Press Gangs: were there `rules' of engagement?

[alexlitandem]

When men were `pressed', were there clear rules relating to who could / couldn't be pressed?

And, specifically, were there any rules relating to the youngest age one needed to be to be eligible to be pressed?

tia.

alexli

[PMarione]

The "rules" were rather simple:

the men pressed (no women) had to belong to the maritime community
they had to be more than 18.

All the boys were volunteers, most of them coming through the Marine Society, a charity that provided "sea kits" and gave a minimum sea training to street urchins.

The Lt in charge of the pressgang had to have a warrant: a paper signed by a superior officer authorizing him to press people.

Categories of men had a protection and could not be pressed: apprentices, watermen, etc.

All this was theoric: there was no way at the time to prove that you were younger than 18, and how could you prove that you were not a seaman.

When the RN pressed men from merchant ships they had to leave a crew sufficient to bring the ship home (for obvious reasons: the main goal of the RN was to protect shipping not hinder it).

Again it was theoric.
An example of the pervert effects of the press was that captains always short of men, pressed seamen from the ships hired by the Transport Board to victual the fleets and squadrons ending sometimes with those ships unable to do their critical job.

Another rule was that you could buy a replacement, but then you needed the money to find one.

We see the press today through Victorian glasses: the main sources are the various pamphlets issued during the 18th-19th century to obtain its suppression.

The RN was not manned by jailbirds.
The Ayshfords' research shows that pressed men counted for less than the crews at Trafalgar.
The urban legend probably arose from the "quota" men: each county had to provide a number (quota) of men to the RN and it was tempting to propose the choice to minor offenders the choice between jail and the RN.
Real criminals were hanged.

@+P

[PMarione]

I believe that privateers couldn't be pressed but I'm not sure.

Maybe some learned lister can confirm or infirm.

@+P