Pressed men
This table contains the names of pressed men-those who were not entered in the Pandora's pay book as a "volunteer". A volunteer may well have been recruited against his initial inclination. Many men whose names appear in the Pandora's muster as a volunteer were actually recruited by a press gang. Frequently this had occurred while still at sea, after the (merchant) ships they were crewing had been boarded by a press gang. They had been presented with the option to volunteer and to accept a bounty. Having accepted, these recruits were henceforth referred to as a volunteer. The term volunteer does not therefore necessarily signify that they were patriotic or that they had joined to serve some noble cause or "higher" purpose, such as devotion to duty to King and country.
These pressed men should perhaps be considered as principled men. Alternatively, as honest men because they had not accepted bounty money-unlike many of the Pandora's volunteers who later deserted (i.e. "run")-some of whom after they had accepted a bounty payment or owed the navy for items from the "slops" store. It is unlikely that they had not been offered bounty money or were not aware that monies should be paid if they had "volunteered". The exceptions being Robert Milton and William Dedworth, whose actions (see the Murdo Downie quote) on The Fountain were tantamount to piracy, given that The Fountain's crew had taken the ship from their captain-so he claimed at least-and had subsequently physically resisted an attempt by a boarding party to recruit them lawfully.
Crews resisting attempts by boarding parties to recruit them-such as the crew of the whaler Fountain, which initially defied the Champion's press gang-put themselves outside the law as well as of any entitlement "volunteering" brought with it, notably two months pay in advance and a bounty payment.
Pressed men onboard HMS Pandora 1790-91
Names preceded by denote men who did not survive the Pandora's voyage.
Sources: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO) ADM 36/11136; ADM 36/11085; ADM 36/11092.
Name (rating/age) |
Pressed by |
Pressed at/from |
Remarks |
Moses Mitchell (AB) |
? |
Chatham |
|
William Perryman (AB) |
? |
Chatham |
|
William Dedworth (AB) |
HMS Champion * |
at sea, from a whaler ("Greenland ship" The Fountain) |
Held on HMS Sandwich |
Robert Milton (AB) |
HMS Champion |
at sea, from a whaler ("Greenland ship" The Fountain) |
Held on HMS Sandwich |
Alexander Arbuthnott (AB) |
Richard (tender) |
Yarmouth |
Held on HMS Royal William |
Peter King (AB) |
Richard (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Francis Cobb (AB) |
HMS Champion |
at sea, from a whaler ("Greenland ship" The Fountain) |
Held on HMS Sandwich |
Robert Brown (AB) |
HMS Champion |
at sea, from a whaler ("Greenland ship" The Fountain) |
Held on HMS Sandwich |
William Carter (AB) |
HMS Champion |
King's Lynn |
Held on HMS Sandwich |
Thomas Watson (Ord) |
HMS Champion |
at sea, from a whaler ("Greenland ship" The Fountain) |
Held on HMS Sandwich |
James Atkins (Mid) |
? |
Newcastle |
Held on HMS Royal William |
Jonathan Dunnett (Dermott?) (AB) |
Richard (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Thomas Brackie (AB) |
Richard (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Thomas Barker (AB) |
Richard (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
William Skelton (Ord) |
Richard (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
James Fuss (AB) (20) |
Superbe (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Richard Wouldhave (Ord) (18) |
Superbe (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Robert Orchard (Ord) (19) |
Superbe (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Thomas Pallister (AB) ("Run") |
Polly (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Alexander Paxton (Ord) |
Polly (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Thomas Sprackley (Ord) |
Pluto (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Jonathon Yowell (Ord) |
Pluto (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Jonathon Manson (Ord) |
? |
? |
|
Robert Taylor (Ord) |
? |
? |
|
Robert Webber (Ord) |
Nemesis (tender) |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Henry Adams (Ord) |
Nemesis (tender)? |
Held on HMS Royal William |
|
Thomas Brixley (Ord) |
HMS Flirt |
Direct to HMS Pandora |
|
* HMS Champion. Commanded by Samson Edwards (apparently not related to the Pandora's Captain Edward Edwards) |
|||
Bounties of between £1 and £3 were generally paid to volunteers. A skilled seaman, who could be rated as a petty officer-e.g. a bosun's mate, or a carpenter-received the highest amount (£3) A seaman rated "ordinary" (ORD) received £1 less than a seaman who was rated "able" (AB), who was paid £2.
