Did gold rushes encourage naval desertion?

Did sailors desert in response to gold rushes?

The major gold rushes largely came after this period. A joking observation adds that sailors who had escaped mining work would be reluctant to return.

The major gold rushes came later than the core recruiting period considered here. The other observation is explicitly humorous: sailors who had gone to sea to escape mining were unlikely to hurry back underground. That joke draws on the mining backgrounds of some seafarers. The exchange gives no figures from which to measure gold-rush desertion.