Wartime expansion drove emergency recruitment

Britain's demand for sailors rose sharply in wartime. The comparison gives about 50,000 before the War of Jenkins' Ear and 76,000 during it, about 58,000 before the Seven Years' War and 115,000 during it, and about 69,000 before the American Revolutionary War and 116,000 during it. These are figures for Britain's sailors, with merchant service forming a large part of the peacetime pool. Impressment helped meet an emergency need for men when the fleet expanded. Peacetime demobilization happened quickly, which makes forty years of continuous impressment very unlikely, though not impossible. A sailor could move from coerced entry to voluntary service by following a crew into a newly commissioned ship in return for a bounty, higher pay, or promotion. A long naval career therefore needs to be distinguished from uninterrupted impressment.