Impressment

the Royal Navy was additionally known to pay wages up to two years in arrears. The Navy always withheld six months' pay as a standard policy, in order to discourage desertion. Naval wages had been set in 1653, and were not increased until April 1797 after sailors on 80 ships of the Channel Fleet based at Spithead mutinied.

Despite this, there were still many volunteers for naval service. (...) For major voyages, shipowners and governments routinely estimated that 50% of the sailors would die due to scurvy.

(...) The recruitment figures presented to Parliament for the years 1755–1757 list 70,566 men, of whom 33,243 were volunteers (47%), 16,953 pressed men (24%), while another 20,370 were listed as volunteers separately (29%).

Although there are no records that explain why volunteers were separated into two groups, it is likely these were pressed men who became "volunteers" to get the sign-up bonus, two months' wages in advance and a higher wage. It is known that large numbers did this. Volunteering also protected the sailor from creditors, as the law forbade collecting debts accrued before enlistment. A disadvantage was that volunteers who deserted were liable to execution if captured, whereas pressed men were simply returned to service. — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressment
#history #impressment #kidnapping #royalnavy #uk
see also Shanghaiing