At Sea Under Impressment: Accounts of Involuntary Service Aboard Navy and Pirate Vessels, 1700-1820

As Britain became a dominant sailing empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, her ships were manned in part by impressed men, forced to serve against their will. Naval officers oversaw a press gang that abducted both British and American citizens, particularly during times of war, and held them captive until they were sent to sea as unwilling sailors. This book provides personal accounts of 13 men, most of whom were impressed into the British Navy, but some onto pirate ships. A chapter on Dartmoor Prison is included, an institution which held thousands of impressed Americans during the War of 1812.