It seems justifiable
to infer that the whole number of impressed men on any particular
day did not exceed, almost certainly did not amount to, 2000. If
they had been spread over the whole navy they would not have made
2 per cent. of the united complements of the ships; and, as it was,
did not equal one-nineteenth of the 39,600 seamen ('blue-jackets')
raised to complete the navy to the establishment sanctioned by
Parliament. A system under which more than 37,000 volunteers
come forward to serve and less than 2000 men are obtained by
compulsion cannot be properly called compulsory.
The Plymouth reporter of _The_Naval_Chronicle_ does not give
many details of the volunteering for the navy in 1803, though
he alludes to it in fluent terms more than once. On the 11th
October, however, he reports that, 'So many volunteer seamen
have arrived here this last week that upwards of L4000 bounty is
to be paid them afloat by the Paying Commissioner, Rear-Admiral
Dacres.' At the time the bounty was L2 10s. for an A.B., L1 10s.
for an ordinary seaman, and L1 for a landsman. Taking only L4000
as the full amount paid, and assuming that the three classes were
equally represented, three men were obtained for every L5, or
2400 in all, a number raised in about a week, that may be compared
with that given as resulting from impressment. In reality, the
number of volunteers must have been larger, because the A.
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