Description: Reporting on extensive original research in ships' muster books, the book provides both detailed statistics of who was recruited and how, and also a range of individuals' stories. It discusses how the Admiralty worried about recruitment and the measures it put in place to deal with the problem.
Review Quotes: [An] excellent study. . . . In this book Dancy has shown how historians can exploit digital humanities. By doing so he has implemented a sea-change in the way we view how the Royal Navy manned its ships . . . He has well and truly debunked 'The Myth of the Press Gang'.-- "WAR IN HISTORY"