e hope of becoming so. Then
warrants to impress seamen would be issued.
Theoretically the impress was merely a form of
conscription, the Crown claiming by prerogative
the right to the services of its seafaring
subjects. Practically a good deal of violence was
at times necessary, as many of the men, preferring
to sail in merchant ships, or wishing to wait for
a proclamation of bounty, tried to avoid arrest.
The scuffles that took place on these occasions
gave the impress service a bad name, not
altogether deserved, for real efforts were made to
avoid hardship, and in any case the number of men
raised in this way was greatly exaggerated by
popular report."

There was no compulsion during the Great War to join any unit of the
British fleet. Therefore all were either in the regular service,
reservists or volunteers. The need was made known not only throughout
the British Isles, but also from Vancouver to Cape Town, Sydney and
Wellington, and men in all walks of life, but with either the
_Wander-Lust_ or true love of the wide open sea in their blood, rallied
from all parts of the far-flung Empire to the call of the White Ensign.

In order to obtain some 6000 officers and nearly 200,000 trained or
semi-trained men, new sources of supply had to be tapped. Already the
great battle fleets, brought up to full war strength and with adequate
reserves, had absorbed nearly all the Reserve officers who could be
spared from the food and troop transports.[2]

First came the great sea-training establishment of the Empire--the
Mercantile Marine and its retired officers and men--already heavily
depleted. Then the yacht clubs from the Fraser to the Thames and Clyde.
Thousands of professionals and amateurs came overseas to the training
cruisers and the "naval university," Canada alone supplying several
hundred officers.

Doctors came from the hospitals and from lucrative private practices.
The engineering professions and trades supplied the technical staffs and
skilled mechanics. The great banks and city offices yielded the
accountants, and the fishing and pleasure-boating communities, not only
of Great Britain, but also of the Dominions and Colonies, yielded the
men in tens of thousands. In this way the personnel of the new navy was
completed in a very few months.

Before passing on to describe,