Press-gang

"Darling, I am truly unhappy to have to tell you this, but...through an unfortunate and entirely unforeseeable series of circumstances that have nothing whatsoever to do with me, poor Will has been press-ganged into Davy Jones' crew."

―Jack Sparrow to Elizabeth Swann, on Will Turner^[src]

Impressment, colloquially "pressed" (through the phrase "pressed into service") or "press-ganging", was a type of conscription of men into a military force, especially a naval force, via compulsion, intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group (hence "gang"), with or without notice. The related term referring specifically to the practices used by the merchant marines or pirate ships called shanghaiing; using trickery to coerce sailors into joining a crew. It was most commonly associated with Great Britain and Ireland, with legal sanction for the practice can be traced back to the time of Edward I of England.

During the Age of Piracy, press-ganging was essentially a British Royal Navy practice, reflecting the sheer size of the British fleet, its substantial manpower demands, and as a means of crewing warships. Such practices were used by pirates and supernatural crews, most notably Davy Jones' crew and Blackbeard's crew.

History

"Before I was 'pressed by our estimable Royal Navy to be a powder monkey, I used to ride the horses on my father’s farm."

―Robert Greene to Jack Sparrow^[src]

By the Age of Piracy, the large size of the British Royal Navy, impressment was most commonly associated with Great Britain, England, and Ireland. Robert Greene was just a ten-year-old boy when he was pressed into service by the Royal Navy in Bristol, but he escaped the ship in Port Royal and signed aboard the merchant ship as a cabin boy. After he was kidnapped by the infamous rogue pirates, young Jack Sparrow unwillingly served for a few days aboard the La Vipère.^[1] Pintel and Ragetti were pressed into service by the English Navy, but jumped ship after a year of beatings, bad food, and boredom.^[2]^[3] Many sailors aboard the British Navy warship the HMS Achilles were kidnapped from their homes in England and forced to work for His Majesty's Navy.^[4] Davy Jones would send his pet leviathan, the Kraken, to destroy a ship, then press-gang the crew into service on the Flying Dutchman, with many sailors having met this end.^[5] During the search for the Dead Man's Chest, Jack Sparrow claimed to a skeptical Elizabeth Swann that Will Turner was press-ganged into Davy Jones' crew, though in reality Jack tricked Will into squaring his debt with Jones by serving aboard the Dutchman.^[6] Years later, a number of sailors in the Captain's Daughter tavern signed on to sail under Jack Sparrow, but would instead be press-ganged as crewmembers aboard Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge.^[7]