Les from Hull, I was once looking through a book of broadsides and came upon a song of the women attacking a press gang and taking their men back from them. the song described a great battle. I should go back and get the words.

Impressment was a tough thing to deal with if you were an English subject in an English town. Imagine how tough it was to be captain of an American vessel and have it stopped on the high seas and searched for "English citizens"! And with the Revolution such recent history it was difficult to tell English from Americans. So mistakes were made and the wrong men were pressed into the English Navy.

BTW, though his story begins during the Revolution Joseph Nagle's journal makes fascinating reading. He started out as a Continental soldier fighting in land battles. Somehow he ended up on an American privateer, was captured by the English while on one of the French Carribean islands, was pressed into the English Navy and served the next 20+ years as a British tar. He ended his days wandering from family member to family member in Western Pennsyvania living off of their chrity and a modest pension from his time in the Contiental Army. Good story and it's all true!