Comparing the press system with modern national service requires attention to how deserters could be recovered. Modern conscription relied on institutions able to track men and return them to duty. Earlier recruiting authorities faced greater difficulty when deserters joined foreign merchant ships. Recovering those men could mean stopping a vessel and asking which British sailors it carried. A system that relied heavily on reluctant recruits would repeatedly encounter that problem, with contested searches adding to the burden.
Notable Point · 1:29:33-1:30:18
Why modern conscription had different enforcement
Modern conscription had institutions for recovering deserters, while the older press service faced sailors who could disappear into foreign merchant crews.