Impressment, colloquially known as “ the press” or the “press gang” [1] , was a means by which European navies could forcibly compel men into service during the 17th-century and up to the early 19th-century either to crew their fleets at the outbreak of war or to replace men lost to death or desertion. Essentially no different to conscription employed by the British Army, the Royal Navy’s system began in 1664, although the practice can be traced back to the time of King Edwa