IMPRESSMENT was once the mode formerly resorted to of manning the British navy. The practice had not only the sanction of custom, but the force of law, for many acts of parliament, from the reign of Philip and Mary to that of George Ill., had been passed to regulate the system of impressment. Impressment consisted in seizing by force, for service in the royal navy, seamen, river-watermen, and at times landsmen, when state emergencies rendered them necessary. An armed party of reliable men, commanded by officers, usually proceeded to such houses in the seaport towns as were supposed to be the resort of the seafaring population, laid violent hands on all eligible men, and conveyed them forcibly to the ships of war in the harbor. As it was not in the nature of sailors to yield without a struggle, many terrible fights took place between the press-gangs and their intended victims—combats in which lives were often lost. In point of justice there is little, if anything to be said for impressment, which had not even the merit of an impartial selection from the whole available population.
In recent times, when volunteers fail, a system of bounties (q.v.) has been resorted to; and is not very probable that recourse will be again had to impressment. At the same time, the laws sanctioning it slumber, without being repealed.
Under the laws all eligible men of seafaring habits are liable between the ages of 18 and 55; but exemptions are made in favor of apprentices who have not been two years apprenticed, fishermen at sea, a proportion of able seamen in each collier, harpooners in whalers, and a few others. A press-gang could board a merchant-vessel or a privateer of its own nation in any part of the world, and carry off, as many of the best men as could be removed without actually endangering the vessel. The exercise of this power made a privateer dread a friendly man-of-war more than an enemy, and often led to as exciting a chase as when enemies were in pursuit of each other; for the privateer's men were the best sailors for their purpose the naval officers could lay hold on.