For 170 years at least there never has been a time when the British
merchant service did not contain an appreciable percentage of
foreigners.
During the last three (and greatest) maritime wars in which this
country has been involved only a small proportion of the immense
number of men required by the navy came, or could have come,
from the merchant service.
The number of men raised for the navy by forcible impressment
in war time has been enormously exaggerated owing to a confusion
of terms. As a matter of fact the number so raised, for quite
two centuries, was only an insignificant fraction of the whole.
V