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- DictionaryPress gang/ˈpresˌɡaNG/
noun
- 1. a body of men employed to enlist men forcibly into service in the army or navy. historical
verb
- 1. forcibly enlist (someone) into service in the army or navy: historical "a press-ganged navy"
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Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is the forced conscription of men into a military force, especially a naval force, via intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group (hence "gang"). European navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means.
Feb 28, 2023 · The meaning of PRESS-GANG is a detachment of men under command of an officer empowered to force men into military or naval service.
Britain’s ports and harbours were once menaced by the dreaded press-gangs. Impressment, to give it its proper name, was the scourge of maritime communities across the British Isles and Britain’s North American colonies for 150 years from 1664–1830 and involved bands of thugs headed by naval officers being sent ashore from Royal Navy (RN ...
Aug 3, 2021 · Although pressing was first used exclusively by the Royal Navy in 1664, it reached its zenith in the 18th and 19th century. Its use partly explains how such a small country as Great Britain could sustain such a world-beating navy, utterly disproportionate to its size. Pressganging was the simple answer.
Press gangs were well known for the physical force they used in recruiting men into the Royal Navy during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was, however, a practice which Parliament had first sanctioned several centuries earlier.
The press gang has become part of the folklore of English history. It is commonly regarded as a typical example of the brutality and injustice that prevailed in eighteenth-century England in the age of sail.
Impressment, or “press gang” as it was more commonly known, was recruitment by force. It was a practice that directly affected the U.S. and was even one of the causes of the War of 1812. The...
