Press gangs targeted seafaring manpower

The Royal Navy often needed to enlarge its fleet during the active fighting season. Press gangs usually sought able-bodied men aged eighteen to fifty-five who already had seafaring habits. Non-sailors were normally taken only in dire circumstances because they could contribute little immediately aboard a warship. The Fisherman's Arms and Minerva in Plymouth were examples of known recruiting pubs. Sailors familiar with those pubs could know where recruiting parties operated. Emergency expansion favored men who already understood much of shipboard work, although service remained coercive for those actually impressed.