{"id":"01KG8AMFDCZCAY8BT7ZRVQ90ZJ","cid":"bafkreiekby575e6753xltsyhyozx43oact5evuzptrt5mckitesds2hxfy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14567,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":14506,"text":"a proportion to the rest of the crew, though in no navy, perhaps, have\r\nthey ever borne so large a proportion as in our own. According to an\r\nEnglish estimate, the foreigners serving in the King’s ships at one\r\ntime amounted to one eighth of the entire body of seamen. How it is in\r\nthe French Navy, I cannot with certainty say; but I have repeatedly\r\nsailed with English seamen who have served in it.\r\n\r\nOne of the effects of the free introduction of foreigners into any Navy\r\ncannot be sufficiently deplored. During the period I lived in the\r\nNeversink, I was repeatedly struck by the lack of patriotism in many of\r\nmy shipmates. True, they were mostly foreigners who unblushingly\r\navowed, that were it not for the difference of pay, they would as lief\r\nman the guns of an English ship as those of an American or Frenchman.\r\nNevertheless, it was evident, that as for any high-toned patriotic\r\nfeeling, there was comparatively very little—hardly any of it—evinced\r\nby our sailors as a body. Upon reflection, this was not to be wondered\r\nat. From their roving career, and the sundering of all domestic ties,\r\nmany sailors, all the world over, are like the “Free Companions,” who\r\nsome centuries ago wandered over Europe, ready to fight the battles of\r\nany prince who could purchase their swords. The only patriotism is born\r\nand nurtured in a stationary home, and upon an immovable hearth-stone;\r\nbut the man-of-war’s-man, though in his voyagings he weds the two Poles\r\nand brings both Indies together, yet, let him wander where he will, he\r\ncarries his one only home along with him: that home is his hammock.\r\n“_Born under a gun, and educated on the bowsprit_,” according to a\r\nphrase of his own, the man-of-war-man rolls round the world like a\r\nbillow, ready to mix with any sea, or be sucked down to death in the\r\nmaelstrom of any war.\r\n\r\nYet more. The dread of the general discipline of a man-of-war; the\r\nspecial obnoxiousness of the gangway; the protracted confinement on\r\nboard ship, with so few “liberty days;” and the pittance of pay (much\r\nless than what can always be had in the Merchant Service), these things\r\ncontrive to deter from the navies of all countries by far the majority\r\nof their best seamen. This will be obvious, when the following\r\nstatistical facts, taken from Macpherson’s Annals of Commerce, are\r\nconsidered. At one period, upon the Peace Establishment, the number of\r\nmen employed in the English Navy was 25,000; at the same time, the\r\nEnglish Merchant Service was employing 118,952. But while the\r\nnecessities of a merchantman render it indispensable that the greater\r\npart of her crew be able seamen, the circumstances of a man-of-war\r\nadmit of her mustering a crowd of landsmen, soldiers, and boys in her\r\nservice. By a statement of Captain Marryat’s, in his pamphlet (A. D.\r\n1822) “On the Abolition of Impressment,” it appears that, at the close\r\nof the Bonaparte wars, a full third of all the crews of his Majesty’s\r\nfleets consisted of landsmen and boys.\r\n\r\nFar from entering with enthusiasm into the king’s ships when their\r\ncountry were menaced, the great body of English seamen, appalled at the\r\ndiscipline of the Navy, adopted unheard-of devices to escape its\r\npress-gangs. Some even hid themselves in caves, and lonely places\r\ninland, fearing to run the risk of seeking a berth in an outward-bound\r\nmerchantman, that might have carried them beyond sea. In the true\r\nnarrative of “John Nichol, Mariner,” published in 1822 by Blackwood in\r\nEdinburgh, and Cadell in London, and which everywhere bears the\r\nspontaneous impress of truth, the old sailor, in the most artless,\r\ntouching, and almost uncomplaining manner, tells of his “skulking like\r\na thief” for whole years in the country round about Edinburgh, to avoid\r\nthe press-gangs, prowling through the land like bandits and Burkers. At\r\nthis time (Bonaparte’s wars), according to “Steel’s List,” there were\r\nforty-five regular press-gang stations in Great Britain.[6]\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVX0EHKR6PT0YQ81325T","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFD6J238BS56HTH3G2A0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFYYBP1BMTEX4WA20S04","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.316Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:56.324Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}