fleet. The introduction of this bad element into the Navy was one of the causes of the mutiny of 1797 which nearly brought disaster to the country. The insistence of the right to press British sub jects in America was one of the chief causes of the war between Great Britain and the United States in 1812.
The press gangs were not used after the close of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, although it is lawful to this day to impress men for service in the navy, though not in the army. By an Act of 1835 a "pressed" man is exempt after five years' service and seamen in the Merchant Service, fishermen and certain other persons are exempted from impressment. With the introduction of the long service system in 1853 all need for impressment disappeared and since that date there have always been more volunteers than could be accepted for service in the Royal Navy. (S. T. H. W.) PRESSING: see PEINE FORTE ET DURE.