A HISTORY OF DORSET 



there was always a residuum who could only be reached by the press system, 

 therefore in Mav, 1652, a circular letter to all the counties directed the im- 

 pressment of all seamen between fifteen and fifty years of age. Armed mer- 

 chantmen were still used with the fleets but such ships were now never under 

 200 tons ; it is doubtful whether there were any ot sufficient size in Dorset 

 therefore the county took little part in the war beyond finding men. 

 The officials of both Poole and Weymouth were ordered, however, in March, 

 1652, to report if there were any suitable vessels within their jurisdiction. 

 Besides the fact that the number of seamen in England was insufficient to 

 man the merchant navy as well as the much larger fighting fleets now com- 

 missioned, the difficulty in obtaining men was intensified by the counter- 

 attractions offered by privateers with their slacker discipline and greater 

 chances of prize-money. In December, 1652, wages were raised in the State's 

 ships, and other advantages promised. The men came in more willingly, 

 but there was always a large deficiency. In the same month the mayor 

 of Poole, having been ordered to press 66 men, wrote that he had been 

 able to obtain only 30, and found ' much difficulty ' in the business."' This 

 happened before the publication of the advance in wages, &c. ; a week later 

 the mayor wrote that the notice had been received and proclaimed by beat of 

 drum through the town with the result that men were going ' with more 

 readiness.' "* The improvement was only temporary ; six months later the 

 press-master for the county was directed not to take more than one or two 

 men out of each fishing boat, a severe enough measure in its modified form."' 

 The losses of Weymouth during the Civil War were estimated at 

 j^20,ooo,*"' which must indicate injury to the Newfoundland trade, but in 

 1657 both Poole and Weymouth were busily at work again. ^'' In this year 

 we find, for the first time, notices of the deterioration of Weymouth Harbour 

 from shoaling, so that ships were obliged to unlade in the Roads for want of 

 quays at the entrance.""' As there had been no marked increase during the 

 seventeenth century in the size of ships trading to and from the third-rate 

 and fourth-rate ports, this seems to point to some comparatively sudden im- 

 pairment. Another hindrance to trade was the presence of the Ostend and 

 Dunkirk privateers, to whom there are numerous references at this period, off 

 the ports. ' Weymouth is infested with these rogues more than any other 

 place,' wrote an official,^*' but that they should come there was at least evidence 

 of its maritime trade. After the Dutch war sailors were wanted for service 

 in the West Indies, an employment regarded with terror by them on account 

 of the death-rate from disease. Although a much smaller number of men 

 than in the Dutch war was required for the war with Spain it was relatively 

 more difficult to obtain them. In 1656 the Navy Commissioners were in- 

 formed that there were plenty of seamen in Lyme, Weymouth, and Poole, 

 but that as soon as a man-of-war appeared at one port the men ran off inland and 

 notice was sent to the other places.^'* Both in Dorset and in other counties 

 the mayors and constables were believed to warn the men and assist them to 

 disappear temporarily. Many of the officials were themselves shipowners, 



"' S.P. Dom. Interreg. xxvi, No. 55. 

 *■' Ibid, xxii, 3 June, 1653. 

 "' S.P. Dom. Interreg. cliv. No. 50. 

 •" Ibid, cxxvi, No. 4.7. 



"' Ibid. XXX, No. 100. 



'" Ellis, Hist, of Weymouth, 22. 



"^ Ibid, clviii, No. 17. 



'*« Ibid, cxxxii, No. 67. 



218 



