How the Royal Navy recruited its jolly tars,When Britain ruled the world, it needed a lot of men to

How the Royal Navy recruited its jolly tars,When Britain ruled the world, it needed a lot of men to staff its enormous fleet.  Life in the Royal Navy was not easy to say the least.  Sailors faced incredible hardships, such as eating hardtack filled with maggots, loosing all your teeth due to scurvy, shipwreck, starvation, being flogged to near death because the captain feels like it, etc, etc.  To top this there was little room for advancement and pay was incredibly low.  Most farm laborers made more money than the average British sailor.  Conditions in the merchant fleet were much better, with better pay, better working conditions, and more upward mobility.  Is it any wonder that most able seamen chose not to accept the “Kings Schilling”?  As a result, the navy typically always suffered from chronic manpower shortages, and had to find some dastardly ways to find more men.Method # 1 Recruit at places that are worse than the navy. Its hard to imagine a place worse than the Royal Navy, but in Georgian and Victorian Britain there were a few.  The first were the workhouses.  These were institutions for vagrants, homeless, destitute, and debtors, and would have been the bleakest fate for any human being.  Workers would be forced to conduct back breaking labor 16 hours a day (8 hours on Sunday) with no breaks.  Task could include smashing rocks into gravel or breaking apart rope to make caulking for ships.  Those in the workhouses received no pay, only food and shelter.  They were designed to humiliate and belittle the poor.  It is no wonder that the navy would turn to such a place as this.Jails were also a good place to find recruits.  Enlistment often meant a pardon for your crimes, which was a big plus then since stealing a chicken could get you hanged.  Of course if you did not abandon your criminal ways, a few good floggings, or being tied to the rigging for a few days might just set you straight.Method #2 Abduct PeopleWhen a ship needed some more hands, it was not uncommon for the crew to form “press gangs” and search local ports for new recruits.  Also called “crimping” (in America they called in Shanghaing) the press gangs would find a skilled sailor they needed, ambush him in a dark alley, maybe bop him in the head or smother him with chloroform, and then drag him back to the ship.  The unfortunate sailor would awaken on ship to find himself the newest member of His Majesty’s Royal Navy.Another tactic the press gangs might use is to wait outside of a tavern until the patrons are good and inebriated.  Then they would storm the place, dragging off all the drunks who in their stupor could not resist the gang.  Of course any military institution that recruits men found passed out on the floor must be a fine organization.Method #3 Impressment at SeaThis was the most common form of coerced service.  The warship would simply pull up next to a private merchant ship, point its guns at her, and demand the crew become a part of her crew.  Often the captain merely didn’t just take merchant crews, but would trade their worst crewman for the other ships best crewman, sort of like trading athletes today, only very one sided.  The men the navy impressed at sea did not necessarily need to be British citizens.  It was not uncommon for foreign merchant crews to be impressed as well.  During the Napoleonic Wars American ships were especially vulnerable to impressment.  This got Britain into big trouble when the Americans declared war in 1812, drawing Britain into a stalemate conflict at a time when it was suffering severe military shortages.  After the War of 1812 impressment at sea was banned as was any form of coerced recruitment.Method #4 Booze and hookersWhen impressment and crimping became illegal, navy recruiters had to find more inventive ways to find recruits.  Often they would offer a perspective recruits numerous rounds of drinks and a night with a prostitute of choice, all paid for by the king.  When the recruit was good, drunk, and loosened up (to a point when good judgement goes out the window) they might then trick the person into signing a binding contract.  The next morning the man might awake with a terrible headache, a burning crotch, and a navy uniform. -- source link

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