Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images generously made available by the CWRU Preservation Department Digital Library. THE PRESS-GANG AFLOAT AND ASHORE By J. R. Hutchinson CONTENTS I. HOW THE PRESS-GANG CAME IN. II. WHY THE GANG WAS NECESSARY. III. WHAT THE PRESS-GANG WAS. IV. WHOM THE GANG MIGHT TAKE. V. WHAT THE GANG DID AFLOAT. VI. EVADING THE GANG. VII. WHAT THE GANG DID ASHORE. VIII. AT GRIPS WITH THE GANG. IX. THE GANG AT PLAY. X. WOMEN AND THE PRESS-GANG. XI. IN THE CLUTCH OF THE GANG. XII. HOW THE GANG WENT OUT. APPENDIX: ADMIRAL YOUNG'S TORPEDO. INDEX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS: AN UNWELCOME VISIT FROM THE PRESS GANG. MANNING THE NAVY. Reproduced by kind permission from a rare print in the collection of Mr. A. M. BROADLEY. THE PRESS-GANG SEIZING A VICTIM. SEIZING A WATERMAN ON TOWER HILL ON THE MORNING OF HIS WEDDING DAY. JACK IN THE BILBOES. From the Painting by MORLAND. ONE OF THE RAREST OF PRESS-GANG RECORDS. A play-bill announcing the suspension of the Gang's operations on "Play Nights," in the collection of Mr. A. M. BROADLEY, by whose kind permission it is reproduced. SAILORS CAROUSING. From the Mezzotint after J. IBBETSON. ANNE MILLS WHO SERVED ON BOARD THE _MAIDSTONE_ IN 1740. MARY ANNE TALBOT. MARY ANNE TALBOT DRESSED AS A SAILOR. THE PRESS GANG, OR ENGLISH LIBERTY DISPLAYED. ADMIRAL YOUNG'S TORPEDO. Reproduced from the Original Drawing at the Public Record Office. THE PRESS-GANG. CHAPTER I. HOW THE PRESS-GANG CAME IN. The practice of pressing men--that is to say, of taking by intimidation or force those who will not volunteer--would seem to have been world-wide in its adoption. Wherever man desired to have a thing done, and was powerful enough to insure the doing of it, there he attained his end by the simple expedient of compelling others to do for him what he, unaided, could not do for himself. The individual, provided he did not conspire in sufficient numbers to impede or defeat the end in view, counted only as a food-consuming atom in the human mass which was set to work out the purpose of the master mind and hand. His face value in the problem was that of a living wage. If he sought to enhance his value by opposing the master hand, the master hand seized him and wrung his withers.