{"id":"01KG8AMFYYBP1BMTEX4WA20S04","cid":"bafkreiepmpj3wkho6aq4ezubzxwm7lssi4xqj6llp2y35ah25dtjwoktfy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14625,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":14561,"text":"spontaneous 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\n [6] Besides this domestic kidnapping, British frigates, in friendly or\r\n neutral harbours, in some instances pressed into their service foreign\r\n sailors of all nations from the public wharves. In certain cases,\r\n where Americans were concerned, when “_protections_” were found upon\r\n their persons, these were destroyed; and to prevent the American\r\n consul from claiming his sailor countrymen, the press-gang generally\r\n went on shore the night previous to the sailing of the frigate, so\r\n that the kidnapped seamen were far out to sea before they could be\r\n missed by their friends. These things should be known; for in case the\r\n English government again goes to war with its fleets, and should again\r\n resort to indiscriminate impressment to man them, it is well that both\r\n Englishmen and Americans, that all the world be prepared to put down\r\n an iniquity outrageous and insulting to God and man.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn a later instance, a large body of British seamen solemnly assembled\r\nupon the eve of an anticipated war, and together determined, that in\r\ncase of its breaking out, they would at once flee to America, to avoid\r\nbeing pressed into the service of their country—a service which\r\ndegraded her own guardians at the gangway.\r\n\r\nAt another time, long previous to this, according to an English Navy\r\nofficer, Lieutenant Tomlinson, three thousand seamen, impelled by the\r\nsame motive, fled ashore in a panic from the colliers between Yarmouth\r\nRoads and the Nore. Elsewhere, he says, in speaking of some of the men\r\non board the king’s ships, that “they were most miserable objects.”\r\nThis remark is perfectly corroborated by other testimony referring to\r\nanother period. In alluding to the lamented scarcity of good English\r\nseamen during the wars of 1808, etc., the author of a pamphlet on\r\n“Naval Subjects” says, that all the best seamen, the steadiest and\r\nbest-behaved men, generally succeeded in avoiding the impress. This\r\nwriter was, or had been, himself a Captain in the British fleet.\r\n\r\nNow it may be easily imagined who are the men, and of what moral\r\ncharacter they are, who, even at the present day, are willing to enlist\r\nas full-grown adults in a service so galling to all shore-manhood as\r\nthe Navy. Hence it comes that the skulkers and scoundrels of all sorts\r\nin a man-of-war are chiefly composed not of regular seamen, but of\r\nthese “dock-lopers” of landsmen, men who enter the Navy to draw their\r\ngrog and murder their time in the notorious idleness of a frigate. But\r\nif so idle, why not reduce the number of a man-of-war’s crew, and\r\nreasonably keep employed the rest? It cannot be done. In the first\r\nplace, the magnitude of most of these ships requires a large number of\r\nhands to brace the heavy yards, hoist the enormous top-sails, and weigh\r\nthe ponderous anchor. And though the occasion for the employment of so\r\nmany men comes but seldom, it is true, yet when that occasion _does_\r\ncome—and come it may at any moment—this multitude of men are\r\nindispensable.\r\n\r\nBut besides this, and to crown all, the batteries must be manned. There\r\nmust be enough men to work all the guns at one time. And thus, in order\r\nto have a sufficiency of mortals at hand to “sink, burn and destroy;” a\r\nman-of-war, through her vices, hopelessly depraving the volunteer\r\nlandsmen and ordinary seamen of good habits, who occasionally\r\nenlist—must feed at the public cost a multitude of persons, who, if\r\nthey did not find a home in the Navy, would probably fall on the\r\nparish, or linger out their days in a prison.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVX0EHKR6PT0YQ81325T","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFDCZCAY8BT7ZRVQ90ZJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMFZ3RWW7KBJ2D87M9B44","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.878Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:56.196Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}