had been impressed and taken on board of a British frigate then being
in port.... I immediately went on board my ship and having there learned
all the facts in the case, proceeded to the frigate, where I found Hulen
and in his presence was informed by the first lieutenant of the frigate
that he had taken Hulen from my ship under a peremptory order from his
commander to visit every American ship in port and take from each of
them one or more of their seamen.... I then called upon Captain Cook,
who commanded the frigate, and sought first by all the persuasive means
that I was capable of using and ultimately by threats to appeal to the
Government of the place to obtain Hulen's release, but in vain....
It remained for me only to recommend Hulen to that protection of
the lieutenant which a good seaman deserves, and to submit to the
high-handed insult thus offered to the flag of my country which I had no
means either of preventing or resisting."

After several years' detention in the British Navy, Hulen returned to
Salem and lived to serve on board privateers in the second war with
England.

Several years' detention! This was what it meant to be a pressed man,
perhaps with wife and children at home who had no news of him nor any
wages to support them. At the time of the Nore Mutiny in 1797, there
were ships in the British fleet whose men had not been paid off for
eight, ten, twelve, and in one instance fifteen years. These wooden
walls of England were floating hells, and a seaman was far better off in
jail. He was flogged if he sulked and again if he smiled flogged until
the blood ran for a hundred offenses as trivial as these. His food was
unspeakably bad and often years passed before he was allowed to set foot
ashore. Decent men refused to volunteer and the ships were filled with
the human scum and refuse caught in the nets of the press-gangs of
Liverpool, London, and Bristol.

It is largely forgotten or unknown that this system of recruiting was
as intolerable in England as it was in the United States and as fiercely
resented. Oppressive and unjust, it was nevertheless endured as the
bulwark of England's defense against her foes. It ground under its heel
the very people it protected and made them serfs in order to keep them
free. No man of the common people who lived near the coast of England
was safe from the ruffianly press-gangs nor any merchant ship that
entered her ports. It was the most cruel form of conscription e