So-called volunteer "landsmen" sometimes received £1 but only, it appears, after they had been deemed to have potential to be developed into a seaman. Those without such potential received nothing and were, more often than not, soon returned ashore, as regulating officers who knew their business would not want to be known as someone who encumbered ship's companies with men who would most likely prove to be a burden and who should not have been recruited in the first place!* Captain Edwards alludes to this in a letter to the Admiralty dd. 12 Oct 1790, referring to landsmen on the holding ships, who were still awaiting rating and placement, as less desirable (TNA: PRO ADM 1/1736, Captain's letters, Pandora).
During the 1790 "press", the so-called "Spanish Armament" (May to November 1790) all recruits-pressed men and volunteers alike-were taken to HMS Royal William at Spithead (off Portsmouth) or to HMS Sandwich at the Nore (off Sheerness). These ships had been designated as holding ships for the 1790 press. Here the recruits were subsequently rated. This involved questioning by a number of officers (usually lieutenants and experienced petty officers) to determine whether-if so, at what level-they could be rated. (Hence "rating" was used in the RN to denote "rank" other than officers who were appointed by commission or by warrant.)
Vice Admiral Roddam was charged with the organisation of impressment along the east and south-east coast of Britain during the "Spanish Armament". A number of warships (frigates or sloops such as HMS Champion and HMS Flirt) and smaller vessels such as the Polly, David and the Richard (tenders) were ordered to sea on impressment cruises. They cruised offshore (usually near the approaches to ports and fishing villages) and when a merchantman was sighted, cutters or yawls were launched carrying the press gangs as boarding parties.
The commanders of these vessels reported to a "regulating captain", i.e. a senior captain-usually an officer on the half-pay list-whom the Admiralty considered "fit to superintend and regulate the service of procuring men" (TNA: PRO ADM 7/967) in a county or in a number of ports along a specific sector of the coast. After the Pandora's voyage, Captain Edwards was appointed as a regulating captain, first in Inverary (Argyle shire) and later in Hull.
Regulating captains were shore-based or were based on holding ships. Receiving an allowance of five shillings/day in addition to their half-pay, they were also tasked to set up a rendezvous ashore which was intended to "receive raised men". They were specifically instructed to take care that no men be accepted "but such that are of able bodies, in good health and capable of serving His Majesty at sea and not under the age of 16 or above the age of 45" (TNA: PRO ADM 7/967).
Regulating captains were in command of several junior officers, whom the Admiralty considered "fit to procure men", i.e. be active at the business end of impressment, in command of a press gang operating from a ship ordered to engage on "impressment" cruises, or operating ashore. These officers were also given a set of instructions which set out exactly what constituted permissible actions under their "impress warrants". For instance, upon coming onboard a merchant ship they were "first to call the crew upon deck and let them know that if any of them will declare themselves willing to serve His Majesty they shall not only receive such bounties as H.M. may have thought proper to promise but also two months wages advanced " (TNA: PRO ADM 7/967).
Willing declarations were evidently not usually forthcoming, for instance HMS Champion's master, Murdo Downie's log (TNA: PRO ADM 52/2212) records events during an impressment cruise made off the Yorkshire coast in August 1790, among others, and he describes an incident off St. Abbott's Head
"brought a ship to and took 9 men out of her and left 4 men in her, the ship was from Dantzig to Leith with wheat Fired 4 guns at different times and brought to another ship sent a boat with the lieutenant to board him, which his people opposed with lances, knives etc. and the master declaring to us when we first hailed and also to the lieutenant alongside, that the people had taken the ship from him. We at the same time fired 2 shots at another Greenland ship but she would not bring to. Got our boat in and made sail after the first and kept by her all night at noon after threatening to fire into her she brought to he proved to be The Fountain of Lynn. Took 28 men out of her and sent 2 petty officers and 9 men to assist her to port."
Several days later Downie describes boarding two other "Greenland ships" (whalers) in Burlington Bay, the Parnasus and the Grampus (both from London) from which they "took only 3 men from the former, the rest being (already) prest or gone ashore in boats" (TNA: PRO ADM 52/2212).
A number of the men taken during the Champion's cruise in August 1790 were eventually assigned to the Pandora. (See Pressed men table.) Charges of piracy were apparently not brought against the men from The Fountain, although The Fountain appears to have been seized (i.e. "assisted to port"). One can only wonder whether Robert Milton and William Dedworth considered themselves lucky to have escaped the charge of piracy, or did they think themselves very unlucky to have ended up on a warship about to head off to the other side of the world? Or were they just philosophical about it, knowing that theirs was a lot that could -and did ! - regularly befall British seamen in the 18th Century?