Impressment by the Royal Navy in Nova Scotia happened primarily during the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Guard boats patrolled Halifax harbour day and night and they boarded all incoming and outgoing vessels. The Navy always struggled with desertion in Nova Scotia, and it often threatened to use impressment as a punishment for communities that harboured and assisted deserters. The Navy used guard boats as floating press gangs, conscripting every fiftieth man out of ships entering the harbour. It even pressed Americans from cartels and prison hulks. Warships shot at vessels to bring them to, damaging their sails and rigging, and at least one fisherman was pressed while checking his nets.
British warships sent armed press gangs into Halifax, where they fought with townspeople. The incidents were frequently violent and people were killed. The press gangs would drive all before them in the streets. The press gangs would bind recruits' hands behind their backs and march them through the street like criminals.
Impressment caused socioeconomic problems in Nova Scotia. For sailors, it was often a violent and life-altering experience. They potentially faced years in the service, forced separation from their families and friends, and death through disease and combat. Civil and personal liberties were suspended for the good of the British war effort. Generally, impressment victims were young men from poor and middle-class backgrounds. Often impacting sailors and fishermen, they supported family members and widowed mothers, and were often married with young children. Dozens of families in Liverpool alone were torn apart by impressment during the Napoleonic Wars.
American Revolution
Planters and other Nova Scotians were exempted from naval service during the 1760s, but impressment became a serious threat during the American Revolution. The American conflict severed the Royal Navy from its traditional labour market in North America, which pressured loyalist colonies such as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland to make up for the shortage of manpower. By August 1775, the Nova Scotia government received a petition from Halifax merchants complaining about impressment. The issue came to a head in October when the Assembly petitioned Governor Francis Legge to put a stop to impressment in Nova Scotia.
By 1776 the Navy used guard boats as floating press gangs, conscripting every fiftieth man from ships entering the harbour. It even pressed Americans from cartels and prison hulks. Still in need of men, warships sent armed press gangs into Halifax, where they fought with townspeople. In 1778, Lieutenant-Governor Richard Hughes lashed out at the Navy for press gang incidents that were frequently marked by quarrels, bloodshed and the loss of life. Hughes complained that press gangs caused social unrest in Halifax and he banned them from shore unless they had colonial permission. The press gangs would drive all before them in the streets. The Halifax grand jury condemned the Navy for its disrespect of provincial and municipal authority, and also for binding recruits’ hands behind their backs and marching them through the street like criminals.
The Royal Navy pressed approximately 200 Liverpool residents in the 18th and 19th centuries. Liverpool experienced more of these naval intrusions than other regional ports in British North America. At least two dozen of Liverpool's pressed sailors died in the British fleet or were never heard from again. For the Planters who settled in Liverpool in the 1760s, they were largely protected from press gangs based on age, social status, and colonial exemptions, but their sons and descendants had a much tougher time with the Navy. Impressment took a serious toll on Liverpool.
Outside of Halifax, during the American Revolution the Navy concentrated its recruitment efforts on coastal shipping and small ports such as Liverpool. In one instance, HM sloop Senegal was in Liverpool for about four months and impressment loomed as a threat the entire time. It pressed three men there and in the neighbouring villages of Port Medway, Port Mouton, and Brooklyn. Another ship, HMS Blonde, during the late 1770s, cruised extensively in the St. Lawrence River and coastal Nova Scotia, entering dozens of recruits at Halifax and from ships and towns along the South Shore.