To ensure the fleet was fully manned, the few
volunteers were augmented with prisoners given the choice of service in the navy rather
than imprisonment, deportation or even execution and sailors from ports who were pressed
into service in the Royal Navy by 'press gangs'.
In modern times, the arrival of a naval vessel off a port or coastal town is a matter of
great curiosity and young and old flock to view the spectacle. In the days of the press
gang it was a signal for all able-bodied boys and men who might be fit for service to flee
into hiding.
WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES, 1812-15
To ensure it was adequately manned for the war with Napoleonic France, American seamen
were impressed to serve in the Royal Navy. America was neutral in the conflict and the
service of Americans on His Majesty's ships compromised that neutrality and caused a
bitter dispute between the United States and Britain.
The Americans declared war on June 18th 1812 but, unkbeknown to them, the dispute over
which they took up arms no longer existed - the contentious naval orders had already been
withdrawn in London just two days previously.
The Americans prepared to invade Canada but their offensive was out-maneuvered with
british troops marching southwards to burn the Capitol and destroy most of the Library
of Congress in 1813.
Sir Augustus Foster,
the British Minister Plenipotentiary in Washington from August 1811 who had failed to
resolve the dispute had no alternative but to return home in disgrace. The United
States won the war at New Orleans in 1815.
