Pressed men often had lice (being lousy), which often had to do with the social origin of the men, and were shorn as a rountine. Therefore, the men on board who wore a pigtail were also those who had been on board a ship for a longer time and were also experienced sailors.

Here it is a convict that is cleaned in a disinfection bath (salt water and alcohol). But the procedure for the pressed men was similar. (x)

When you see ships in paintings or read reports, you always have the feeling that all ships are fully manned and the men are always happy to serve on these ships. If you believe this, you have the impression that the men went on board voluntarily, but was that really the case? How did the Navy get their men and were all of them volunteers ? Let’s take a look .... 

Volunteers Every captain was responsible for manning his ship. If he did not manage to complete the crew, he could even be relieved of command in extreme cases. Of course all ships - within certain variations by cousins economy - were served equally by the recruiting authority, but this allocation was hardly sufficient. So every captain, especially at the beginning of the war, when not all pubs were empty, tried to recruit volunteers. He had posters posted in which he referred to his earlier victories, to the prizemoney that his people had acquired, and in which hand money and distant shores were promised. The government and individual magistrates also suspended a hand money when volunteers were recruited. By 1795 this had risen to £30 in some towns. But the merchant navy also needed a large contingent of men, which soon emptied this reserve of personnel.   

Recruitment by the Marine Society

The Marine Society was founded in 1756 as a kind of non-profit society. It brought in children and men who did not shape their own lives after a certain basic training in commerce or navy. The children were mostly orphans or abandoned boys. The men were mostly released prisoners who could no longer find a place to live or work, or vagrants who were threatened with conviction and similar people in need of help. During these wars, the Marine Society brought no less than 23,000 people to the fleet, who were classified as boys and peasants and were able to advance in service. If all the ways to attract volunteers were exhausted, it had to be done in a different way.

Pressed crews-  ashore and afloat

The Press Acts allowed the Recruitment Authority, after the outbreak of war in the coastal towns and villages, to force all seamen aged between 18 and 55 years into the war fleet. The word "Impress Service" is a distortion of the original correct word "imprest", which meant giving recruitment money to a man. The recruiters used all their tricks, secretly put the shilling into the pockets of men and then claim that they took the hand money and were legally recruited. In the period after 1793, no more such tricks were used. A troop of seamen under the command of an officer was sent out to pick up sailors. Whoever the troop found was taken along, forced onto the ship and could be happy when he saw his homeland again after a long time.

The press gangs were not squeamish. They did not confine themselves to sailors only, but seized who seemed strong enough to them, and often enough tore him away from his wife and children. They boarded incoming merchant ships and took away all but the few sailors who could bring the ship to anchorage. There were legal requirements for the press gangs. The officer had to carry the written permission with him. The inhabitants of the coast also had rights, all who worked in shipyards or in important coastal shipping, but also invalids, had certificates of liberation. Unfortunately, these were not always respected and by the time a complaint reached the admiralty, months had passed, the ship somewhere in the world. Only gentlemen were not harassed by the press gang.

The coastal regions suffered from this kind of human abduction, and the magistrates tried to contain it. Brian Lavery, for example, reports the case of the mate of a merchant ship being killed when a press gang tried to hijack the sailors. The magistrate immediately brought charges against the captain for murder. The Admiralty, however, ordered him to the West Indies to prevent jurisdictional access.

After Napoleon surrendered in 1814, and the Napoleonic wars ended. Britain could now sharply reduce its Royal Navy.  It had no need to impress sailors, and never again used that technique against Americans, although it did not officially renounce the practice. In the next war, against Russia in 1853, a new system of fixed-term engagements gave the Royal Navy a sufficient number of volunteer recruits to meet its manpower need. 

Quota- Men

In 1795 the government passed the Quota Act, which required not only every seaport but also every inland district in England to provide a certain number of men for the fleet. It may be remembered that the country had no general military service. The quota of men to be delivered was based on the size of the county so Yorkshire had to provide 1081 men, Rutland 23 and London 5704. It was to be expected that the counties tried to lure them with recruitment money. But the districts tried first and foremost to get rid of tramps and small crooks. And one group was even very happy about this chance: the debtors in the debt prison. Those who owed less than £20 could report to the fleet and remained free from persecution. You could also buy a salesman to fill in for you. The price with hand money and free purchase was about £70. That was many times the amount paid to volunteers at the outbreak of war. This difference increased the seamen's aversion to the quota men. This also led to frequent conflicts within the crew.