Why Did England Use Press Gangs?

Back in the Regency period there was always wars and battles going on. With all of this fighting England's navy was understocked with men. Which meant that England had to resort to more unconventional methods of recruiting men one of the more well known methods was the “Press-Gangs” Press-Gangs would seize men off the street and offer them two options. The first option was that they could volunteer for the Navy and receive the usual volunteer benefits, or if they didn’t choose that, they would be forced into service with no payment or benefits. People were terrified of Press-Gangs and for good reasons too. They would find you in the street at night, beat you up, and throw you in a ship. You would have to work on the ship for months on end and your family would have no clue where you went. Other than the shrill thought that you had been impressed. Press-Gangs would look for men aged 18-55, with seafaring habits. Meaning that they knew what they were doing on a ship. Press-Gangs were not supposed to seize foreigners but that rule was easily forgotten because these gangs were supposed to get as many people as possible. They would roam around town searching for men to join the Navy. Join probably …show more content…
Though there were restrictions on who could be impressed. The Press-Gangs were restricted to seamen. The press gangs would come onto ships and capture the men like they were criminals. They were very violent in the capturing of the seamen.Many people in the regency period disliked the Press-Gangs, because all they did was cause terror. Townspeople would sometimes try to fight off the Gangs to save a person from impressment. Because they knew how he would end up if he got captured. Sailors who had already served their time in the navy were endanger of being impressed too. Press-Gangs didn’t know or care if you had already served your time, all they cared about was getting as many ship worthey men as